There are now many different types of tackle available for fishing in all conditions. Also, anglers are pleased with a huge selection of lures, which are overflowing with specialized stores. An honorable place among spinning lures was taken by walkers, with the help of which difficult parts of water bodies are fished. In almost all cases, they bring very good results. The main thing is to take a responsible approach to the choice of the bait and the place of fishing, as well as to its very process.
What is Walker, its features
Walkers are volumetric lures designed for catching predators in the upper water layer. They are most often used in "difficult" places, namely in areas with abundant vegetation, or other underwater obstacles.
Their closest relatives are poppers, which are also designed for fishing near the surface of the water. In contrast, walkers do not have a recess in the bow that allows the bait to flop and make sounds attractive to predators. Also, in the un-equipped bow part of the walker, the wobbler is equipped with a blade that helps the bait sink to a depth. Walkers' nose is mostly streamlined and bulging. Some models have small notches that are much smaller than those of the poppers.
Volker has a peculiar body shape. In most cases, it is elongated and curved, somewhat similar in shape to a regular banana. In this case, the "back" is concave, and the "belly", on the contrary, is convex. Thanks to this shape, the bait prowls from one side to the other during the posting. During these zig-zag movements, the walker's head is under water. The body can be positioned at any angle relative to the surface of the water, but the tail is always lower. The position can be both horizontal and almost vertical. The degree of inclination depends on how the center of gravity is adjusted in each specific model.
To make it clearer what kind of game the walker shows during the posting, you can remember how a snake or already moves in the water. The bait practically repeats the movements of reptiles, leaving a kind of trail on the surface. The fact is that during the reeling and pulling the bait does not go in a straight line, but goes to the side. While overcoming the resistance of the water, it turns in the other direction. The magnitude of the range of motion depends on many factors. This is influenced by the size and shape of the walker, the location of the center of gravity, the angle of inclination, the speed of the drive and jerks.
Who can be caught on the walker
With the help of this type of bait, they fish the most common predators in our reservoirs. First of all, these include:
- zander;
- perch;
- pike;
- asp.
The main trophy when using wolkers is, of course, pike... In places where this type of bait is used, pike is a regular visitor. In areas overgrown with water lilies and algae, the predator usually arranges an underwater safari and patiently waits for its victims in order to get plenty of fry.
Very often the hook comes across and perchand this is not surprising at all. The number of this predator in our water bodies is very large, and its interest in artificial baits always makes spinning players happy. When a perch flock appears in the fishing zone, the fisherman only needs to have time to pull the bait with the catch out of the water and make a new cast. The perch greedily grabs a wolf swimming by and, without knowing it, becomes a victim. In this case, the size of the fish can be almost the same as the bait.
As for the larger representative of the perch family, walleye, then the situation is a little more complicated. You can count on catching this predator mainly at night, when it comes to the shore in shallow waters in order to profit from fry.
Much less often hooks asp... Basically, the activity of this cautious predator was observed when fishing on the rifts.
Very often a perch is caught on the hook
Walker posting
When fishing with volkers, the fisherman has the opportunity to experiment and, based on the experience gained, choose the most suitable view wiring for each specific reservoir. The fact is that walkers are comparatively large and weighty baits. Thanks to this, the fisherman can easily perform long casts. For each model, you should select your own lead, the strength and amplitude of jerks, the duration of pauses, so that the artificial fish behaves most attractively to predators.
Three types of wiring are most commonly used:
- monotonous;
- alternation of several jerks with pauses;
- torn wiring.
The first type of wiring is carried out with jerks of the same strength and frequency. With its help, exploratory fishing is usually carried out, since it allows you to quickly fish large promising areas. It should be remembered that the predator does not always successfully attack the bait and quite often misses. Therefore, if after several casts there are no bites, you should continue fishing. A huge plus of walkers is that the predator, swimming up to him, goes close to the surface of the water and is clearly visible to the fisherman. In this regard, you can find out about his presence in the fished area even without biting.
The second drive is performed by alternating several jerks with small pauses. It is usually used to catch predators that were found in the fished area using the first method. Here it is better to diversify the movements of the walker with jerks of different strength and amplitude, as well as stops of different duration.
