When temperatures are more than 90 degrees and perhaps more than 100 degrees, I probably will pick a Hack Attack Pad Perch to fish for bass. It’s a hollow-body plastic lure that doesn’t look like a frog, but it’s that same style of lure. It floats on the surface and comes in frog colors, as well as shad and bluegill colors.
I’ve found that typically topwater fishing is best when the water and the weather are the hottest they’ll be all year long. The bass tend to be more aggressive under hot-weather conditions because in hot water, the bass’ metabolism is extremely high. That’s also the time of the year when you’ll see the most bugs, frogs, rats and baitfish on the surface. Under those conditions, often you must fish a hollow-body lure to make those bass bite. If I throw a crankbait or drag a worm by a bass at this time of the year, the bass won’t even pay attention to those lures.
Quite a few fish live in shallow water even during the hottest time of the year. They’ll be holding in the shade of boat docks, trees hanging over the water, lily pads and grass. Hot weather also seems to trigger the growth of grass, weed lines and aquatic plants that create shade and heavy, dense cover that provides shade, oxygen and ideal points for the bass to ambush baitfish.
I’ve learned I don’t have to cast the Hack Attack Pad Perch in those shady, thick cover areas. I can just fish it around the cover or on the outer edges of weed lines, lily pads and in the shade of cypress trees or boat docks. The Pad Perch has a really erratic action like a Sexy Dawg or a Zara Spook. Because it’s a weedless bait, I can cast it into places I can’t cast most topwater baits.
Although this lure comes in many colors, my favorite color is Stump Jumper. That color looks more like a bream, a bluegill or a goggle-eye. Most often these are the types of baitfish that will hold around the same type of cover where the bass are holding. A bluegill or any other bream-type fish is the bait that a bass will be feeding on most often at this time of the year. The Hack Attack Pad Perch in the Stump Jumper color looks like a bream jumping, skipping and moving on the surface. So, if I only have one lure I can fish when the weather is 90 degrees or more, I’ll choose the Strike King Stump Jumper Hack Attack Pad Perch.
