StutterStep provides subtle, slow-moving ‘tail wagging’ action
Everyone loves a good topwater bite, so knowing how to “walk the dog” is almost mandatory. But what if you could get even more action out of a lure while keeping it in the strike zone?
That’s where the new Bill Lewis StutterStep really shines.
“It’s a new topwater bait: It looks different, and it is different,” Bassmaster Elite Series pro Cliff “Cajun Baby” Crochet said. “It’s totally different from any topwater bait on the market.”
The StutterStep, which honestly looks a lot like a cocahoe mated with a banana, weighs in at an ounce and can be launched to targets— but once in the water it provides different actions for different situations.
“Obviously, you can see the big tail, and that’s the key to one of my favorite retrieves,” Crochet said. “It’s a retrieve we call ‘wag the tail.’
“Throw it out by a piece of cover and with a hard twitch this bait will rotate on its side … and that big tail will come around and kick a lot of water out. Twitch it real hard again, and it’ll come back around again, and that tail will kick a lot of water, cause a lot of commotion.”
When Crochet says the lure “comes around,” he means the lure will turn 180 degrees. It’s just amazing to watch the lure rotate back and forth.
There aren’t huge rattles in the lure to make a lot of noise, but that tail sprays enough water as it rotates to look like a struggling baitfish just waiting to be inhaled by a predator.
But there’s more to this retrieve than just the commotion created as it darts around in circles.
“My favorite thing about that retrieve … is it’s real easy to walk that bait in place,” Crochet explained. “So if you throw it on an isolated piece of cover, that bait is going to stay in a small 1-foot area, twitching after twitch after twitch — it won’t walk back to you.
“The longer you stay in the strike zone, the more bites you get.”
If you are searching for fish and want to cover a lot of water, all you have to do is shoot the lure out and switch up the retrieve.
“… (I)t’s a steady retrieve with a small pop in your line, and that bait will come back and kind of snake and walk back to you,” Crochet said. “It’s a real subtle … retrieve (for) open water — you can cover a lot of water with it.”
Watch the attached video to see the StutterStep in action.
Crochet said he uses Seaguar Senshi mono and Kanzen braid when fishing the lure.
“I haven’t really learned anything about line, whether it be monfilament or braid,” he said. “I throw both ….. I haven’t seen where any one makes a difference.
“Personally, if I’m launching the bait, making long casts, I like 30-, 40-pound braid. If I’m spot-casting at isolated targets, I like mono: It’s a little easier to cast, and gives me a little more reaction time — when that fish bites close to me, it gives me a little room for error with the stretch on the mono.”
