Top-water bassin’ is just one of those things that flat out gets your heart pumpin’! One of the lures that allows the angler to cover a lot of water and make long casts is a walk-the-dog style bait. We’ve been fishing the new Sebile Action First Flat Belly Walker since we got back from ICAST.
This lure carries the moniker, “Action First”, to fit within Patrick Sebile’s latest family of offerings. They all have one thing in common, they were created to be cost effective to the angler. The Flat Belly Walker is no exception as it is expected to retail for about $8.
An interesting take
When we spoke with Patrick, he described the inspiration for this bait as having come from watching surfers as they cut through the waves, sometimes in long lazy turns, other times in frantic tighter turns.
The idea was to create a bait that would accomplish both. For that he used a surf board, more specifically, the bottom of the board as the design key for his new Walker.
This feature is the one that distinguishes this lure from others in its class. Of course, the question then becomes, does it accomplish what it’s supposed to? Only way we know to find out is get it on the water to see for ourselves!
The rig that we chose to throw this bait on is a 7’ medium heavy rod with a casting reel spooled with 15# co-polymer line. Furthermore, we are using a snap on the Walker even though it comes with an oval split ring.
Our first cast was in shallow water so we could start messing with retrieves to see what we could make the lure do.
The Action
A quick snap of the rod tip and the Walker scoots to one side, gliding about 14 inches before coming to a stop. Another snap and it does the same to the opposite side. Bottom line, a slow cadence will give you a wide, lazy walk with the bait coming to a rest.
Conversely, employing an up-tempo retrieve will have this bait acting so frantic it’ll make expresso nervous. At a complete rest, the Walker sits tail down at about a 60 degree angle.
This allows fish to take the bait without having to come completely to the surface. However, it also means that you need to pay attention to where your casting as it will pick up grass that is a couple inches below the surface.
The Flat Belly Walker also comes with a loud rattle system, two sharp, stout hooks, decent color patterns and a flat spot on the nose of the bait that spits a little bit of water as your retrieving the bait.
It is 4.25 inches long, weighs about 3/4 of an ounce for long casts and has a shape that is wider in front, narrower in the rear.
As with any walk the dog style lure, the key to getting bites is finding what retrieve the fish are wanting at that particular moment. Not to mention where those bites are coming from as they relate to water conditions, how tight to cover you need to fish the bait to get bit, which side of that cover is producing the bites etc.
During our time with the Flat Belly Walker, we’ve grown to appreciate what this bait is capable of. It’s very easy to fish for one thing. We’ve actually taught some relatively inexperienced anglers how to walk the dog with this bait. Most of whom have picked it up pretty quickly in our opinion.
We’ve used the Walker during the morning through O dark thirty and everything in-between. At times it has been as productive as other, similar baits that we throw. Other times, somewhat less so.
We don’t know as of this moment what color options will be available so we are waiting on that.
For us, usability is always one of the features that we consider when we’re fishing a new lure. The Flat Belly Walker is very user friendly with a learning curve that is as small as any for this type of bait.
Summing it up
The best way to describe our thoughts on the Walker is that, with this bait, Sebile has taken a proven lure style and action, tweaked it in a way that makes it simple, efficient and productive without getting hung up on adding bells and whistles that could make the bait more attractive appearance wise but not necessarily more functional.
It kinda reminds me of my first new car. Nothing spectacular or edgy, just solid as well as dependable for its intended purpose.
Let’s face it, the more features, the more that can potentially go wrong. Not to mention that losing something in this price range due to an errant cast, line breakage or other unforeseen hazard is a pill easier swallowed than kissing a $30 or $40 plug goodbye given the same circumstances.
It’s always nice to find a lure that can serve a specific purpose for a pretty minimal investment even if it falls just a little shy of ideal.
| Sebile Action First Flat Belly Walker | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |    |
| A solid, no nonsense bait | |
See ya’ on the water …
