I went fishing yesterday and caught 11 bass in 8 hours. Not bad for a hot summer day on a rowboat. One fish I threw a trig pink senko to in a lay down. It splashed and had my bait and I fought him for 2 seconds and it poped out. Threw back in same bait and nothing. Sneaked around the back side and flipped a jig in there . went up and down twice and he hit it. Set the hook and pulled him through. 3.5 lb largie out of the branches. Whats your favorite back up bait and how often  does it work ?

Quite often, when I'm topwater fishing, they'll miss.  Especially in the river for smallmouth (which I intend to start doing soon).

 

When they miss, I toss back with either a wacky rig or a tube to try and get the same fish that missed the topwater.  Its so easy to throw back with the same lure, but most of the time they won't hit that again.  They are much more likely to hit the tube or stick bait instead.

 

I encounter the same situation sometimes when I'm muskie fishing.  If I get a fish follow but doesn't commit, I have another lure already as a follow up.  I haven't caught that many fish in this fashion (I haven't caught that many muskies, period), but I'm convinced its better than casting with the exact same lure again.

I almost always have some follow up bait when I'm throwing a topwater. Usually a weightless senko or truck worm. I would say it works maybe half the time.

It depends on what I was throwing when I got the initial hit and what kind of water im in, whether its this cover, deep open water, chunk rock an so on.  I don't think there is situation where throwing a senko as a follow up is out of the question.  Off the top of my head I think of 9 ways to rig it, 10 if you consider the chicken rig to be different to the tiny child rig.  A texas rigged weightless senko does the trick most of the time and is my first choice.  2nd would be a wacky rig. For the 3rd and 4th its kind of a toss up for me between a DS and ned rig. 

Senko, Fluke, and jig depending on where and what the situation is.

It seems to work to throw a slow sinking soft plastic after a topwater miss.  But I've noticed, when flipping a jig, and I miss a strike, it has paid off to keep on flipping the jig in the same spot 2 or 3 more times.  In many instances I've gotten bit again on the same jig after some persistence.  Sometimes it may be a different fish on the same spot, but there's know way to tell that.

Wacky stickworm or weightless fluke for me.

4in. dead ringer. (My precious) lol