i was fishing in a small pond in a local golf course here in n.c., using mostly senkos.  i caught 7 fish in the 2 hours i had been there.  on the last one, i was reeling my senko in for the next cast, and a fish ate it while right at the surface near the shore as i was about to bring it out of the water.  seeing this, i decided to try a weightless t-rigged zoom lizard.  i cast it out and reeled it back in on the surface like a topwater right along the shore countless times without success. i should also mention it was at dusk, supposedly a good time for topwater.  i cannot figure out why the bass would not eat the topwater lizard after one ate a senko as i was pulling it in on the surface.

If the fish at teh Senko as you described, why did you switch to the lizard?  Maybe that was the problem  

I honestly believe that half the fish I catch are a direct result of bonking them on the head with a lure, and not directly related to which specific lure I may be using.

i agree, but i dont think this was a result of bonking the bass on the head becuase the when the bass it the bait the first time, i missed him, so i threw the senko out again and repeated the process the the fish hit it in the exact same spot right by the shore.

I use jet black zoom lizards weightless buzzed on top of the water all the time.  A few days ago I caught some nice bass in the middle of a bright clear day doing this, if the bite slows down on that I usually just add a bit of weight and fish it on the bottom.  I'm not sure that it's the best topwater bait but many times when they won't hit a waked spinner or a buzzbait the black lizard buzzed on top works.  Everything I read says to use brighter colors on a bright clear day like that, but the black works awesome for me. Not sure why it works, but it does.

If the fish at teh Senko as you described, why did you switch to the lizard? Maybe that was the problem

I'm with you Cephkiller.  You should have never changed bait.  Go back out there again and try the Senko again and see what happens.