“Catching Everything on Mepps and Mister Twister Lures with Kraig Albright”

Part 1: The Top Prop: Buzzbait / Top-Water Lure

Editor’s Note: Kraig Albright of Dayton, Oregon, a competitive bass fisherman, also fishes for rainbow trout, salmon and steelheads.

Question: Kraig, what’s your favorite largemouth bass lure?

Albright: I really like fishing the Mister Twister Top Prop over the tops of submerged vegetation or along the edges of weeds. The Top Prop is much like a buzzbait, but it has a unique design with a different type of blades, creating a distinctive action. It’s a really-unique bait that not a lot of people know about or fish, which is one of the reasons I catch so many bass with it. The Top Prop is one of those undercover lures you don’t want to tell people about, because it’s so different from the standard buzzbait, spinner bait or other top-water lures. I fish the Top Prop quite a bit on Ten Mile Lake.

Question: What color do you use?

Albright: I primarily fish with a black-colored Top Prop. If the sun rises higher in the day, and the bass are still hitting a top-water lure, I’ll fish a white Top Prop. In recent years, more bass fishermen have been fishing black buzzbaits and black spinner baits. The bass can see that black silhouette better, especially in low-light conditions, like early morning or late afternoon. But later in the morning, when the sun gets brighter, the white Top Prop is more productive.

Question: What kind of retrieve do you use?

Albright: That’s the good thing about the Top Prop. You don’t have to do anything fancy with it to catch bass. When I’m fishing the Top Prop, the average-size bass I’ll catch will be 2 to 5 pounds, which is a good tournament-size fish. This lure helps me catch bigger bass. Too, I don’t catch as many little bass with it as I do when I’m using other lures.

Question: On what pound-test line do you fish the Top Prop?

Albright: I prefer 20-pound-test monofilament line because it helps to float the bait and provides enough power to haul a big bass out of cover. I fish that 20-pound-test line on a 6:1 gear ratio Shimano Curado Reel. I match that line and reel up with either a 7-1/2- or an 8-foot Lamiglas rod. I like the Lamiglas because it’s more forgiving when a bass takes the bait. The Lamiglas rod lets the bass suck the Top Prop in its mouth good and deep before I set the hook. Too, the monofilament line has stretch in it, which helps to give the bait to the bass when it tries to suck-in the bait.

Question: Why did you start using the Top Prop?

Albright: When I first saw that bait and learned how it worked, I realized it was a buzzbait and/or a top-water bait with a different design, action and look than any other top-water lure or buzzbait on the market. I decided that if I could get bass to bite it, I’d have a unique lure most other tournament bass fishermen weren’t fishing. Also, the bait is unlike any other buzzbait. I can slow down my retrieve, and the bait doesn’t sink. If you slow down your retrieve on most buzzbaits, the lure sinks down into the water, and you don’t get the splash on the surface. If you stop the bait, it falls and has to swim back to the surface before splashing and bubbling again. However, with the Top Prop, I can reel it like a buzzbait, stop it and quiver it like a top-water bait without it sinking and then start retrieving it again, and it starts acting like a buzzbait.

So, there are many-different ways you can work this lure and get the best action from the buzzbait blades on the front. You can fish it like a top-water lure by just barely moving the bait and the blades, ripping it and stopping it or using any combination of retrieves to make the bait look and act differently. When I’m in a tournament, and I have my limit of bass, I’ll often rely on the Top Prop to catch one or two kicker bass to increase the weight of my stringer. If I use a trailer on this lure, I prefer the Mister Twister Split Double Tail.

Question: Do you set the hook when you see the fish blow-up on the bait?

Albright: No. This is one of the reasons some anglers tend to miss bass when they’re fishing the Top Prop. When the bass takes the bait, I take up slack and wait until I feel the bass before I set the hook.