The third type - the so-called "torn" wiring - is used in areas of reservoirs with dense vegetation and clear water windows. After casting, two or three jerks are made, followed by a long pause. Here the main task of the fisherman is to "stretch" the duration of the drive for a long time. There is not much room for the bait to move, so it should be kept in clean areas as long as possible. Pauses last for several seconds, and after them there are jerks from side to side.
How to make a walker with your own hands
Making a fishing walker with your own hands requires patience and a little free time. As for financial costs, they will be minimal.
It is better to make balsa bait, but in order to fill your hand, a regular pine block is perfect. This material is available, so you won't have to look for it for a long time.
- Having familiarized yourself with the walker forms that are now on sale in fishing shops, you can use a knife to give the workpiece the necessary contours. It is recommended to leave something like a handle to make it easier to work. In the future, it can be easily cut off, and the cut place can be sanded;
- After giving the workpiece the necessary contours, it is sanded with sandpaper, and all irregularities are smoothed out;
- Next, the workpiece must be impregnated with linseed oil so that it does not absorb moisture. To do this, you need to put the walker in a bowl of oil and put it in a pot of water. In a water bath, the future bait should languish for about two hours. After that, the workpiece must be wiped off and put in a dark, cool place for about two days. During this time, the oil crystallizes inside;
- A frame with three loops is made of steel wire (for two tees and a carabiner). The edges of the folds can be wound with thread and impregnated with super glue for reliability. A longitudinal cut is made with a metal saw at the bottom of the walker to place the frame;
- You can make the bait noisy. This will require a piece of tube approximately 2 cm long and a small section. Two or three beads are poured into it, and the edges are clamped with pliers;
- The places for the rattle and the load in the cut are slightly expanded with a knife. The weight should be shifted towards the tail so that it is below the head in the water. For this, conventional lead weights weighing about 2 g are used;
- All the necessary components are inserted into the cut and then filled with epoxy glue. After drying, the surface of the bait is sanded and covered with a layer of primer or paint;
- Next, the walker is painted in colors that the master himself will choose. It all depends on imagination and personal preference.
When painting, do not rush and give each layer time to dry. Only in this case will the coating last a long time.
Here I will try to tell you in detail about making a simple walker, which can be very useful when fishing active perchchasing fry to the surface. I must immediately clarify:
- firstly, that I began to make the bait out of necessity - there were no suitable walkers in the local store, but mine. I slightly restored this walker, tinted it with nail polish and took it as a sample, making one similar bait, which I tested last time on a fishing trip.
- Secondly, I already had experience in making homemade surface baits. I have made about the same wooden baits before, only not walkers, but poppers, on which the fish nibbled.
- Thirdly, I love working with wood, I am fond of carving, and therefore I have everything I need (jigsaw, cutters, drills, a hacksaw with a fine tooth) for making wooden baits.
- Fourthly, I ask you not to judge strictly for the quality of painting the bait: what I don’t like and don’t know how to do well is to paint and paint, therefore the baits are painted and painted, frankly, it does not matter. But I think that there are not so many fans of painting among the fish, and, besides, if you look at the paintings of some artists, they can also be called daubs, and, nevertheless, they are considered real masterpieces of world art.
Having drawn the contours of the future bait with a pencil, I sawed out the workpiece with a jigsaw and rounded the shapes with a jamb, and then processed it with sandpaper. In the lower part, with a hacksaw for metal, I made a longitudinal gash along the entire length to a depth of 3 (in the tail part) to 10 mm (in the middle part) to insert metal reinforcement there. It was bent from a steel wire. First, I bent the central ring, inserted the wire into the cut in such a way that this ring for attaching the lower T-piece was in the right place, and then I marked the places where the wire was bent in front and behind the bait. I made the rings with the help of a special "machine", which I made for making leashes. I already talked about it here.
The result is this:
I inserted the wire into place and the workpiece looked like a real bait, only without the hooks.
Now you need to fix this wire with rings firmly in the body of the bait. I did this with the usual Moment glue, but I did not just fill it with glue, but mixed it with filler - ordinary very small birch sawdust that I specially collected when I cut the workpiece from the board with a jigsaw. It is most convenient to do this if you clamp the workpiece in a vice.
