Top-water Fishing at Its Best
My memory of that event is as painful as an abscessed tooth. Just this time of year, a bit later in the morning than is best for top-water, my last stop was unusual. It offered no real underwater structure other than a nearby inlet to a tidal pond. But I knew from experience that rockfish would sometimes cruise the length of the shoreline looking for shrimp and minnows pulled out of the pond by the falling tide.
My first cast was on the money, a soft plop about two feet off the shoreline. I chugged the popper twice, and on the second effort a substantial striper exposed its back, swirled and sucked the plug down.
Waiting until I felt the weight of the fish on my line, I cinched it up. The hefty fish started on a violent run right down the beach, pulling drag and throwing wake up on the sand. It was a heavenly moment. Then, without warning, it came unbuttoned. My heart sank.
Cranking in my popper, I suspected what the problem was. As I lifted the all-black surface lure, my fears were confirmed. My leader had fouled the front hook on the cast. A striper will always hit the front end of a plug, so a fouled front hook will pull backwards when you apply rod pressure. The result is inevitably a disaster.
Fouling the front treble is not a frequent problem with thrown surface plugs. But it does happen. Plus it is difficult to discern at the time it occurs. A surface plug with a fouled front hook usually has the same action as a clean plug and will attract strikes just as reliably. The violence of the strike will usually result in a hookup, but it will seldom hold.