Hardbody Wake Baits, can’t  say I’ve ever fished this type of topwater. Have fished some very shallow running Bandits and Mann’s for river smallies but they are subsurface. 
 

Picked up a couple Wake Gizzard Shad patterns to try. Not uncommon for me to see large surface schools of them. But in all honesty in the lake I’ve never seen a school of largemouths chase them down or bust them up. I guess I haven’t been in the right place at the right time yet. I’ve seen and fished busted up smaller schools.  But these huge waves of them I never seen them pushed or pushed hard. I’ve been in the middle of them and I could net them (never have).

 

Wake style seem interesting enough to try. Something slightly different. My even draw attention to river Muskies while fishing smallies.  They love a Bomber or Shad Rap on occasion. 

You never know until you try. Go for it. 

Sorry for improper posting in General Forum. Was thinking more on line of fishing Wake Baits vs. fishing a specific Wake Bait but it is tackle I guess. 

I really like the KVD 2.5 Wakebaits. Really good lures. Hard knocking sound as you retrieve. They fish well around grass too. I find them good when it feels like the bass want something that is easy to track and strike, like a buzzbait in the rain, but they have a totally different action than a buzzbait which gives them an interesting niche. I know a lot of guys who fish buzzbaits though, and I can't think of a single guy I know outside of myself that keeps a wakebait in their arsenal often besides myself, so there is something to be said about that. (At least locally) 

 

Setup : 7'2 M/M St Croix Legend Glass, Daiwa Tatula 100, 12lb Sunline Crank FC 

I cast out and reel with a steady retrieve with rod pointed upward to keep the bait on top and waking. You can dip your rod tip in the water situationally to get a little depth out of it, too. 

I'm a fan of the Berkley Surge Shad when I'm looking for a standard sized wake bait. The MS Slammer is my favorite wake though. 

7” Ms Slammer is my favorite

2nd is G2 shellcracker 

I'll fish a wake bait when this fish are up shallow and the lake too calm for a WP or Buzzbait. 

The Roumba is basically my favourite thing to fish of any hard lure out there if the water is calm. The rattling version is extremely loud if that's what you want. 

 

It can't be burned, but fished slow-ish it kills, especially in clear water for smallmouth. 

I’ve caught some on the bass pro’s “ the egg” green Shad

12 hours ago, Scott804 said:

I really like the KVD 2.5 Wakebaits. Really good lures. Hard knocking sound as you retrieve. They fish well around grass too. I find them good when it feels like the bass want something that is easy to track and strike, like a buzzbait in the rain, but they have a totally different action than a buzzbait which gives them an interesting niche. I know a lot of guys who fish buzzbaits though, and I can't think of a single guy I know outside of myself that keeps a wakebait in their arsenal often besides myself, so there is something to be said about that. (At least locally) 

 

Setup : 7'2 M/M St Croix Legend Glass, Daiwa Tatula 100, 12lb Sunline Crank FC 

I cast out and reel with a steady retrieve with rod pointed upward to keep the bait on top and waking. You can dip your rod tip in the water situationally to get a little depth out of it, too. 

Thanks, the 2.5 are what I picked up. Gizzard Shad patterns. Still waiting on a 6th Sense that someone ordered for me. These will get me started. Trying to give my topwater a bit of a new twist. 
I have a couple of small coves and creek mouth that are productive. But I can’t say that I’ve caught a bragging size fish there yet. I know they have to be there. Easy ambush point for them on bluegill.

I can make it work. Just have to wrap my head around it tight. 
I have to step my frog game up this season also. Fish it more at floating debris, rocks and those areas that look like saw dust. Not sure exactly what that stuff is. Heavier than pollen, maybe bud shell that link up. 

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

areas that look like saw dust. Not sure exactly what that stuff is. Heavier than pollen, maybe bud shell that link up. 

Duckweed?

4 hours ago, Spankey said:

Thanks, the 2.5 are what I picked up. Gizzard Shad patterns.

Won a club tournament on that exact color fishing stumps in the rain. Some of the other colors for the KVDs look really cool and for whatever reason they seem to go on sale a lot. I have had some success with the chrome and the semi-translucent bluegill color too. Wakebaits are a fun topwater blowup because they really rarely miss it due to the shape/size. Most of the time the bait is fully in their mouth with both hooks, if they were big enough to engulf the whole thing, in my experience. 

This is made as a top water but its also one heck of a wake bait . I have a half dozen new in box .

 

 

Spro Rat… bass seek to destroy them!!!

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

This is made as a top water but its also one heck of a wake bait . I have a half dozen new in box .

 

 

Older Bomber? I fish the original Rapala floater diver quite a bit (a Rappy junkie). Even a Husky Jerk like a topwater. The original f/d was not my first lure I bought. But I’m pretty sure it was my first bass lure. May have been a Bomber. Can’t wait to try the 2.5’s. 

7 minutes ago, Spankey said:

Older Bomber?

Yes . This one has a prop on the tail . It  tames  the action some but when reeled in steady , keeps it just under the surface . I'll twitch it , wake it , jerk it all on the same retrieve . Killer post spawn lure . My largest limit ever was caught with this .

2 hours ago, Scott804 said:

Won a club tournament on that exact color fishing stumps in the rain. Some of the other colors for the KVDs look really cool and for whatever reason they seem to go on sale a lot. I have had some success with the chrome and the semi-translucent bluegill color too. Wakebaits are a fun topwater blowup because they really rarely miss it due to the shape/size. Most of the time the bait is fully in their mouth with both hooks, if they were big enough to engulf the whole thing, in my experience. 

My last few season has been chucking a lot of Strike King Crankbaits. I like their versions of the gizzard Shad. With the addition of these Wake Baits and my other SK’s I can truly cover from surface to about 16 feet. 
 

This is not a dis to Strike King but a true fact in my fishing of them. On the 3XD’s (fish them the hardest) I could be fishing one for 4-5 months, runs good, runs true, catching fish on it, then out of nowhere they don’t quit running true. Not physically damaged, bill and tie point look fine. I  believe the rattle chamber goes bad or cracks internally causing an imbalance to them. 

Again I’m not complaining. Sometimes it might take a long as a year to do that. They are fairly inexpensive in the full scale of things. But I have a small handful that have done that. My favs I do have spares. Maybe I’ll call them sometime. I have them hanging, and wouldn’t be opposed to sending them back if they were to just truly tell me what went wrong with them. Not about the money.