I squeezed out a little glue, sprinkled it with sawdust and after the glue started to thicken a little, mixed it with the filler and tamped this mixture tightly in the cut where the wire reinforcement was inserted. It took about 20 minutes, since I repeated this procedure several times, ensuring that each layer hardened well.
In this form, I left the bait overnight in order for the glue to dry well and firmly glue the wood to the metal.
The next day, I cleaned the workpiece with sandpaper, to make it look more like a fish, I inserted "eyes" - two copper capsules from a rifle cartridge, and into the lower part of the bait's body - a lead load - a piece of lead from a poaching net, which I somehow accidentally picked up on my spinning.
Here you can see well both the sinkers and the primers, which are inserted instead of the eyes.
This is a bottom view, with a lead weight inserted and wire reinforcement glued into the cut.
And here you can see how these "eyes" are inserted from the capsules. He simply hammered them into a tree with a hammer, having previously cut a round groove with a narrow semicircular cutter to a depth of 3-4 mm in the size of the capsule. And under the lead, I drilled a recess just behind the half-ring intended for the lower threesome. And the "eyes" and the load were also put on the "Moment" glue.
Pay attention to how the front ring is inserted: not in the "nose" of the bait, but slightly below. It is very important. During the posting, the bait will not bury itself in the water, but, on the contrary, will stick the front part to the surface.
I started painting by painting all the bait with silver paint. I kept it from last year, when it was used to paint metal parts.
Volker is a type of bait most often used for pike fishing. Possesses unique game when moving through water, which resembles the yaw of a dog while walking. The style of guidance - intermittent reeling with jerks of the rod in different directions - forces the bait to raise the "nose", then dive and scour the sides. Thus, the behavior of the bait is similar to that of a wounded fish and very often causes the pike to attack. This method of wiring is called wolk to dog - dog walk, hence the name wolker (walker). It is probably too early to draw conclusions about the rating of these lures - not all anglers are familiar with them yet.
This characteristic behavior of the volker lure gives it somewhat unusual shape... It differs from others in its narrow nose, the same tail and the front part sloping forward. Due to the narrow nose during the jerk retrieval, it prowls from side to side, thanks to the bevel, it was able to dive. This yaw and dive excites the predator so much that it is unable to remain calm and rushes into the attack.
There are many varieties of bait called walker, and it is overconfident to advise. It is necessary to try many of them, in accordance with the peculiarities of reservoirs, try many ways of wiring and, accordingly, playing baits. What can be said for sure - the pace of the drive should be as low as possible with frequent long stops. When walking, the walker should slide along the sides, its nose should constantly jump out of the water, and its tail oscillate up and down.
In addition, feather edges and foam ornaments are used, which often makes the wolker more attractive when fishing.
Fishing technique
There are two types of bait:
These two types differ in size. Dot marks are noticeably smaller than local ones. Fast postings with point wobblers do not work, they are characterized by impudent petty play on the surface... Locals behave differently, they start up very quickly, but it is almost impossible to make them play in a limited space. It is believed that volkers are the next generation of baits, with their appearance, poppers and crawlers will soon disappear into oblivion.
Another feature of wolkers is that it is very difficult to cut them off, and if there is a shot, the wolkers will certainly float up and it will be easy to get them.
About wiring technique
Each bait should have its own approach. When one species of wolker is mastered, it is not difficult to switch to another. Just need adapt to changed conditions.
The volker bait wiring looks like this. Throw the bait and wait for the circles raised by it to disperse, then make a short dash and pull up a half turn of the reel handle. Next is a short stop and repeat.
Upon arrival at the reservoir, we set up a localizer and start fishing.
In summer, the pike mostly stands in the thickets; the windows of the water tree are attractive for it. If such circumstances are found, it is necessary to put a point source and the result will not be long in coming.
If the pike is completely passive, you can try the attractant, lubricating the bait with it, perhaps this way it will be possible to wake up the predator.
Fishing practice
Spinningists often have to deal with a situation where hours of posting along reeds or thickets of grass did not work. The pike in ambush does not always react to the bait. Even a predator hiding in thickets in shallow water can watch the bait for hours and not touch it.
