Top water fishing in general is flat out exciting BUT missing fish is part of the game, no matter what bait you are using we are all relying on that bass or species of fish to attack at the right second.
Fish exert a lot of energy striking at a bait, even more on top water stuff so unfortunately we fisherman are at the mercy of timing. I watched a pike attack a frog I was casting 6 times, kept missing the bait, jumped over it, knocked it out of the water, bit the line not the bait, everything but getting that frog in it’s mouth !
Again it is part of fishing as top water hook ups ratios are pretty darn low, from here there is only one tip I pass along once a fish has your actual bait “set the damn hook quickly” ! People will say sit and count to 8 before you set the hook on a fish that took a top water bait but experience after experience for me has been losing fish that way.
The more time a fish has to examine the bait, feel of it possibly even tension on the line will result in it spitting it out. Once my bait is gone I wrench back on the rod, truly have landed more fish after I started following this style of fishing.
As I am fighting the fish I tap the rod twice towards me with my hand, this ensures the hooks are set in the fish just in case it was barely hook and when the fish tries swimming off a good thing to do is also pull in the opposite direction, this secures hooks as well.
The AMFisH guy…