Blowup

It is what people fish topwater for, and it is also the moment most topwater fish are lost. The instinct when a bass detonates on your lure is to set the hook immediately, and immediately is wrong: the fish often has not got the bait yet, or has it sideways, and setting pulls it straight out of its mouth.

The fix is to wait until you feel weight. Not to see it, to feel it. That gap can be a full second, which feels endless when the water just erupted.

Some anglers fix it mechanically by using a moderate-action rod, which slows the hookset down for them, or by looking away as they retrieve so the visual trigger never fires.