FW Installment #3 : What's a Shrog? (continued)

Picasso Shad Walker: The Shad Walker by Picasso is not a new bait by any means, but with all the products out on the market, it's one of which we were unaware until fishing on the California Delta one day with professional bass fisherman Matt Newman. The Shad Walker is a bait made in the tradition of a hollow bodied frog but with the profile of a shad. There' no skirted tail and the bait is configured as if it were a baitfish lying on its side.

Introducing Picasso Bait's Shad Walker.

Action: The Shad Walker is a bit of an anomaly and a difficult bait to get your head around at first. However, if you simply think of it as a hollow bodied frog variant it all comes together a bit more clearly. Out on the water, this bait walks incredibly easy. The only difficulty with this bait is, because there’s no skirted tail or legs to create drag at the back of the bait, in conditions of wind or current, where your fishing line is laying on top of the water ahead of the lure, the bait tends to get dragged out of sweet spots and intended paths rather easily.

There's no mistaking this bait's shad like profile.

This is what happened to us while fishing this bait on the California Delta. When the tide is stagnant, this bait performs very well, but as soon as the water began to move, I noticed movement of the bait was affected. As wind or current put a bow in my line on the water, the bait would get dragged out and along this path of the line far too easily.

In the water it lays nice and flat.

Weedlessness: The other downside to this bait is it does not always land upright, or in the case of this bait, “side right”. Every now and then on a cast, the bait would land with the hooks facing down into the water. When this occurred over weedy or algae laden areas, the hooks would catch and you’d end up dragging back to the boat, a big clump of vegetation.

But all to often it lands hooks side down - not particularly effective over matted vegetation.

Taking on Water: The propensity to take on water was the least of this bait’s worries. It performed above average in this department perhaps due to the lack of holes in the body for legs. The Shad Walker does a really good job of staying on top of the water and not getting bogged down by water intrusion.

When you do get hit, this bait is easy for the fish to take in.

Hookup Ratio: We only had a couple of chances with this bait on the California Delta before becoming frustrated with the two issues described above. Out on Clear Lake, on a still day with fewer weeds matted on top, I had better success. Hook up ratio with this bait is good though I did have a couple of blow ups where the bait was simply knocked clear out of the water. But this could very well have been the intent of the fish beneath the surface anyway.

The hooks are only moderately weedless but that lends itself to better hook up ratios.

Durability: For a hollow bodied bait, the Shad Walker is very stout. I fished it on a handful of outings so long term viability wasn’t truly tested, however, I feel this bait can hold up well to extended stints out on the water.

plenty of hook exposure on compression.

Availability:  The Picasso Shadwalker is a four inch (4”) bait that weighs half an ounce. It’s available in six different colors and retails for $8.99 at TackleWarehouse.

The Shad Walker might be a challenge to work sometimes, but when you get it right, you get it right.

Ratings:

Pluses and Minuses: