By Joe Mosby thecabin.net Copyright 2011 The Cabin. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

When Lake Conway’s gates closed on July 4, 1951, fishing began almost immediately.

What do you suppose the first bass was caught on?

There is no record, of course, and no one knows who caught that first bass. The guess from this corner is the fish was landed either on a Lucky 13 or a live minnow.

A heavy rain followed that 1951 ceremony on the lake’s completion, and it filled almost immediately, oldtimers tell us.

The Lucky 13 was around long before the lake came about, and it is still available and used but not nearly to the extent as in the early days of Lake Conway.

It’s a topwater lure, sometimes called a chugger by fishermen because of the gurgling noise it makes on retrieve. There are all sorts of similar lures. One is the Rebel PopR, a favorite of some of today’s bass tournament professionals.

Another vintage topwater lure, but it’s not as old as the Lucky 13, is the Zara Spook. In times past, a mark of a competent bass chaser was being able to “walk the dog” with a Spook. This means to retrieve it in short twitches of the rod tip was you crank the reel so the lure operates in a zigzag fashion on the surface. The idea is to imitate an injured and struggling minnow or shad.

An early bass pro of ability was Charlie Campbell. He lived at Forsyth, Mo., near Branson, and learned bassing on Table Rock Lake. Campbell gave up coaching high school basketball for bass fishing guiding and tournaments and was a master with the Zara Spook.

Back in 1951 when Lake Conway was born, plastic worms were just being introduced, having been developed by Nick Crème a couple of years earlier. It wasn’t long before these worms were being used on Conway’s bass by anglers who often called them “rubber worms.” And they caught fish.

The Lucky 13, however, remained in vogue for many years. The late Sherl Blake of Conway was a Baptist preacher and operator of a printing business. He fished exclusively with Lucky 13s for several decade son Lake Conway. He caught good bass with it, too.

All sorts of theories circulate among fishermen about topwater lures.

Many have the notion that they are effective only at certain times of the year and at certain times of the day, like right at daybreak and just before dark.

Anytime you come out with a fishing theory, though, someone will quickly challenge it with a story of the opposite result, like topwaters catching bass in the middle of winter.

It is pretty well accepted that a topwater lure is useful when bass are fairly shallow. The fish will come up to strike a lure from several feet deep in the water – three, four, five feet. But if the bass is hanging out 10 or 12 feet deep on the side of a creek channel, it is not likely to go for a topwater lure.

A tactic used on Lake Conway by some anglers is to work around lily pads with a topwater lure. If you know Lake Conway, you know about lily pads. A fisherman may toss a topwater on to a lily pad, let it pause then ease it off into the water and begin the retrieve. Plastic frogs are also worked in this mode.

Topwaters are used around stickups, stumps, fallen logs, boat dock piers and other visible structure. Again, the technique is to cast it to a target then let it sit for a few seconds. Begin the retrieve in a pattern of a short crank then a pause, crank and pause, crank and pause. The crank can be combined with a twitching of the rod tip.

When a bass goes for a topwater lure, it can be spectacular. It can also bring your heart into your throat. Even a pound-and-half largemouth attacking a topwater lure is excitement.

Few outdoors experiences can rival fishing just after dawn on a lake where the water is totally calm. Toss out a topwater, let it sit then make a twitch. Suddenly the water around the lure explodes like a bomb has been dropped. If the line tightens and the rod bends, then you have a bass.

It’s an experience in the class of seeing a wide-racked 8-point deer step out into a clearing or seeing a flock of mallards cup wings and drop toward your decoys.