topwater rejection?

[mar]

Snuck out for a 1-hour quickie before going to work this morning. Decided to do some poledancing as the tide was topping off.
It was both an exhilarating and painfully frustrating topwater session. Fished a 100-yard rockwall stretch and had fish chasing the poledancer the whole time. 3 of them cleared the water blasting the bug. Several instances of a fish swirling on the bug three or four times on the same retrieve. Zero fish hooked! Felt some weight on one occasion but no solid hook-up.

I fished the same fly and changed the cadence of the retrieve with some pauses mixed in. No solid eats! Some thoughts/questions after the TW session:

1. change PD size and/or color?
2. use a different style TW fly (maybe a RDCF?)
3. Quit whining and keep casting. Be happy you got the fish to react.
4. I just suck at TW striper fishing. Go back to fishing deep.

I opted for 3 and 4. Went back to the top of the run and chucked the trusty old clouser.
Got 4 of these in short order:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh134/mar224177/DSC_0261b_zps34512b56.jpg

It's a small consolation. I'll be back for some TW redemption soon.
Welcome some thoughts and suggestions from some of you TW junkies out there.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We did some top water Striper fishing with Captain Kevin Doran in the Delta.

He does not use big flies.

He liked them pulled at a nice smooth retrieve with no wild action.

I think he likes low light levels.

I think he likes shallow water, maybe 10 feet and under.

I think he likes smooth water too.

He was using Rainy's 'Bubble Head' hard poppers with a long grizzly saddle hackle tail added.

That is what I seem to remember.............

.

[Darian]

Mar,.... From what I've seen in photos of your past top water efforts you're no slouch. I'd opt for 1 thru 3. Catching is good whether on top or deep. Keep up the good work. :cool: