Ways To Work a Spook

[Bazoo]

I have a spook and I haven't any issues walking the dog, but has anyone ever had any success in just straight pulling one the way you do a Devil Horse?

 

If so, what color was it and what season/weather was it?

[RipzLipz]

@Bazoo Never tried that before. I typically vary the speed or cadence of the walk the dog retrieve from a fast, fleeing minnow to a wide, almost glide if the bait will allow for the wider glide. I prefer the Lucky Craft Gunfish (95 & 115), Sammy (65 for smallies on spinning gear, 100, 115 & 128) & SK Sexy Dawg but do throw a Spook on occasion.

[rangerjockey]

No, I mean they will bite anything at times but you will be better off fishing it the way it was intended to be fished 70 years ago. 

The horse is a prop bait and I would give it a twitch now and again as you retrieve it.

[Jig Man]

A long time ago a local spook expert showed a friend and I 5 ways to work a spook.  He said he could work it 17 different ways and would show us 5 more after we mastered the first 5.  I could only get 4 of them so I never got any more lessons.

 

The closest to what you mentioned is to get it pointed at yourself and with the rod pointed down give it a snap.  If done correctly the bait will do a little dive and back up.

[gone_fishin48]

Like @Jig Man mentioned giving a spook a straight popping motion will work it sort of like a jerk bait. I typically use Heddon Spooks

[PaulVE64]

Bass will hit a block of wood with a hook but maybe not that often.

[A-Jay]

In my fishing, for LMB & SMB, the magic of a topwater walking bait is in the 'cadence'.

Not unlike a jerkbait, when I get it right, I'm busy.

https://youtu.be/79KEuVOOS_Q?feature=shared&t=31

https://youtu.be/Vsl5A_YmHzs?feature=shared&t=42

No doubt other topwater baits & presentations get bites,

but I'm never trying make a walker into a popper.

I have some poppers and they get bites too.

https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?feature=shared&t=412

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

[OmegaDPW]

I never fish topwater lures but my wife loves it. She doesn't know any tricks to topwater, so usually just does a cast and retrieve with a few pauses in between. Like anything else with the majority of fishing, the pause is the key. She usually catches more fish than I do dragging around a worm.  

[PaulVE64]

I threw a weightless fluke last year as a topwater.

It did well

[Choporoz]

Never tried straight retrieve.   But 'walking in place' is a little different than regular walking, and can be quite productive.   Over shallow wood, or under bushes, twitches that move your spook back and forth with minimal movement towards you can allow you to work it in the fish's space longer and more effectively than hoping to draw her out.  Nothing really new here...same with poppers and frogs, but it is different than a rhythmic walk back to you

[casts_by_fly]

walking baits have one mode of action and two speeds.  It's walk the dog and fast or faster.  If you slow it down they get time to look at it and decide.  Fast means steady walking at a decent clip.  Faster means as quick as your wrist will take it and that you can maintain the walk.  My only semi exception to this is when I want to work one up under a dock or out around a clump of something on the surface.  Then instead of a steady 1.2.1.2.1.2 cadence I'll give it a 1...2.1...2.1...2 so that it glides a little further on 1 which will let it glide up under a dock or around a grass clump.  Its still steadily moving, but the pace is a little different because I need it to glide a couple times.  

 

There are other things you can do to vary what the bait does in the water, but the retrieve is not it.

[rangerjockey]

39 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

walking baits have one mode of action and two speeds.  It's walk the dog and fast or faster.  If you slow it down they get time to look at it and decide.  Fast means steady walking at a decent clip.  Faster means as quick as your wrist will take it and that you can maintain the walk.  My only semi exception to this is when I want to work one up under a dock or out around a clump of something on the surface.  Then instead of a steady 1.2.1.2.1.2 cadence I'll give it a 1...2.1...2.1...2 so that it glides a little further on 1 which will let it glide up under a dock or around a grass clump.  Its still steadily moving, but the pace is a little different because I need it to glide a couple times.  

 

There are other things you can do to vary what the bait does in the water, but the retrieve is not it.

I guess fish are different everywhere but I've had them hit a walking bait while it's sitting still. 

If I pull it to a likely spot like a tree top or buck brush ect.  I like to just twitch it around the brush.

I'm not in a hurry to pull it away from a likely spot to get it to one less likely.

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, rangerjockey said:

I guess fish are different everywhere but I've had them hit a walking bait while it's sitting still. 

