For most anglers, an introduction to topwater fishing comes courtesy of a largemouth bass demolishing a topwater frog, or appearing from nowhere to pummel a Jitterbug. Whether it’s the anticipation of the hit or the heart-stopping visual thrill of a topwater strike, anglers quickly learn that the most explosive fishing action takes place on the surface.
Now ramp that topwater experience up a bit—to saltwater fishing. Turn the dial beyond bluefish and even stripers, all the way to the biggest bruisers of offshore fishing: bluefin tuna. The thrill of topwater fishing for big game—an angling craze dubbed “popping” by international anglers—is what the engineers at Shimano had in mind when they designed the Orca Topwater System that includes the Orca floating pencil bait.
“It all started with our Butterfly jigs and vertical jigging various depths; next was Lucanus and close-to-the-bottom jigging, then just below the surface fishing with our Waxwing swimming jigs,” said Shimano’s Senior Product Manager Robby Gant. “And now with our Orca baits, combined with high-speed Stella and Sustain spinning reels spooled with PowerPro braid mounted on Terez Orca popping rods, we are providing saltwater anglers with a technical fishing system to target fish on top.”
Before getting into the full system, let’s start with the Orca lure itself. At first glance, it looks like a spook-style or “walk the dog” lure. However, rather than just a side-to-side motion that stays on the surface, it can be worked with a fast, erratic, pop-and-dive motion—like a panicked baitfish making desperate attempts to escape a pelagic predator. The Orca’s “killer” action is created via a proprietary internal weight position and an aerodynamic design. Along with great action in the water, it is designed for long casts both to reach fish feeding at a distance and to keep the lure in the water for a longer period of time–long enough for a tuna cruising the depths to look up, take notice, and rocket to the surface to crush what it perceives to be hapless prey.
The lures are offered in two sizes: the ORCA 160 measures 160mm (6.3 inches) and weighs about 2 ounces, and the ORCA 190 measures 190mm (7.5 inches) and weighs about 3 ounces. Both come in six colors: blue sardine, clear silver, green mackerel, black silver, purple gold and pink silver. The Orca is built to be bulletproof, coming out of the package tuna-ready with ultra-sharp, high-tensile treble hooks and heavy duty split rings.
Although built for tuna, the Orca is not only an offshore lure. The 6.3-inch model in particular has been popular with striped bass fishermen, like Shimano Pro Staffer and surfcasting specialist Roy Leyva. Leyva explained that the smaller Orca can be worked with a slow retrieve as a walk-the-dog topwater lure or with a more aggressive retrieve as a subsurface glidebait. “To get the best action for stripers, I use a fast-action rod and fish with the rod tip down. It’s a very active, jerk-and-reel retrieve, snapping the rod tip downward and then giving the lure slack as you reel. If you do it right, the lure moves like a frightened squid, darting just under the surface and then popping up out of the water,” said Leyva, who tallied numerous big bass by launching the Orca plug into the Cape Cod Canal last season.
The active retrieve makes using low-stretch braided line, a fast-action rod, and a reel with a speedy retrieve ratio necessary to give the lure its frantic action. For targeting topwater tuna, billfish and other big game, the Orca Topwater System matches the lure with Shimano Terez popping rods and Stella reels spooled with PowerPro line. The 7-foot, 8-inch Terez spinning rod has enough flex to load up and launch the 3-ounce Orca lure but maintains a fast action to allow anglers to work the Orca properly, while the high-speed Stella spinning reel can scoop up the slack line created on a quick retrieve.
The beauty of the Orca system, with its lightweight Terez spinning setup engineered to take advantage of the strength of modern braided line, is that it makes it possible for an angler to comfortably throw a topwater lure to big game fish with tackle that has enough strength and backbone to battle them to the boat—something that simply wasn’t possible just 10 years ago. If you’re ready to experience the ultimate topwater thrill of big-game “popping,” head out to the bluefin tuna grounds and launch an Orca.