Today i fished a local pond...quite large...and there was some moss by a well in the water so first i accidently casted my kenami plastic in there and a bass jumped for it. so i thought to myself i wasn't getting anything on the bottom so i'll try somemore...Well sure enough the very next cast...i placed where the moss met the water and just hopped it across like a frog...BANG a 4 pounder nails it and after much fight and heavy moss i finally get it in....astounded at a topwater bite while it's about to rain and in 55 degree weather with a good wind blowing...also the water is still 40 degrees...

I kept fishing like that for about hour and a half to two hours and i ended up getting about 6 or 7 good sized bass...i'd say nothing under 3lbs.

Why are they hitting so fast and often at topwater baits at this time of year? In late afternoon!?

I'm thinking i just found something they like/haven't seen before...but why?

Why? Because bass are bass and they do what they want to do. Makes you wonder how many times that bite has been there before? Last year I saw a tournament won on top water in December. I am not saying go out and work a spook all winter. But a top water bite can happen year round (unless your lakes freeze). Even in cold temps there are days bass feed actively and they will move a long way for the right presentation.

Yeah, I make it a point when I fish to just do something that "makes no sense" via "conventional wisdom" - it has many times not paid off particularly well, but there has been a few magic times that it really did - as gobig said, they do what they do cause they are just a fish and act on their instincts - if there is an offering there in front of them,  they will nab it.  I have heard all sorts of stories of big topwater bites during winter in reading magazines and the like - its worth trying just as you had the intuition to do - way to go!!!!! 

My best guess is that there were prey fishes in that moss -likely feeding on midges. The bluegills, if that's what they were, were close to the surface. Warm water floats too btw.

I've seen similar situations and look for them now. Just last week I found bass in dead milfoil in 47F water chasing bluegills in 2-3 fow I found them with a lure and fished and watched and eventually saw the busts -boils from bass chasing 'gills. I caught a half dozen good ones there -but not on topwater although I probably could have, as strike came within a foot of the surface.

There's never NO reason to be made of a situation. We just may not be hip to what's going on in a world we can't see into.

And while fish may act on "instinct", that doesn't mean the world around them isn't important, or that they don't notice opportunity when it knocks.

There's never NO reason to be made of a situation. We just may not be hip to what's going on in a world we can't see into.

...so take advantage of whatever window in you get, and don't question it because it doesn't fit the season, the report, whatever.

I've had great results this winter on the bottom with jigs and hogs...but when my fishing buddy's spinner gets pounded, first cast, it's probably a good idea to give it shot. I caught my best fish (7 10) on the observation that they wanted to react that evening, rather than sticking with the bottom feeding game that had been producing.

The lesson for me was read the fish first, and don't question it based on history, season, report, etc...or I might miss a good window of activity. Good luck!   

There's never NO reason to be made of a situation. We just may not be hip to what's going on in a world we can't see into.

...so take advantage of whatever window in you get, and don't question it because it doesn't fit the season, the report, whatever.

I've had great results this winter on the bottom with jigs and hogs...but when my fishing buddy's spinner gets pounded, first cast, it's probably a good idea to give it shot. I caught my best fish (7 10) on the observation that they wanted to react that evening, rather than sticking with the bottom feeding game that had been producing.

The lesson for me was read the fish first, and don't question it based on history, season, report, etc...or I might miss a good window of activity. Good luck!

That's good advice. I can be too thick to notice when the fish were telling me something lol. But when fish are chasing, I'll take the hint. Sometimes they NEED that speed. I've even taken to speed testing the smaller more abundant bass to see how they react.