Great summer for topwater pike fishing

Live Target Walking Frog took this nice northern pike

Zara Spook Junior also works well. Note the calm water when we use topwaters.

I've had the best time this summer using topwater lures for northern pike.
I usually only get a chance to go fishing after supper and this turns out to be the ideal time for using surface plugs. The wind is calm and the lake is usually like glass.
Although it has taken me several years to get the hang of using the Live Target Walking Frog, it is now my all-time favorite pike bait. The key, I've found, is not to use a steel leader. Instead I use a smaller snap-swivel. This change seems to have made all the difference.
You fish this lure by twitching your rod, reeling up the slack and twitching again. You can do this very rapidly, making the lure hop left and right all the way back to the boat.
Pike often come sailing completely out of the water when they strike the frog. Although they frequently miss the lure altogether, I've learned not to set the hook when I see them airborne because in some instances, they grab the bait on the way back down.
Without a doubt, I would rank the Live Target Walking Frog as the absolute best top-water bait for northern pike.
A near second, however, is the Zara Spook and Spook Junior. I've had good luck especially with the Junior, a smaller version of the Spook.
I've also caught pike this summer on Live Target's rubber frogs but they don't work nearly as well as the hard-bodied Walking Frog. As I have mentioned before, I always turn the double-hook on the rubber frogs downwards because pike virtually never get caught with up-turned hooks.
I use all these top-water baits anywhere there are weeds along the shoreline. It seems they produce the best when you pop them along very briskly.
Brad Donovan, our outside worker this summer, caught a 34-inch pike on the Walking Frog. Alas, I had forgotten my camera!
We have caught a bunch of nice pike on the Frog. In fact, it may appeal especially to larger fish.
It is such a thrill to see pike sailing through the air, doing back-flips and swirling at the topwaters that it is difficult to use conventional below-surface lures again.