If I pull it to a likely spot like a tree top or buck brush ect.  I like to just twitch it around the brush.

I'm not in a hurry to pull it away from a likely spot to get it to one less likely.

 

True, but if that's what and how I'm fishing that day then I'm going to pick a popper instead of a spook in the first place.  If I'm throwing a spook (or any walking bait which in my case is a sexy dawg), its because I'm covering water and fishing for more aggressive fish.  In that case, its speed that wins for me.

[rangerjockey]

For me a popper doesn't move the water or have the same sound like a spook , vixen, repo man ect. 

If covering water is my goal I'd pick up the plopper.

 

[WRB]

Old School top water techniques when the Zara Spook was designed was cast and let the lure sit still until the splash down ripples disappeared. We call this dead stick. Next was twitch and repeat the dead stick. This is flowed by a pull then let sit followed by another few pulls, let sit. Now walk the dog several feet and let sit with a few twitches. This is followed by walking the dog several feet let rest and repeat.

Today everyone is in a hurry to make the next cast and forgoes all the dying bait fish moves, just walk the dig 1/2 way back,reel fast and make another cast. 

Tom

[casts_by_fly]

55 minutes ago, rangerjockey said:

For me a popper doesn't move the water or have the same sound like a spook , vixen, repo man ect. 

If covering water is my goal I'd pick up the plopper.

 

 

true on the plopper covering more water and I'll swap between them at times.  If its an otherwise 'loud' day like wind, boat wakes, etc I'll go more to the plopper.  If its more still I'm throwing a dawg.  if I'm around a bunch of wood or grass I'm throwing a buzzbait.  And if its too grassy for a buzzbait we're into a toad.  Lots of good topwater options and I love them all.  I should probably dig the torpedo's and devil's horses out for this coming season too.

[Functional]

If I'm fishing a spook I'm fishing it like @WRB. If I need it to pop or anything like that I'm just throwing a popper or a lure that is designed to do what I'm after. 

 

Half the time I get the strikes on a spook in the first few twitches from deadstick before I start walking it in. 

[keagbassr]

6 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I'll give it a 1...2.1...2.1...2 so that it glides a little further on 1 which will let it glide up under a dock or around a grass clump

 If i remember  correctly,In the old days they called this "half-hitching" which enabled the spook to be walked up to and around standing timber and dock posts etc.

[Mr. Aquarium]

One time after fishing during the day I decided to stay after dark. Only had one topwater. It was a spook. Caught a few fish just really slow twitching or straight retrieve! 

[Bazoo]

Thank you all for the suggestions and techniques.

 

@WRB Thank you for sharing, that's some good info there. I was told as a kid to throw a topwater and let it set until the ripples dispersed. I still do that some, but not all the time.

 

I guess on a windy day, or on the river where there is current, letting it set wouldn't do much good?

[rangerjockey]

I don't fish in enough current for it to move the bait so I couldn't say. I would always let it sit for a few seconds.

Wind is your friend with topwater. But you should adjust the size of the bait. 

Just some ripple I usually throw the spook Jr.. or a Sammy. If it's more of a chop the full size spook , Vixen, Shower blow 150 etc.. The idea it that you want them to be able to find the bait.

 

[Bazoo]

8 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

I don't fish in enough current for it to move the bait so I couldn't say. I would always let it sit for a few seconds.

Wind is your friend with topwater. But you should adjust the size of the bait. 

Just some ripple I usually throw the spook Jr.. or a Sammy. If it's more of a chop the full size spook , Vixen, Shower blow 150 etc.. The idea it that you want them to be able to find the bait.

 

That makes sense, thanks.

 

 

I don't throw a spook a lot, I do use the Spit'n Image quite a bit though.

[Bankbeater]

Most of the time I will just walk it back.  If I'm fishing around vegetation I'll stop the retrieve and twitch it a few times to see what happens, then resume walking it.  If I'm around really thick stuff I'll let it sit and move the bait by sweeping my rod back slowly, then let it sit some more.

[RHuff]

On 1/29/2024 at 6:10 AM, Jig Man said:

A long time ago a local spook expert showed a friend and I 5 ways to work a spook.  He said he could work it 17 different ways and would show us 5 more after we mastered the first 5.  I could only get 4 of them so I never got any more lessons.

 

The closest to what you mentioned is to get it pointed at yourself and with the rod pointed down give it a snap.  If done correctly the bait will do a little dive and back up.

 

 

This reminds me of a Bagley Bang-O-Lure