Walking The Dog For Smallmouth

[Gavin]

Heddon makes the Zara Spook, Spook Jr., and Zara Puppy...Lucky Craft makes the Sammy, Gunfish, & G-Splash....They are all slightly different..The Spook Jr. is a great bait if you upgrade the hooks...its a bit harder to walk than the Sammy 100, and it makes more noise....The Gunfish has a very wide walking action and it spits more water than the Sammy..Less roll & glide on the twitch. I work it a bit faster than a Sammy or a Spook....The G-Splash is allot smaller than the Sammy 100 or Gunfish 95, its a popper that walks with allot of splash and not much forward motion...Its good when they want a smaller bait or when you want they bait to stay in the zone a bit longer. Havent tried that Top Dollar in RPS's profile...but I bet it works too. Cheers.

[mic]

are these actual names of particular individual lures, the style of lure or the brand names (spooks, craft sammy 100, gunfish etc..)?

I seem to always go back to crankbaits because that is what I have had the most success with in the two summers I have lived and fished here in the MO Ozarks (mostly farm ponds, a couple MDC ponds and the Current River) I see many other people using plastic worms and I just don't do it right for some reason...seem to set the hook about 10% of the time...I don't own a canoe yet so i am always fishing from shore in the ponds and wade fishing in the Current.

I would like to look into these other lures listed above...good idea for the type of fishing I am currently doing?

Here is the spook site... http://www.lurenet.com/brands/heddon-lures/heddon-zara-spook

The dog is a larger lure around five inches I think, the pup (my favorite) is smaller in diameter and shorter. I prefer the baby bass patter. All of these "walk the dog" lures are back weighted, top water lures. You cast them out and reel in the line until there is just a little slack. Then you pop the rod which causes the lure to dart in on direction. You reel a little and pop again. The lure will dart in the other direction. When you find the rhythm, the lure moves back and forth and looks like is walking on the water, i.e. walking the dog. It drives bass nuts. They are killer on farm ponds especially when you can walk them parallel to a weed line. Give them a try. You get huge explosions as some fish think it is prey in distress. However, when there is simply a sucking action that takes the lure under...look out. That is normally a big one.

[E Green]

Awesome info Gavin and Mic...thanks...this website is FANTASTIC!

I certainly have quite a bit to learn...haha....terminology included....

I'm heading to town (Poplar Bluff) to run some erands and take my little on to the library. I am going to stop at the fishing/hunting store and see if they carry some of these lures...notes taken from above...thanks again

[rps]

Havent tried that Top Dollar in RPS's profile...but I bet it works too. Cheers.

It works. Oh my does it work. This year's best top water fish was 23 inches. Last year's was 22, but I had more over 20 last year.

It's draw back is that it throws poorly and is more difficult to walk. If you are willing to put up with those attributes, you get big splash on the walk and a wild sub surface walk from time to time.

[LarrySTL]

Anybody looking to see those or most any other bass lures can go to BassPro.com or Cabelas.com and put the lure's name in the search box. Those sites are sometimes not the best price you can find, but for overall selection, especially to window shop online, its hard to beat them.

[Gavin]

Went looking for a Top Dollar at BPS in St. Chuck today...did not find one...will have to order a few this weekend so I can play with them before I close up our pool....BPS carries some Lucky Craft....and a good assortment of other stuff.....but I get most of my LC's online at The Hook Up Tackle....http://www.thehookuptackle.com/ better color selection than you find at BPS...and they ship fast...no finacial interest...just a happy customer...

[Ham]

It works. Oh my does it work. This year's best top water fish was 23 inches. Last year's was 22, but I had more over 20 last year.

It's draw back is that it throws poorly and is more difficult to walk. If you are willing to put up with those attributes, you get big splash on the walk and a wild sub surface walk from time to time.

the Top Dollar should look like something in distress. It looks like a shad having a seizure. It isn't hard to walk, it's impossible to walk for the whole cast and it will have you cussing yourself for being a bad caster. That **** bait has a mind of it's own. The flat sides catch air and it becomes a knuckleball.