Welcome to the Best Surface Lures 2024 article from FishingMad. Topwater fishing with surface lures is growing in popularity. For good reason, it’s such a fun form of fishing and the strikes can be monumental. If you haven’t done topwater fishing before we highly encourage you to give it a go. It’s an addictive form of fishing and some of the strikes are so hard that they can make the heart skip a few beats.
This article will mainly focus on the best surface lure choices when targeting species such as bream, bass, estuary perch, whiting, trevally, flathead, trout, and tailor, which is the more finesse style of topwater fishing when compared to bluewater topwater fishing. We have done this style of fishing for many years and trialled many different lures and soft plastic options on the market. Here are our top choices and why you should give them a go.
Scroll to the bottom of the article for summaries on the best surface lures for specific species. E.g. best surface lures for bream, bass, whiting…
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Best Surface Lures 2024
There are so many great options, but the size colors, profile, and price do vary a lot. Here is a roundup of our favourites.
- Jackall Micro Pompadour
- OSP Bent Minnow 76mm
- Tiemco soft Cicada
- BassDay Sugar Pen 70mm
- Zman 2.75 inch Finesse FrogZ
- Chasebaist Ripple Cicada
- Strike Pro Bass Bug
- River2Sea Whopper Plopper
- OSP Over Real 63 Wake Minnow
- Jackall Micro Tappy
- Imakatsu Dilemma Popper
- Daiwa Slippery Dog
- Lucky Craft NW Pencil
- MMD splash prawn
- Shimano BT Bait
- Berkley Bender 76
- Storm Gomoku popper 40mm
- Tiemco TT Pencil 40mm
- Savage Gear Top Prey 70mm
- Jackson Ebi Panic
- Eco Gear Premium Hardbait PX55ZX
- River2Sea Cicada Pop
- Ecogear PX45 Shrimp
Jackall Micro Pompadour
The Jackall Micro Pompadour is a brilliant top water lure for species like bass and estuary perch. Such an awesome-looking lure and smart design that mimics a wounded or distressed bug. This top water lure is 42mm long and weighs 6.5 grams so it casts exceptionally well. Available in 13 different colours however we generally only see a handful of those colours in retail stores locally. Some colors are stunning artwork displays with standouts including Bug Clear Brown, Honebone Black, Bug Matt Black. This lure has an amazing swimming action darting and rolling from side to side whilst making a nice loud noise with its unique metal wings at the front and small propeller at the back. You don’t need to add any action into this topwater lure a constant slow roll works great and creates a large disturbance and parting water action on the surface to get the attention of nearby bass. Its a quality lure with high-quality components. These lure retail for $27.95 from most retailers.
The Jackall Micro Pompadour is a stunning topwater lure with metal arms and small propeller
OSP Bent Minnow
The OSP Bent Minnow 76mm continues to be a standout choice. Its unique bent shape causes erratic darting action when retrieved and its action is different on nearly every cast. It is a great topwater lure for a whole range of fish species from bream, bass to whiting. You can work this lure in different ways. A constant slow roll, a twitch and pause, and even add your own action like the walk the dog style of fishing. This floating topwater lure weighs 4.3 grams, 76mm long and comes in a massive range of colours. Some of our favourites are P-74 and P-83. It has high-quality trebles and you can get them with internal rattles. The only downside to this lure is the cost sold for $34.99 and most retailers. It makes it one of the most expensive options but that hasn’t deterred buyers who have fallen in love with this topwater classic.
Bream loves OSP bent minnows in the shallow flats
Tiemco Soft Shell Cicada
The Tiemco soft shell cicada is an outstanding surface lure, because of its design, simplicity, swimming action and results. Bream, Bass, Estuary Perch and other species love these lures. We love the simplicity of this lure, a simple cast and a slow roll at a slow or medium pace work so well. These lures work so well on warm balmy evenings especially when the water is still and you can see active bug life. These lures weigh only 4 grams but still cast really well. The foam buoyant body of 40mm is a great profile size that mimics our active bug life really well. Available in 15 different colours our favourites being 501 AU Black and 123 Black Gold. Timeco has cicadas available in a hard shell and soft shell we have found the action, realistic look and catch rates so much better on the soft shell versions. Timeco has claimed this to be the best cicada on the market and we won’t disagree with them.
