3. Cotton Cordell
Pencil Popper
1. Heddon Super Spook
2. Heddon Chug’n Spook
due to be displayed in a shadow box at
his house one of these days, but
Anderson still throws it as part of a
three-bait topwater system that accom-
modates any weather condition.
1. Heddon Super Spook – Because
the Spook floats “flat” on the surface,
Anderson prefers to fish it on calm days.
Otherwise it gets lost in the surface
chop. His go-to lure has been painted
several times, but the current rendition
is a white shad pattern.
2. Heddon Chug’n Spook – The
Chug’n Spook floats a bit more tail
down, which helps it stay on top in a
light chop. Anderson keeps it in hand
until the waves build to about a foot.
3. Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper –
In blown-out conditions when the wind
is howling, Anderson reaches for a bait
that’s more popular for saltwater fish-
ing: the Pencil Popper. It has a bigger
profile and more action to help bass
locate it in the waves.
The Approaches
32
Regardless of the bait, Anderson tar-
gets every bar or flat with one of two
approaches. The first is utilized when
he’s in search mode and trying to dial in
the location of a school. Positioned out
off the deep edge and trolling steadily
along, he bombs a cast as far as he can
at about a 45-degree angle from his
direction of travel and walks the bait
back as fast as possible while maintain-
ing a side-to-side cadence.
Once he’s homed in on the school’s
location, Anderson adjusts the casting
angle and throws nearly perpendicular
to the drop-off, being sure to thorough-
ly cover the area. The goal is to reach
fish that might be chasing gizzard shad
way up on top of the structure.
Tackle
Anderson recently designed what
he considers his perfect topwater rod
for a company called Redemption
Rods. He likes a 7-foot, medium-heavy
blank with enough bend that, when
paired with 65-pound-test braid, it’s
got some give if a fish bites close to the
boat. The final piece of tackle is a 7.5:1
Team Lew’s LITE Speed Spool LFS
Series baitcasting reel.
Back-up Options
As dedicated as Anderson is
to targeting big fish with topwater
lures in the fall, he always has a
couple of subsurface lures handy
to test out on a spot if he thinks
there are more fish present that
aren’t biting on the surface.
One is a 3/4-ounce football jig
with a Strike King Rage Craw trail-
er, and the other is an Ignite Baits
Swimbait on a 3/4-ounce jighead.
“That’s usually for a little deep-
er school,” he says. “And some-
times there’ll still be some stump
bars that have fish a little deeper.
In all these tournaments that I’ve
won, there are only a couple of
them where I’ve been able to
catch 10 or 15 fish [in a two-day
or three-day tournament, respec-
tively] all on top. I usually smash
them a day or two and then have
to go and do something else.” ■
FLWFISHING.COM I OCTOBER 2017