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Posts: 5
Location: Duluth, MN | Hey All,
Random question. I've only fished a walk the dog style surface bait a few times but I fish prop baits like lake x, top raiders, etc all the time. I am seeing others fish walk the dog style surface baits fairly quickly, while prop baits are continually told to slow down. Why is this? We get a lot of hit and misses already with prop baits but it seems like a walk the dog surface bait would be significantly harder for a ski to hit. Thoughts? Tips or tricks for this? |
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Posts: 941
Location: Freedom, WI | For me they really do not miss them anymore than other topwaters. A miss is nothing more than a short strike on an underwater bait, you just do not see some of those that are not within your vision.
Sometimes they want slow sometimes fast as with any other bait. With WTD topwaters different baits make different sounds, ones that ride high or those that run lower the sound they make changes(like a canoe compared to a yacht). Add the width of the WTD in the mix and a little erratic action(which can be done by the way you work the bait). Another little tip is a WTD topwater is one of the first baits out of my box in the spring. |
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Posts: 3475
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | I've found that with prop baits, a comfortable speed seems to do just fine, with a fair share of hits and misses. Walk the dog baits, though....I have gone away from a routine cadence to more of an erratic style of retrieve. A Weagle, for example, you can give it a very hard twitch and get it to turn almost 180 degrees and only move forward about 6 inches or so. Let it sit...couple more hard rips, get a good water splash, let it sit. They just clobber the thing!! Good hard hits, and most definitely square in the jaw as in most cases the bait is perpendicular to their line of attack....right into the hooks.
I have at times with a prop bait made a quick jerk to scoot the bait forward and throw more water when a fish is hot on the bait...this has triggered some strikes as well... Creepers can do this also which is pretty cool to give it a small twitch and see them commit and slam it...
Steve |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | Are you searching for fish or have one that you raised? |
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Posts: 408
Location: MN | I fish WTD much slower than prop style, and really only use WTD where I know there is a fish. I don't have a huge sample, but to me it seems like maybe 2/3 of strikes on prop topwaters connect while 1/3 on WTD connect. I normally try to avoid WTD but at times it can really call them up. |
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