picked one of these up a year ago and have yet to put it thru its paces. my intentions were to use it as a coverage bait on the flats (looks like it will cast far, strongly resembles the spawning shad). I vaguely remeber hearing less than great reviews on it, and am curious if anyone has any experience with it?

thanks

josh

I'm normally a complete fiend for Rapala products, but IMHO this is not one of their better efforts.  It is (to me) much more labor intensive to get this bait to "walk the dog" in the proper fashion than it ought to be.  It looks nice in the box, but my actual on-the-water success with it was not the greatest.  I do wish that they would make a smaller size of it though.........seems a little big to me for a standard bait.

Matt

I had some luck with it in the early eveing for LMB. I had some really good results, surf fishing it for mall blues and strippers!

Josh, I responded to a PM on the Subwalk recently - this was it . . . . .

The subwalk has been a good bait for me almost exclusively for SMB., although I have caught a fair share of LMB and Pike with it.

This is NOT the magic lure - it's just a bait that not many guys throw so the fish don't see it and accordingly I have quite a bit of confidence in it and it's fun to fish. As for "walking the dog" with this bait - I have found that there was no need to be concerned with trying to make the bait do the "classic" side to side walk the dog action underwater. Since the first time I threw the subwalk I was hoping to get a reaction type strike. (which makes this a good search lure). Using the water temp, season, and fish activity level as a guide for how quickly to work the bait and how long the pause should be. The cooler the water, the slower it's worked and the longer the pause - as it's warming up I speed up the retrieve and shorten the pause - just like a jerkbait. Early this spring I took many fish as the bait laid motionless - I think it just ticks the SMB off so much that the bait doesn't try to flee they just Can't stand it and they smash it ! So it's a short jerk reel pause, short jerk, reel and short pause. Don't worry about how it looks along the side of the boat, just heave it out there and use a erratic stop and go and if there are SMB around - you'll know it

I have also found that by using a shorter casting rod I get the best action on this bait. Short is relative to your particular build I guess. I'm like 5-10 so by using a 6 foot medium casting rod (lamiglass actually) I can stand up in the boat and work the bait TIP DOWN with a quick short side jerking motion while immediately taking up the slack with the reel and then pausing as mentioned previously. A fast reel helps when you're moving the bait faster- I use a 7:1 ratio.

The clearer the water the better. I fish some really gin clear lakes and I have taken fish on this bait fishing at the edge of drop offs that were over 20-25 feet deep early and late in the day. Certainly water in the 5-15 feet is best. The fish will sometimes come a long way for this bait. I have heard stories of fish coming to a Zara spook in these same conditions- though I have not done it. I think the SMB are more willing to commit to this bait because it is Not on the surface. And a follow is almost as good as a hit because at least they showed themselves and I can go back with another bait (tube, senko or whatever) and might get a few that way.

A-Jay

guys thanks for the responses...

Muddy I hadnt even thought about the blues and stripers, great idea!

I fish a small private lake that the fish seem to love that xrap "shad" color ( dont know the name, but its the solid white one that looks amazing). I guess im just gonna have to give it a try and see what happens......