I was thinking about buying a Duo Realis Pencil 85 in Shadow OB(black with orange belly) for topwater fishing at night for smallies.

Has anyone had good success with this bait? If so, do you recommend swapping the rear treble for a dressed one or will it affect the action? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

They're a good bait, but I've never night fished with them. I don't like dressed trebles on walking baits because of the added drag though.

Thanks Bluebasser86 for the reply. I just watched a couple videos of this bait in action. It kind of looks similar to a Sammy with the vertical position on the pause. I definitely won't be using a dressed treble. The main reason I am using this at night is the dark color and the fact that it's a pretty cool looking bait with plenty of detail. Also have to say that I love this forum!?

JMO, and take into consideration that I don't night fish very often, but I feel that walking baits are more trouble than they are worth at night to fish -  Pop-rs fit into this same category.   My best topwater night fishing baits have been ones with a more consistent noise - something that I felt was easier for a fish to track, find & strike at night.   First choice would be a jitterbug.

Next, in no particular order would be a Heddon crazy crawler, a buzz bait or some rattling wake bait.

I bought a black jitterbug a few weeks ago but haven't had the chance to use it. I cut off the tinny dull hooks that came with it, and replaced them with split rings and triple grip hooks(size 4). I can't wait to try it out as I've heard how productive it is at night. Might have to buy a buzzbait too!

If you plan on night fishing and want to develop a good diversity in your box i would recommend a spro rat or slammer in black.  Medium sized wake baits draw a lot of strikes if there on topwater and the smaller ones dont take special gear.  I run the 40 rat and the 7" slammer and there great at night when you want slow action and great water movement and noise.  I also like white.  One last bait to check out is the R2S popper.  They are good quality and dont cost a bunch.

I've never had great luck night fishing for smallmouth, partially because we don't have a bunch of lakes with them around here. The times that I have done well, I've either been fishing a black and blue single colorado bladed spinnerbait, or fishing a finesse jig in crawdad colors. 

I haven't had a lot of luck night fishing for smallmouth in general.  That said, the low-light hours right up until it's pitch black can be on fire.  During that stretch, I like walking baits a lot, but I'm starting to replace them more and more with Whopper Ploppers under most conditions.