My Sammy got embedded into my leg and led to an emergency room trip to remove it. Tried to rip it out of some cover and wham, stuck in my shin. 1 fisherman caught, 0 fish caught. Didn’t use it enough to have an opinion. I throw the SK, and the 6th Sense Catwalk.

One thing that I think has mislead folks is thinking a sammy is supposed to walk the dog like a spook or are put off by the vertical posture. Dont get too hung up on that or achieving any specific rhythm. The 85 is extremely hard to walk in a textbook fashion. But the beauty is in the erratic way it spits, darts, jumps out the water, rolls/dives, etc. It looks exactly like a baitfish frantically “flitting” (for lack of a better term) on the surface.

 

My best success has been in 2 scenarios:

 

- When little pods of threadfin shad are schooled up and bass are hitting them (again the 85 in MS American shad is a perfect mimic).

 

-  Target casting it at specific ambush spots in current like downstream of boulders, little pools below a riffle, etc. The smaller sammies can kindve “work” over a specific spot a tiny bit longer- like halfway between a spook and a popper if that makes sense.

Once Ive gotten above the 100 (?) size Ive found a bit that erratic yet subtle magic is missing. They do tend to walk easier in my experience.