When we got done with our review of the Culprit Ultimate Topwater Shad, one of the things that “the Kid” and I discussed was the fact
Shad Walker In Package
that this style of bait was going to generate some more entrants because it addressed a new niche market. Sure enough, Picasso Lures has come out with the Shad Walker.
This is a similarly styled bait but uses a more realistic body profile and colors. This bait is slightly longer at 4 inches but weighs the same as the Culprit at .5 ounces. Of course we had to get some of these and see how they performed considering we still have the opportunity to catch some fish on top-water lures and there is still plenty of lily pads, matted grass and other inviting areas to throw a bait like this.
So out to the lake we go, the Shad Walker tied on a frog rod with braided line, looking forward to putting the Picasso through its paces. Sure enough, the bait casts just the way you would expect it to. Due to its size and weight, you can get good distance on your casts but not great.
Know this going in and you will position yourself properly to your target. We always like to use lures right out of the package without making any modifications to them, at least initially. That way we experience them the way they were designed to be thrown and can assess the strengths and weaknesses as they are from the factory.
The hooks are sharp out of the box but have a little bit of distance between themselves and the body of the bait. This could be to facilitate good hook-ups but it also makes this bait a little less weedless. You can indeed pick up slop which we found out first hand. However, we didn’t get any snags to speak of. We were a little bit cautious not to throw this bait in the middle of stick-ups. I think this is the one area that we had any misgivings casting the Shad Walker. On top of pads, grass or other floating gunk, there wasn’t a problem as the bait does a very good job of landing in the right position.
Top View
Where the Picasso seemed most at home were areas that had weeds growing to the surface but still had pockets of some open water interspersed. The Shad Walker is very easy to walk-the-dog and probably comes closer to a spook type action than any soft-plastic, double hooked bait that we have fished to date. This was a pleasant surprise and made fishing with this lure just plain fun.
We fished the Walker side by side against our favorite frogs to see if the fish would prefer one over the other. Our experiences so far have been positive in that the fish seems to prefer this bait over a frog in open water with it coming in a close second when fished over slop. Our hook-up ratio has been fairly consistent since we’ve been using this bait at just about 75%. I don’t consider that bad at all for a lure of this style.
Does all this mean that I’m gonna’ give away all my frogs? Absolutely not. But it does mean that I have another tool that I will be using on a regular basis when the fish are unwilling to hit a frog and I need to fish in the same area.
| Picasso Shad Walker | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| Fantastic bait that needs to be in your tackle box | |
See ya’ on the water …