The sun was high in the cloudless sky, beating down upon me without pity.

It was so bright, I wondered briefly if my sunglasses were on; the bright, searing light reflecting from the water was so intense. To make matters worse, a high-pressure system had rolled in after two days of rain.

Conditions could hardly have been worse for fishing.

After four hours of casting without even so much as a follow, I considered going home. Even the ospreys and sea gulls were absent; grounded by the heat, I presume.

Cracking a cold drink, I pondered what to do. Suddenly, inspiration struck.

Rummaging through my tackle box, I dug out a battered surface lure with a tinsel-wrapped, propellor-rigged rear hook I found floating on the surface last summer. I snapped it on, cast it out and worked the noisy plug back, splashing and sputtering it across the smooth surface.

Perhaps my only chance of drawing a hit today was to trigger the predator instincts of a bass into striking the rapidly escaping, injured minnow.

Ahead of me, patches of heavy milfoil showed beneath the surface and, half asleep, I was retrieving the lure automatically, hardly paying attention. As the surface lure churned across a three-foot opening in the matted weeds, there was a sudden explosion of white water, and my rod tip jerked violently downward. Wow.

The water boiled as the heavy fish dove deep down into the weeds, jerking line out in short spurts. I couldn’t do anything but hang on.

Just as quickly, all motion stopped. The fish had rolled itself up in the thick milfoil.

After five minutes of following the weed-choked line, I came to an extremely angry, four-pound largemouth bass. All-right!

That was an exceptionally nice fish, especially on a day like this. By nightfall, I’d caught five bass, ranging in size from 14 to 21 inches. Every one of those fish hit my rapidly moving surface lure — not because of hunger, I believe, but out of aggression.

In my younger, impatient youth, I never had the faith or patience to use surface lures for any length of time. After 15 or 20 minutes of casting, off they came.

When fish were striking other lures, it was easy to ignore top water completely and use what was producing. When the fish aren’t hitting, it’s very difficult to snap on surface lures, especially if you have little faith in them.

Most authorities recommend using surface baits on overcast days, during calms, early in the morning or later in the evening. I followed that advice, but with the exception of twitching minnow baits like Rapalas and Rebels, I’d experienced limited success.

However, after that blistering day years ago, I completely changed my approach and mind set on their use. The experts never mentioned using surface baits to fire up fish.

It has been my experience that success with conventional lures occurs when the fish are feeding heavily, or when they couldn’t resist nabbing a bait, which presented itself as an easy to catch meal. However, a noisy, erratic, hard-to-catch surface bait, I believe, appeals to the killer, knee-jerk attack instincts aggressive game fish possess.

The sight and sound of a wounded, fleeing prey immediately attracts their attention, and the speed with which it is traveling appears to challenge them to catch it. Thus aroused, they will almost instinctively attack.

It appears to be in their nature to kill weak prey even if they’re not hungry or kill just because they can. I have seen days on the Chautauqua Lake, back in the 70s and early 80s, when the lunge went on a killing binge.

We’d find perch, bluegills and crappies floating dead on the surface; their sides ripped open by rampaging muskies slashing jaws and teeth.

Once, I came to think of top waters as a “reaction lure,” I changed my approach and began retrieving my lures quickly and violently. Firing my lure out and cranking it rapidly in, concentrating on creating as much commotion as possible.

Oftentimes, I cast to a prime location multiple times. Occasionally, it takes repeated casts to irritate the fish enough to charge your obnoxious lure.

Deep water, shallow water, weeds, logs, sticks, weeds, the structure didn’t matter. Erratically retrieved lures excite fish.

I’ve had smallmouth shoot up in 10 feet of water to grab a Zara Spook, Chug-bug, buzz bait, River Horse or Jitterbug. I watched fish in a foot of water make a long wake as they zeroed in on a buzz bait. The worse the fishing, the more faith I have in noisy surface lures to produce when nothing else will.

Some of the most productive cover for surface lures are multiple sunken logs or heavy weeds with scattered openings, about three feet across. This could be due to the fact the fish in these situations are forced to make a quick decision and charge immediately before the lure disappears.

What I love best about topwater presentations is the unexpected explosion of water that occurs when an angry fish blasts your top water lure. Many times, these fish are larger than average.

Violent strikes by big fish keep you casting for the 1-2 hours it normally takes to entice a strike on those dog days when nothing else is moving.

Good luck and great fishing.