Yes, and it is very difficult to hold a wobbler at a depth of 10 centimeters in this place, although the popper remains, but sometimes it often happens that the noise it makes only alarms and frightens the fish, which attracts it. This is where the time comes to take advantage of silent baits. The peculiarity of the volker is the "mustache" he creates during the posting. Of course, if you drag a stick through the water, there will also be "mustaches", but in the wolker they are accompanied by irregular jerks and throws to the side. In combination with the "mustache", such a game will wake up a dead predator.
Volker can be used when fishing not only on narrow streams, but also on wide rifts and stretches, passing along thickets of grass or reeds. The walker demonstrates all its advantages when fishing shallow bays with a minimum depth. Situations are not uncommon when the only effective bait is the wolf.
Volkers are manufactured by many well-known fishing companies: Strike Pro, Owner, Megabass, Rapala, Excalibur. There is no point in rating individual types of lures or manufacturers, all produced wolkers catch well. The choice remains with the fisherman, and it is due to a number of factors and their combination - weather conditions, season, lighting, time of day, and so on.
The main targets of volker fishing are pike and perch. However, I had to deal with the capture and chub.
Volker is by no means a long-range lure, but usually a cast of 35-40 meters is enough for successful fishing. Unlike other lures, the size of the walker often does not determine the type of predator that will react to the bait. Often on small wolkers you can catch a rather large pike, and on a 12 cm projectile no end to perch... When fishing for grass pike, the size of the bait is often secondary, it is important to hold the walker in the immediate vicinity of the ambush site.
As for the colors, they are not so important. When the bait moves on the surface, the attack of the predator comes from the depths, and against the background of bright light it looks just like a silhouette.
Tackle
The use of a long, durable leash is due to the fact that pike often attacks ahead and there are frequent leash cuts, even 40 cm long. Another technique used by a pike is to catch in pursuit (and usually from behind and from the side), while the bait is swallowed very deep and a short leash may suffer. The attack of a predator in a jump from above looks very impressive. But this beautiful sight usually remains ineffective - the hooks are from below and the animal manages to throw out the bait.
Fishing on a walker will give everyone incomparable pleasure. It remains to wish every success to the fishing enthusiasts. No tail for you, no scales!
Stickbaits or Walkers cannot be classified as too simple baits. On the one hand, everything is simple: if you grasp the basics, or even better, and some subtleties of the wiring, the bait will play, drawing a characteristic "snake" on the surface.
That is, the key factor here, in theory, should be the preparation of the spinning player, and not the model of the bait itself. But in reality, everything happens a little differently - some lures catch fish consistently, others are unstable or even occasionally. In addition, some lures are clearly better at catching pike, the second - perch, and the third - asp. In other words, the choice of a specific model of the bait plays no less important role than the mastery of its animation technique. 
The catchability of the bait and the "demand" for some specific models from certain types predator are due to the specifics of the bait game. And it, in turn, depends on the shape, centering, features of the location of the load, etc. Even two completely identical-looking baits can have different game, at the same time differing in catching power and “target audience” among potential hunting objects. Therefore, creating a catchy stickbait is no easier, if not more difficult, than making a catchy wobbler. Not all firms succeed in this, but some do it very successfully. One of the firms topping this list is Megabass. The "hobbyhorse" of this company is various innovative systems of loading, balancing and stabilization, so it is easy to guess that the engineers of the firm can achieve any behavior from the bait.
Consider three stickbait models from the popular DOG-X family. 
Actually, DOG-X. Under this name, two modifications of lures come out: SLIDING and WALKING, which, despite their common name, are so different that they can be considered not modifications, but completely different lures. Let's start with the similarities between these two stickbaits. The first thing that catches your eye at the first casts is the outstanding casting characteristics: even with a slight stroke of the rod, such a lure can be sent over a considerable distance. In this sense, it will be very difficult for them to find competitors. However, this flight range is not a product of magic or magic: if you look at the bait calmly floating on the surface of the water, it becomes clear where it comes from. Both lures in a stationary state take a vertical position like a float, which indicates the concentration of the load in the tail. Hence the casting distance - the lure flies like a dart, the tail part plays the role of a heavy tip, and the bow (together with the line), in fact, is a stabilizer. Such centering, by the way, affects not only the range, but also the accuracy of the cast: both lures fly in a strictly rectilinear, in terms of trajectory, they do not have a tendency to make unexpected turns to the right or left, and also to enter a spin. These are very important qualities for surface baits. Fishing is often carried out sparingly, according to the discovered "cauldrons", and here the opportunity to send the bait not somewhere into the distance, but to the intended point, comes to the fore. 
