Are any of you guys using creature baits or topwater... well actually anything other than t-rigged worms and spinnerbaits cause they seem to be the only things that work for me haha

If you are what types and how do you fish them?

Thanks for the help.

I've gotten two 3lbers on a white soft mouse fishing in heavy lilly pads.. over the past week...

Today at work 1 on a spinnerbait and one on a wacky rigged worm

Experiment. I often begin with a Zoom horny toad to see if I can get any topwater action around pads and other cover. If it's not there, or after it dies down, this year I've been switching to various plastics, often a baby brush hog, a Lake Fork creature, or a Zoom 6-inch lizard. Because there are a lot of lily pads on my home water, I'll usually put a one-eighth-ounce tungsten bullet weight ahead of the plastic to allow it to drop into holes in cover more easily.

If none of that is working, I'll switch to crankbaits at various depths to cover a lot of water and to get me information on where the heck the fish are that day. My home water is a fairly small pond; on bigger, deeper water I've had success using a Carolina rig as a search bait.

The key is to try various things to figure out how the fish are positioned on a given day. I was out Sat. afternoon, for example, and the bass on my pond were as shallow and tight to cover as I've ever seen them. I had to cast near dropoffs in structure, right to the edge of vegetation, which was in flower. Maybe the flowers were attracting insects, which were attracting baitfish. All I know is that I practically had to hit the bass on the head with my casts, but once I hooked them they were feisty, acting almost like smallies . . .

this year top water has been horrible for me... i don't think i caught 1 bass topwater except 1 on a popper with a fly rod.  I do get significant action on supershallow crankbaits running from 2-6 inches under the surface...

Got a few topwater. (zara puppy and jitterbug have worked, nothing on frogs)   A lot of big misses on a spook but no real luck.  It's been slow in general in my neck of the woods, but about the same luck top water as with plastics or cranks.  Had some luck with a jig last week, Manns baby minus has been working.  Little luck with Tiki sticks, just picked some up.   Bumped into a guy who was doing well with them as well.  Bumped into someone else who was doing great with a small black and white spoon, a Len Thompsons, probably 1/8 oz.  I saw about 5 or 6 hits in the 10 minutes I was talking with him.  No luck at all lately on flukes or spinners which were great in the spring.  Rapala's have been ignored lately as well.

lot of luck this year on a baby brush hog black with red flake T rigged and also throw a lot of tubes mostly t rigged again and love my zara spook jr whenever there is chop on the water good luck and tight lines and i am sure like all of us you will find those few baits that work for you all confidence

I've done really well on both top water baits like the spro frogs as well as zara spooks, poppers, etc.  Soft plastic frogs have been ok, however I like the spro a lot better.  I've also been doing a lot of pitching into heavy cover with a 3/4 oz weight using either a brush hawg or other creature baits.  I've done well on them all...

I went out last night after the rain came thru. Wasn't getting any hits for a while. About 8:15 I put on a Jitterbug and wham. Caught a smaller bass. Next cast wham, off the hook. Well I got three, one about 16" like 6 feet in front of me. Got to love how fast they hit. Well after that I got a little too close to a chain link fence end post by the spillway. Bam, nice bent blade on my jitterbug. End of fishing with that one i guess..... But boy they were hitting it hard last night!