Talk about them hitting anything, I was on a grouse hunt in central WI and in the evening I threaded a grouse liver on a hook for some bullheads for breakfast. While dragging it across the top of the water retrieving it for another cast a big old northern inhaled it, big enough for fried fish and eggs for breakfast and fin and feather for dinner. I've also caught them soaking worms for bluegills.
Top water is a blast for them, one evening in central MN I was walking the shore casting to submerged timber with a jitterbug, I'd caught a large crappie and a huge bluegill on it when something missed it, on the second cast again a miss, on the third cast a large northern launched himself clear out of the water and just came down on the jitterbug with his mouth wide open. He was 42" and 22 lbs. My favorite top water baits for them are the Jitterbug, Hula-popper, Heddon Torpedo and Creek Chub Injured Minnow.