Then there were the differences. The DOG-X SLIDING is equipped with a special balancing ball located at the front of the lure, but not far from the middle. It is hardly possible "by eye" to determine all the nuances of the operation of this system, but the main thing is not the physics of the process, but what it gives.
And this system gives smooth, sliding movements of the bait on the surface. This is the nature of the movements, apparently, and laid the designers in this bait, since "SLIDING" means "sliding" in translation. So far we have only managed to catch perches with this lure, but if we draw analogies with other, more proven lures, we can assume that DOG-X SLIDING is an asp stickbait. Asp is usually very partial to sliding, and not jumping-gurgling surface lures. We caught perch with him in those periods when the noisier baits for some reason stopped working. That is, it makes sense to try this stickbait during periods of some attenuation of the surface activity of the perch.
The exact opposite of DOG-X SLIDING is the DOG-X WALKING stickbait, which also lives up to its name: "WALKING" means "walking." He has the main ball in the tail of the bait. Perhaps it's the lightweight front that gives this stickbait such mobility. The bait not only actively rushes from side to side, but at the same time also gurgles with the formation of fountains of splashes, and also rattles balls inside the body, so much so that you can hear it from thirty to forty meters. Typical "aggressor"!
Such a bait is capable of collecting active perch from a rather large area, and it also attracts pike. DOG-X WALKING can also be used when hunting asp. The signal to install this bait should be a burst of activity of this fish. The efficiency of such fishing will be higher than with the "quieter" counterparts of this stickbait. Only for asp it is better to use not an “acidic” color (like our sample), but a more “calm”, natural one. It is desirable that the bait is translucent. 
Another use of such lures for asp fishing is intense excitement. With strong excitement, the asp is not so shy, besides, it will be much easier for fish to notice such a bait in such conditions. GIANT DOG-X. Here is the third bait from the same family. The name speaks for itself - this stickbait is noticeably larger than its brothers in the series. It is twice as heavy, that is, it weighs not 7, but 14 g and has a length of 98 mm. If we are not talking about catching bass or sea \u200b\u200bfish, but about fishing in our reservoirs, this bait can be safely attributed to pike. And here the decisive factor is not only the size, but also the nature of the movements. If you try to portray the familiar wiring with this stickbait, you will most likely fail. The GIANT DOG-X only "responds" to very low frequency wiring. If you "fall into the rhythm" of this posting, the bait begins to make long jerks from side to side. By the nature of the movements, GIANT DOG-X can rather be attributed to an "intermediate link" between volkers and jerkbaits.
Hence, the object of the hunt is the pike. Perhaps this bait will also work for large asp. It was possible to seduce perch with this stickbait: in the vastness of reservoirs, a large bait is often more effective than a small one. 
Each of the considered lures is highly individual. This applies to the applied posting, and the movements achieved during posting, and the primary objects of fishing. But under certain conditions, all of them are suitable for fishing our main "stickbait" fish: perch, asp, pike. And if you use each of these lures at the right time and in the right place, they will find their fish. And finally, a few words about "the prose of our life." Not all fishermen have the ability or desire to fish with lures of this price category: what if it suddenly stops? Therefore, I would like to clarify. Lures, as a rule, are lost not on the fish, but on the hooks, or they are shot back during casts.
When the bait is superficial, it will be able to find its "hold" only on the surface. In addition, all three lures are floating, and if they are shot on the cast, they can be found, since most often fishing is not from the shore, but from the boat. As practice has shown, the percentage of loss of surface baits is not much higher than zero, so worries are unnecessary. Most likely, the high-quality stickbait you purchased from a well-known Japanese manufacturer will serve you for many years and will catch a lot of fish.
