As for color choices, Chiarpotti favors Florida bass, while Rush likes baby bass patterns, along with bluegill and firetiger.

Aside from the Heddon Spook, Chiarpotti vouches for Lucky Craft Sammys and Reaction Innovations Vixens. He also offered anglers an important bit of advice: "Keep walking the dog after a missed bite. Bass will often come up and hit your topwater again."

In addition, he recommended that anglers set the hook by sweeping their rods to their sides rather than over their heads. "If you make these fish jump, you'll lose a good share of them."

Cody Meyer had advice on where to find these fish on any given highland reservoir. Look for shade lines or pockets along bluff walls or even mud lines generated by ski boat wakes, said Meyer.

Currently residing in Redding, Meyer spent his formative years fishing California's highland impoundments. He comments that he always starts off with a topwater on post-spawn mornings, retrieving his Spook at a steady pace on 15-pound Berkley Trilene Big Game monofilament. Meyer notes that once morning's low-light conditions have given way to bright sun, the topwater bite typically dies, although it can still be found in shady areas.

Other than bright chrome Spooks, the rear trebles of which Meyer adorns with feathers, he also finds Ricos and Pop-Rs to be effective. Choosing shades of white or Tennessee shad, Meyer throws them out, pops them, and then brings them in with a slow retrieve, allowing time for the rings to disappear before popping them again.

According to Johnny Chiarpotti, anglers also shouldn't overlook the classic No. 11 Floating Rapala. This minnow-style bait will still attract a good number of bites when gently twitched on the surface.

GETTING A LITTLE DEEPER
Whenever Chiarpotti throws Spooks, he has another bait rigged up and ready to go -- the venerable Yamamoto Senko.

"I'm always ready to throw these. If a bass misses a topwater, it will still think it has injured it and will jump on a Senko."

"Johnny C" most often opts for 5-inch models in green pumpkin, motor oil with red flake or clear with gold and black flake. Typically, he Texas-rigs them with a 3/0 EWG hook.

In addition to watermelon Senkos, Dave Rush likes Slug-Gos and Flukes in blue-pearl hologram. Whatever his choice of weightless plastic, the winner of nine boats wants some white in his bait so he can more easily see it, and react quickly when a bass swoops in and engulfs it.

For fishing these soft jerkbaits in water with 5 feet or more visibility, Rush goes with fluorocarbon of 8- to 10-pound-test, while in dirty water, he likes 12-pound monofilament.

"You can get away with lighter line during this time of year," he said. "The fish don't have the endurance and muscle after the spawn. You're usually getting reaction strikes, and often they're barely hooked. One thing you don't want to do is try to horse them in."

Like the others, Meyer is a Senko advocate, wacky-rigging 5-inchers in natural shad patterns around submerged trees and shade pockets. Over the last year, he's also become a fan of flick-shakin'. With a 5.8-inch Jackall flick-shake worm in green pumpkin pepper or watermelon candy, Meyer casts it wacky-style on a 1/8-ounce tungsten jighead, also made by Jackall. He lets the worm fall on a slack line, shakes it, then lets it continue to descend, adding that he'll know he's bit when his line starts to load up.

Meyer said bass at this time of year will usually be on the outside of everything.

"Any kind of vertical structure is good," he said. "They suspend a lot, and you can find them beside or under floating docks or even houseboats."