Elite Series pro Bernie Schultz talks about when he fishes walking topwaters like his favorite the Rapala Skitterwalk, or others might choose the Heddon Zara Spook, Lucky Craft Sammy or Megabass Dog-X. The ability to walk it., stop it, and change speeds makes it more versatile at times than other topwater options.
Walking baits like the Skitter Walk, they’re times it’s a really versatile lure there’s times when fish are aggressive a walking bait is deadly. But it also is extremely effective when they’re lethargic. There’s times when the fish there interested but they won’t commit to maybe a popper or maybe a buzzbait like they will chase a buzzbait but they won’t really eat it. If you can go to a walking bait like a Skitter Walk and they come in a lot of sizes you can either experiment with size or different colors obviously.
But it’s that walking action and the advantage of being able to pause the bait like if I’m working a field of grass and there’s a hole in the grass I’ll walk that bait up into a hole and pause it. You can’t do that buzzbait, you can do it with other top water plugs but sometimes it’s that walking side to side action that really triggers a strike from fish that may be aggressive or totally the opposite maybe be lethargic. You know out here we’re fishing on lake Mille Lacs up in Northern Minnesota and I’m looking for isolated boulders and I’m treating those just like I would a hole in the grass and I’m walking the bait up to that target and pausing it for a second, we’ve had a heck of a morning just big Smallmouth crushing this thing.
