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The Walking Baits: Top 5 Walk-The-Dog Picks

Date: |
10/22/17 |
Tackle type: |
Lures |
Manufacturer: |
Various |
Reviewer: |
Zander |
Introduction: There are a lot of topwater hardbait
options, poppers, chuggers, propbaits, twitch baits, wakebaits, and walkers.
Even if you just focus on topwater walk-the-dog hardbaits there are over fifty
different choices alone! There are lot of good choices and today we pick our top
five most productive topwater walkers that we utilize in the majority of our
topwater reel and rod field tests. These baits have proven to be not only
effective three quarters of the year but can also stand up to the abuse of
violent topwater strikes from a variety of species. Let’s count them down:

Number
5. Heddon Spook: No walking bait list would be
complete without the icon that is the Heddon Zara Spook. First introduced in
1939 this bait is responsible for getting thousands of anglers addicted to the
walk the dog technique. The spook just plain works and will still sashay side to
side with the best of them even today.
The Spook is so good that their name has
pretty much become synonymous with the class of bait. Just like “Kleenex” for
tissue paper when you pull out a walker out of your tacklebox many anglers will
simply refer to it as a “spook.”
The traditional Heddon Zara Spook
retails for only $7.29 and to keep things interesting the company has now
introduced many new variations of the bait including the smaller Zara Puppy, the
louder and flashier Super Spook, the tungsten loaded Rattlin Spook, and the
self-explanatory One Knocker Spook.

Number
4: Megabass Dog-X Diamante: Like their rods the detail
in design on Megabass’s baits continues to impress. The Dog-X Diamante features
a realistic head and an almost blade-like tail section. This aggressively styled
profile is designed to help the bait produce a sharper walking action, something
the company describes as “hard-edged” walking action. The design works and the
bait is able to walk in both calm and choppy water. While the bait does walk
well at lower speeds it seems to really come to life when walked faster and more
aggressively, splashing and spitting as it walks. The bait is 3/4oz. and is easy
to cast and holds up to violent strikes with Gamakatsu SP-MH #5 hooks. Megabass
offers the bait in a variety of patterns ranging from the ultra-realistic Pagani
Raigyo to the artistic Black Python. To top it all off the Dog-X is available in
both a rattling and silent version to help anglers present exactly what fish
want in changing conditions. All of this comes at a cost and the Dog-X
retails for $19.99 each, making it one of the most expensive walkers, and
yet it is worth every penny.

Number
3: River2Sea Pro Tuned Rover: Our number three pick is
the River2Sea Rover, a top producing walker that generates a loud knock as it is
walked thanks to a tungsten ball bearing rattle.
It only takes a few seconds of
walking the Rover to appreciate just how well this lure walks, and the loud
knock that the lure puts out is very distinct.
There are two different sizes,
3-78” and 5” baits which help anglers adjust to conditions and all of the baits
come with Daiichi treble hooks (three on the larger 128 size). There are 15
patterns to choose from and there are some fun patterns including the bird
patterned Loon and metallic T1000. Consistency from bait to bait is very good
which makes it all the more surprising that the Rover only
retails for $11.99 to $12.99 depending on size, making it one of the most
reasonably priced modern day walkers available.

Number
2: Reaction Innovations Vixen: Number two on our list
is a sexy bait called the Vixen, and it is back! Once extremely hard to source
the recently re-introduced Vixen is one of the easiest baits to walk thanks to a
contoured and tapered shape and the side to side is a little more subtle than a
lot of competing baits, which proves to be deadly in the calm water at first
light and during the magic hour before sunset. The Vixen also delivers a
tantalizing rattle sound even when worked slowly and has molded fins and three
dimensional eyes for added realism. When the Vixen had all but disappeared from
the market, the ones that anglers had in their tackle boxes became a very
precious commodity. Some anglers ceased throwing them fearing they would lose
them. When the bait finally returned it came back with a harder more durable
plastic shell that is also designed to also be even more resonant to help call
fish from afar. The Vixen is now available at
Tackle Warehouse for $14.99 each.

Number
1: DUO Realis Pencil: Finally we get to number 1 on
our list, the DUO Realis Pencil 110, a beautifully designed bait at a great
price! Like so many other DUO baits the Pencil takes a proven design and cranks
it into overdrive.
At first glance the lure looks like other modern day walkers
but look closer at the face and you will see a sphere under the chin of the lure
which is designed to displace water and make the beat even easier to walk. While
a little funky this design absolutely works and also gives the lure some unique
properties depending on how you work your rod tip.
Twitch the rod harder as you
walk the bait and you can actually get the Pencil to dive below the water like a
baitfish breaking and re-entering the surface. There is an internal weight
system that aids with the cast and once in the water adds a knocking sound as
the bait is walked. Each DUO Pencil is 4.3” in length and weighs 3/4oz. and is
available in a range of colors that appeal to both fresh and inshore species. I
probably catch as many stripers on this bait as I do largemouth, and I never
hesitate to throw it because of just how effortless it is to walk and displace a
ton a water. The DUO Pencil gets our top pick not only for performance but
because it offers JDM styling at an incredibly reasonable
retail price of only $13.99.
Honorable mentions: The following two baits just narrowly missed our top 5 picks
but are absolutely worth considering.

Lucky
Craft Sammy: There was a time when the Sammy
absolutely dominated the topwater scene. If you wanted a realistic looking
walking bait this was it. Designed to make walking the dog easier the Sammy
features a more tapered tail section and internal weighting to help make the
head of the bait sit higher up in the water so that a twitch of the rod tip
moves it side to side easier. Inside the bait are glass rattles which are
designed to give the bait some added vibration and noise, which also made the
Sammy somewhat of a twitch bait as well. Anglers could walk the dog then pause
and twitch it on the surface to try and get fish to commit. While the Sammy
continues to be a proven performer the competition has gotten a lot better in
this category. The Sammy is
available in three sizes, retails for $15.99-$16.99, and comes in all the
patterns that Lucky Craft fans love including American Shad, Aurora Black, and
Chartreuse Shad.

IMA Big
Stik: The IMA Big Stick is the creation of IMA’s
Japanese engineering team and local Delta Pro Angler and Guide Randy Pringle.
This bait is somewhat of a hybrid bait and can walk, pop, and spit depending on
how it is retrieved. Weighing 1.75oz. the Big Stick casts easily and once it
lands you can hear it coming as it is walked thanks to eight individual sound
chambers. As we learned in our autopsy these chambers also help reinforce the
bait and a wire through construction help make this one of the most durable
walking baits on the market. The Big Stick is armed with heavier split rings and
Owner ST-66 #1/0 hooks so it can handle bass, stripers, musky, and pike. We even
brought this hardcore walking bait to the Amazon and it was one of the few baits
that could handle Peacock Bass without having to upgrade hardware right out of
the box! The Big Stick is also
available at Tackle Warehouse and retails for $20.99 each. Anglers that like
the design but feel like the Big Stick is overkill can also opt for a downsized
version called the
Little Stik which retails for only $10.99.
Do you have a favorite
Walking Bait?
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