How do you walk the dog with a lure and what type of lure should I use that will give me the best results? * subject is supposed to be WALK the dog...

Good Question! I'm guessing you would use a topwater lure.Maybe somebody else could answer this I'd like to know myself.
Sam, Lycoming County North Central PA NAFC Life Member ,Angler Legacy Ambassador

Zara spooks and like lures, you can use poppers too. Any floating stick minnow bait (Rapala, Rebel) works also. You can also walk the dog with suspending minnow baits also. If you have a pool you can use to practice walking the suspending baits and get your cadence down.

Walking the dog, requires a cadence of rod tip twitching to get the lure to turn and glide side to side. When the lure is very far, you require a more aggressive rod tip twitch. As the lure gets closer and closer, you can ease up on it.

Practice practice practice. It may be easier to see it done than to be told how. Try asking someone at your local sport shop or try to google walk the dog. You may find a video. If all else fails ask somebody the next time yer out fishing, it's a very common technique. Good luck!!!
The Muskies are coming Hooray Hooray!!!!

Practice practice practice. It may be easier to see it done than to be told how. Try asking someone at your local sport shop or try to google walk the dog. You may find a video. If all else fails ask somebody the next time yer out fishing, it's a very common technique. Good luck!!!
The Muskies are coming Hooray Hooray!!!!

The easiest one I've found is the zara swayback spook. It almost does it all by itself.

I have a video on this that demonstrates exactly how to do this as well as articles in the forums.

Walk The Dog

Northeast Bass Fishing

For me when i use topwater lures to walk the dog,i use them in two ways.

The 1st one would be to keep your rod- at  12 o'clock so that when you twitch the rod back and forth the lures lip pops off the water

The 2nd would be to keep the rod at 7 o'clock and twitch it that way and get the lures lip to sink a bit,creating a spash when walking it

 

Works for me.you just have to get a feel for it yourself ,it dont take long to figure it out...

 

Zara Spooks and Poe's Jackpot lures seem to be the easiest to work correctly. Another thing to consider is the rod you will be using. I find that shorter rods tend to be easier for getting the correct cadence. Also, having a rod with a stiff backbone and just a little give at the tip tends to help out a lot. A 6 foot medium power, fast action rod is my preferred choice for larger lures like the Spook. For smaller lures, you may even find a 5-6" rod to be ideal.

Good point about rod selection, forgot about that. Remember to feel the weight of the fish before setting the hook. The consequences can be painful.

It has been my experience that the pain (and usually some suffering) are experienced by nearby anglers, not the hook setter himself. This is one of the reasons I am such a big fan of braid. A little twitch will do! Tom

 

Fishin' fool in NE Illinois

Oh, and one more thing none of us mentioned. Do not use a reel loaded with fluorocarbon to walk the dog with any surface lure. Fluoro tends to sink, and the more line you have out, the more it will weigh down whatever you're casting. I tend to launch a bomb past my target and walk the lure back to the desired spot. I have tried this with fluoro, just playing around, and it just makes the lure dive forward in straight spurts. It doesn't look like anything that is alive. I use magnathin for most applications and it works very well for topwater fishing.

Are folks still using this method? Have the techniques changed??

I still walk the dog. For topwater lures I like a 6'6 MH rod w/ a fast tip. I use a 6.4:1 baitcaster and mono, cause it floats.

You could also try waxing the line to help it float .

Pete yes it is a deadly tactic, ONE thing you may want to do is open the hook gape a bit on the two hooks that ride to the side of the bait or put one size bigger hooks on .

twitch pause let lure glide on semi slack line real in slack repeat

Boy, who blew the dust off of this old topic?! Must have been a slow day on the old N.A.F.C. website!

Sorry this offends you, QC. You see, some of these old topics have interest to the membership. But I guess you know about that, right?

Turnip...walking the dog is even easier to do if you make your mono big, I like 20lb. test...it floats even better than say 10lb. or 12lb.