A beautiful estuary perch fell victim to a Tiemeco Soft Shell Cicada
BassDay Sugar Pen 70mm
The BassDay Sugar Pen has been around for many years. A simple floating lure with a slender profile shape and forward-facing upright cup ( like a popper ) that darts about imitating a fleeting prawn. Today there are several brands that have designed their own lures inspired by this profile and design. You can work these lures in many different ways starting with a walk-the-dog style retrieves by flicking the rod tip from side to side or twitching action with many lengthy pauses. The great thing about these lures is the variety of species that will take them including flathead, bream, whiting, bass, estuary perch, trevally, trout, redfin and more. These lures weigh 4.3 grams and come in a variety of sizes 58mm, 70mm, 95mm & 120mmwe have found the 70mm version to be very versatile for a whole range of applications. They also come available in 12 different colours. Claimed to be the best whiting topwater lure and again we won’t argue here as we have had great success with the whiting with these lures in the shallow flats.
Bassday Sugarpen is a standout choice for whiting on surface
Zman 2.75 inch Finesse FrogZ
The Zman 2.75-inch finesse frog is an awesome cost-effective surface option. It’s also the first on our list as a soft plastic. These simple soft plastics have an awesome swimming action with the 2 legs that act as individual paddle tails, creating lots of surface movement when slow rolled or twitched. The buoyant elaztech material gives these plastics great action. These soft plastics are a nice profile size and shape and come in 6 different colours. You can rig these soft plastics in multiple ways but our preferred is weedless allowing you to cast it deep with snags or along the banks and work them back. Again a whole range of local species will happily take these surface plastics however we have done particularly well on estuary perch and bass. The Chasebaits FlexiFrog is also an excellent alternative.
Jackall MicroTappy
Well, this is a debatable one as this lure could be considered sub-surface as it does have a bib on the front. That being said it’s easily one of our favourite surface lures because of its amazing swimming action, unique design and awesome colour range. I have caught countless bass and estuary perch using this lure by simply casting it along the banks or near structures and slow rolling it back at a slow pace with some pauses thrown in. These lures come in 7 amazing and very unique art like deisgns and colours. The one called Hone Black Bone in pink and black is really awesome. These lures are so simple to use and create a great parting action on the water when worked and our local fish species love them.
Best Surface Lures for Bass ( Top Water )
- Jackall Micro Pompadour
- Tiemco soft Cicada
- River2Sea Cicada Pop
- Zman 2.75 inch Finesse FrogZ
- Strike Pro Bass Bug
- River2Sea Whopper Plopper
- OSP Over Real 63 Wake Minnow
- Jackall Micro Tappy
- Ecogear PX45 Shrimp
- Storm Gomoku Popper 60mm
- Daiwa Steez Popper 50mm
Best Surface Lures for Whiting ( Top Water )
Whiting loves pencil lures, stick baits, shrimp imitations and poppers. Outstanding choices include the Bassday Sugapen. It’s best to work these lures with the rod down pointing downwards and adding downward twitches which creates the walk the dog style ide to side darting action. Ideally using these lures in shallow sandbanks and over the top of reefy weed beds.
- Bassday Sugar Pen 70mm
- MMD splash prawn
- Daiwa Slippery Dog
- OSP Bent Minnow 76mm
- Imakatsu Dilemma Popper
- Lucky Craft NW Pencil
- Berkley Bender 76
- Storm Gomoku popper 40mm
- Tiemco TT Pencil 40mm
- Luckycraft Sammy 65
- Atomic Hardz k9 walker 60
Best Surface Lures for Bream ( Top Water )
- OSP Bent Minnow 76mm
- Bassday sugar pen 70
- Imakatsu Dilemma Popper
- Daiwa Slippery Dog
- Lucky Craft NW Pencil
- MMD splash prawn
- Berkley Bender 76
- Storm Gomoku popper 40mm
- Tiemco TT Pencil 40mm
- Jackson Ebi Panic
- Atomic Hardz k9 walker 60
- Ecogear PX45 Shrimp
- Daiwa Steez Popper 50mm
Thanks for reading this Best Surface Lures 2024 article. You can also see many fishing videos around Melbourne and Victoria. If you have any questions, corrections or additions then please direct them to enquiries@fishingmad.com.au and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
