Walkin' The Dog To Hit the Jackpot - Ethan

Jordan and I had used Zara Spooks for a long time for bass and we had lots of action so when we read about Giant Jackpots and other walk-the-dog styles of bait for muskie it was a natural buy. And boy was that the best purchase I made that season!

As soon as possible I added a split ring through the eye which I was told allows for the head to be swung from side to side more easily as well as making it easy to pop the head out of the water making a "pop!" sound and more splash. I only use the split ring on windier days because this is the main time you need the extra splash to attract the muskie's attention, otherwise I just clip onto the normal eye. It is nice, however, to have the flexibility and not have to stop fishing to put one on.

I like medium-heavy rod for working these and I give it nice quick jerks. Try to reel in as little line as possible when you work it. On average you should use one crank of the reel per jerk of the rod. You should eventually be able to "hover" over a certain area where a muskie is holding. Give short, quick jerks with a bit of slack line so that the lure looks like it is looking back and forth but not moving forward. As with all surface lures, vary your retrieve! Go from making it shoot two feet to each side and back to hovering it over a promising looking hole in the weeds. If it looks like there's a follow, which hardly happens at all with this lure because of its action, you should speed up the speed at which it comes in by jerking it quickly and reeling fairly rapidly. Once it gets next to the boat do a "figure-8". You can either do a figure-8 with your rod above water, or with the tip below the water. This is the kind of lure you can just have fun casting in a swimming pool.

Shallow stump fields, weedbeds, sandbars, and any other shallow structure is my favorite hunting grounds. It is possible to have luck over deep water with suspended fish, but don't count on it because it is extremely difficult to locate them.

This lure can be great for working through weeds, if you are careful about where you cast and how you work it. If you can dodge the weeds, you can get some great fish. You can steer your bait by combining a hovering jerk with a hard two-footer. If you are careful, this can work, but you must keep your jerks controlled because if jerked too hard this lure can shoot straight towards you looking very unrealistic.

All topwater baits take extreme will power to not set the hook when you see a fish hit, but it is even harder to do when you're using these lures for muskie. If this is your first experience with surface fishing I can almost guarantee that you might loose your first couple hits but eventually it is easier to control your adrenaline. Another very important thing is that when you see the hit and you think it has it, just keep your lure moving. At first just reel your lure quickly straight in towards you for half a second. If you still haven't felt any weight just continue your retrieve slowly. They often come back for another hit.

When you feel weight make sure you set hard. Not just because a muskie's mouth is bony, but because many walk-the-dog lures are wooden and muskies have teeth! A good sized muskie can sink there teeth right into the wood of these lures, and if you don't set hard enough, the muskie can just be pulled along with the lure instead of having the lure slip forwards and the hooks imbed in its mouth. This happened to me before and it is not a good feeling when the just open up and let go.

The main complaint of people who use this lure is that they loose fish because the fish misses the lure. This is usually due to reeling the bait too far forward too quickly per jerk. Another problem is that it is not very good for night fishing until you get used to it. Muskie have a hard time tracking it down at night unless you slow your retrieve a lot.

Good luck and never give up in your hunt for the elusive muskie!

By the way, if any lure manufacturers read this, please please, design a Spittin' Image for muskie!

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