Yep, that's right...and I never would have guessed it.  Tuesday was one of the weirdest winter days of fishing I've ever had.

We had nearly a week of lows in the teens here in Texas, and the water temps are pretty cold.  I got out on the water at dawn and for the first 3 hours of fishing I didn't get a single hit.  I fished mostly deeper water, as well as a steep drop off area by the dam.  I tried craws, thumpers, annies, jigs, and a lipless crankbait but no takers.  I noticed on the sonar that there were a lot of fish suspended pretty high up in the water column.  Most of these fish were only 3 feet from the surface.  So I headed up the creek to see if I could find some active fish in the shallows. 

I threw a bunch of baits but no luck.  I remembered a bit that KVD did in the last episode of The Bass Pros in which he was burning a swimjig on the surface like a topwater lure.  He was burning it so fast that the jighead stayed up out of the water and his ragetail craw was splashing around on the surface.  I had just picked up a few of those KVD swimjigs a few days earlier, so I tied one on and I wanted to see how fast I would need to reel to keep the half ounce one with a Lobster up on the surface.  Well, turns out you gotta reel VERY fast to keep that 1/2 ounce jig up on top like that.  So I was pretty much just playing around, burning this swimjig and Lobster around and all of sudden this bass rockets up out of the water just behind my jig and comes back down with a huge SPLASH!  It scared the crap out of me!

I pitched the jig back at the spot where this fish was and hopped and dragged it through there several times but no luck.  Then I made a long cast past this spot and burned it across the surface again, and she SMASHED IT!  I was laughing so hard as I reeled this fish in.  I don't think I've ever seen a topwater strike in January, and this one was unbelievably violent.

So then I tied up a 3/8 oz KVD swim jig on another rod, put a ragetail baby craw on it, and started burning it around as I moved up the creek.  I caught several more fish, each of them exploding on it at the surface.  I couldn't believe it, I couldn't get a bite unless I was burning my jig across the surface.  The water temp was 44 degrees.  What were these bass thinking???

Then I tied on a black cavitron buzzbait and caught a couple more fish, just so I could say I caught fish on a true topwater lure in January.  My buddies were so surprised to hear how I was catching fish on Tuesday.  It was a blast! 

Hehehe... Let the fish tell you what they want and FEED'EM that  WTG ETB, a burnin' jig across the top or just under the surface will get'em heated up in many situations and I use the Lobster more often than the Craw for additional water movement.

Big O

www.ragetail.com

Nice fish!  I love those kvd swim jigs.....they were one of my best producing baits last year fished just as you described.  I haven't tried it with a rage trailer yet though....mostly just small swimbaits or grubs. 

That's cool. Congrats of the great fish. That's just one more thing that proves that the bass don't read the rule book.

That's cool. Congrats of the great fish. That's just one more thing that proves that the bass don't read the rule book.

No kidding! I think the rule book should be replaced with "fish whatever catches em that day."

Nice fish!! Geeez its January 23rd, I'm looking outside at a foot and a half of snow and about 14 inches of ice on the lakes and your talking about catching your first topwater fish! I'm going to go cry in my beer :'(

Nice!lol i have some kvd swim jigs on my bass pro list right now

Nice!lol i have some kvd swim jigs on my bass pro list right now

This was my first time to use them, and I'm really happy with them.  The wire trailer keeper on it is genius.  I bet more jigs are going to start using it, it's far easier to use than anything else I've tried before.  I just picked up a few more in the sexy shad color, can't wait to try 'em out.

well done man!

never seen a bass with lips that black. awesome story man. i just saw that episode recently as well and somehow managed to shrug the monkey off my shoulders that day.

Might be wrong but those look like old school JT paintball gloves.  If so AWESOME.  btw great fish.

Nice haul man. Love the Rage bite. That's all I really throw anymore.

Nice fish,Congrat's.

nice top water action!! well done! 8-)

Great looking fish.  Unfortunately I won't catch my first until spring.  It's just way too cold to go out and get skunked now.