I believe most bass anglers think of bass prey as being aquatic critters and over look terrestrial critters.

We think of baitfish, crawdads, leaches and amphibians like frogs that start out as aquatic and morph into terrestrial animals.

Aquatic critters live under water, terrestrials live above water. Some terrestrial insects that make up part of the basses diet start out underwater as larvae and end up as flying insects like dragon flys.

What sparked this thread was a question about the size of top lures. Top water lures can represent terrestrial critters like frogs, rats, mice, worms, snakes, lizards etc.Top water lure can also represent wounded baitfish.

Tom

A local fisherman caught a 10lb largemouth out of a lake i frequently fish that had a baby duck hanging out of its crushers. Def. one of the coolest things that i have heard of. I've heard a lot of stories of bass eating small birds, snakes, rats,mice, even baby alligator down in the everglades(not sure on that)

Tom, FWIT, I agree.  Bass will hit most anything that they "think" will fit in their mouth.

 

I'm all about mice patterns for Trout.

I have seen a bass swipe at a bird that landed on matted grass..........he missed, I tossed my frog in there, I didn't miss............

A local fisherman caught a 10lb largemouth out of a lake i frequently fish that had a baby duck hanging out of its crushers. Def. one of the coolest things that i have heard of. I've heard a lot of stories of bass eating small birds, snakes, rats,mice, even baby alligator down in the everglades(not sure on that)

 

The baby alligator accounts are true. One of the Nat Geo's shows caught a shot of that. It was a nice 10+ lb bass inhaled a recently hatched gator. 

Actual size of top water lures are dependent upon what forage may be most abundant and the angler imo would try to use that as a basis .

I've seen smallmouth take ducklings on the upper Potomac (also seen musky take bigger ducks  ) Once I caught a bass once with a baby muskrat in it's gullet. 

 

In Mongolia one of the most popular lures for taimen fishing is a topwater rat in large size.

MacP, your video took my breath away. This is one of my all time favorites now! I had goosebumps all through it........whoever shot this knows what fishing is beyond particulars about equipment, weights and charts. I never saw anything better wordlessly describe the joy and reverence we have in nature, for the creatures in it. Thanks!!

Awesome Vedio MacP, thank you for sharing it!

There has been and continues to be some excellent mice and rat lures. Heddon field mouse lure is one of the oldest. The Watson Wrat is one of the first, that I remember, made with hair that was a full size rat that bass anglers fished with. Jerry Rago's first swimbait was a wooden full size rat jointed wake bait. Rago was a member of the Brown baggers, a group of trophy brown trout anglers that also included Alan Cole another early swimbait angler that help to start the big bass swimbait era. Big browns are a lot like big bass, top fresh water predators. It's no surprise that the Watson Wrat and Cole plugs became good Musky and pike lures.

Rats were very popular up to about 4 years ago out west and then died off until again this year. This may have been due to the college Bassmaster final win with the anglers using a DEPS rat swimbait, El Raton. This year Bass-A-Thon or BAT featurd about 6 new rat swimbaits, out numbering trout swimmers, rats must be popular again.

Another vintage terrestrial lure is the Jitter Bug, the musky size wooden lure has long been good for big bass.

Buzzers are another terrestrial lure that we think of as a baitfish lure, but is it?

Tom

Looks like I am talking to myself on this thread.

Continuing the thought process on terrestrials the spring of the year brings baby critters in contact with water where bass live. Struggling to swim or just the fact baby birds are small size makes them especially good meal for big bass.

A few good lures available for imitating birds are Persuader Baby Mallard duck and Flip The Bird lures.

Bass that live near bull rushes or tullies see a lot of black birds, swallows or martins and baby ducks. This is a good time to consider bird lures.

Summer nights are the time for rats and mice near shore, these rodents are everywhere and can swim, so they have no fear of water and bass cruise the shallow areas where these rodents are located. This makes rats and mouse lures very effective after dark.

Tom

I can't wait to try out the koppers field mouse

Looks like I am talking to myself on this thread.

Continuing the thought process on terrestrials the spring of the year brings baby critters in contact with water where bass live. Struggling to swim or just the fact baby birds are small size makes them especially good meal for big bass.

A few good lures available for imitating birds are Persuader Baby Mallard duck and Flip The Bird lures.

Bass that live near bull rushes or tullies see a lot of black birds, swallows or martins and baby ducks. This is a good time to consider bird lures.

Summer nights are the time for rats and mice near shore, these rodents are everywhere and can swim, so they have no fear of water and bass cruise the shallow areas where these rodents are located. This makes rats and mouse lures very effective after dark.

Tom

I had never really thought about bird lures until last year. I hesitate to use topwater on my home lake in the spring because the pike and musky just destroy all my topwater lures. Last spring my son and I were fishing a channel with trees overhanging the water and a baby bird had fallen in the lake. We rescued the baby bird with momma bird screaming at us and dive bombing us. I thought at that time, this is such an easy meal for a predator. This wasn't the first time I had seen helpless birds in the water, but it was the first time I thought about using a bird imitator lure.    

I've seen smallmouth take ducklings on the upper Potomac (also seen musky take bigger ducks  ) Once I caught a bass once with a baby muskrat in it's gullet. 

 

In Mongolia one of the most popular lures for taimen fishing is a topwater rat in large size.

well to be fair taxmen do get huge and average 40lbs or so.

 

My biggest browns i have caught are using mice flies and for bass i have done pretty well on frog and mice flies as well.

Just watched an episode of Fish N Canada and they caught a big smallie with a duckling in its mouth. I may just have to invest in some bird imitators.

Just watched an episode of Fish N Canada and they caught a big smallie with a duckling in its mouth. I may just have to invest in some bird imitators.

Flip N The Bird is a topwater frog style bird bait you can try. It's really not much different than a hollow body frog.

Persuader makes a baby mallard duck lure that works good when baby ducks are on the water the spring.

Tom

Bump this up reference.

Tom

Speaking of which, did you guys see this?

http://www.theboredninja.com/gifs/fish-eats-bird/

Speaking of which, did you guys see this?

http://www.theboredninja.com/gifs/fish-eats-bird/

Brings a whole new meaning to glider baits.

The neatest things I have seen is a bass suck a duckling under into its mouth, and one make an airial atempt on a muskrat. The duckling lost, but the muskrat was a little too big.