How to make a walker with your own hands? To begin with, the walker differs from the wobbler by the absence of a blade in front. Therefore, the easiest way to make a walker with your own hands is to saw off the blade from the wobbler. Walker is a surface bait and, unlike a wobbler, does not make diving movements, but goes along the surface in a zigzag manner. Naturally, by sawing off the blade from the wobbler, it is not always possible to get the desired game of the resulting walker. Therefore, let's move on to a completely hand-made and self-made walker.
1. Let's cut out and sandpaper the shape of the future walker. How to do it - it was described in the heading. Draw the shape of the future walker as you wish. The head should be wider than the tail. The back is slightly concave, the abdomen is slightly convex. In the lower part, we make a longitudinal cut in the center of the fish. All this has already been described and is shown in the figure below for clarity.
In the head part we will make a through transverse hole. We select the thickness of the drill (and, accordingly, the size of the hole) so that a metal ball or a round lead sinker can freely dangle in the resulting hole. This is to give the walker the desired play on the water.
Next, we make a wire frame and insert it into the cut. I remind you that all this has already been described in, but for clarity, I will show another option from knitting wire. We twist the loop at one end of the wire and insert it into the cut of the bow of the fish.
At a distance of about 1/3 from the head of the workpiece, we make a loop (without twisting, the main thing is that the loop sticks out of the cut by about 0.4 - 0.5 mm.) Next, we withdraw the wire along the cut to the back of the walker, outline where to make the back a loop, twist it and bite off the excess wire with pliers.
For now, remove the wire from the cut in the back and drill a couple of holes or one, as in the picture above. They are needed to load the future walker, but more on that below. Put the wire frame back in place and get this look.
Now we throw our fish into a jar of drying oil for a couple of hours, take it out and dry it, hanging it on the balcony or in another convenient way. This takes about 1-2 days. Then we glue one "eye socket". I used a plastic furniture plug for this.
If the diameter of the plug is too large and the edges go beyond the dimensions of the fish itself, it doesn't matter - the plastic is easily cut with scissors to the desired diameter. We glue one hole with glue with a plug. After the glue has dried (5-10 minutes), put a metal ball or round sinker through the free hole.
We seal the remaining hole with another furniture plug and let the glue dry. Do not turn the fish over so that the ball inside does not stick to the walls. As a result, after the performed manipulations, the ball inside the hole sealed on both sides freely dangles.
We collect water in the bathroom, take several weights, different in weight, but fit into the holes drilled in the back of the fish from below and go to check the buoyancy of our future walker. Having lowered the workpiece into the water, we look at its position in the water. In general, the position of the walker in the water can be either horizontal or at an angle ( top part above the bottom), reaching completely vertical position at 90 degrees. What to be your walker - you decide. To achieve the position you need in the water, you guessed it, you can insert into the tail holes - a sinker of the required weight. Having picked up the necessary sinkers, let the fish dry out of the water and glue the sinkers in their places with glue for a moment with transparent or super glue. Fill the cut with PVA glue mixed with sawdust.
Let the glue dry, remove the protruding pieces of glue and unevenness with a knife and sandpaper. Now you can prime. For this, both an automobile primer and a construction one are used. I did not become clever and dipped the fish into a can of paint, waited for the leftovers to drain and hung the fish by the ear in the tail on a carnation. During the first twenty minutes, he controlled the process, removing drops of paint from the eyes on the fish with a wooden stick and a cloth. Here's what happened.
After the paint had dried, I processed the workpiece with sandpaper (zero), thus removing all the irregularities and roughness and proceeded to painting. About what paints to use and the painting process itself - described in Let me just remind you that the main thing in painting is to have eyes. Paint everything else as you like. It is not so important for a predator what color of the side of our fish and what stripes it has on its back. The main thing is the size and play of our lure in the water. After staining, varnish the fish with three to four coats of varnish. I ended up with this walker.
P / S
In fact, along the fish (from the back inside the body), it is advisable to make a void and also put a metal ball. This will give our walker good aerodynamic properties when casting. This can be achieved by drilling a hole in the back, inserting any suitable metal or plastic tubeby inserting the ball and sealing the hole. The main thing is for the ball to move inside the fish along its body. While the ball at the head will move across. But this is up to you and your imagination. Go for it! And a rich catch!