New Savage Gear Surf Walker 2.0 surface lures info/review - all under £12, my growing obsession (ignore if my working with Savage Gear bothers you)
I liked the idea of the previous generation (and slight mouthful of a name) Savage Gear Sandeel Surf Walker surface lures more than the actual lures themselves. I found the sinking versions to be pretty consistent casters, but I couldn’t say the same about the floating versions save for the little 125mm when it was introduced a fair bit later than the others. I liked the shape, profile, different sizes and weights, and I liked the idea of what they could do for me - but I just didn’t love them. Please read no further if my working with Savage Gear continues to bother you because I will never be able to convince people like you to trust me anyway, but I’m the same obsessed angler as I ever was, and all things fishing continue to obsess me. If you are interested then please read on and I will try to explain my growing obsession with these reworked versions. Yes I can get these lures for nothing because of my work with Savage Gear, but there simply aren’t enough big bass in our waters for me to obsess about various lures which I am not seriously interested in or which I don’t think can do a job for me.
Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm F17g (floating), Atherina colour
I got wind a fair while back that my hard lure wizard friend Markos Vidalis over in Greece was going to rework the Sandeel Surf Walker lures, and that they were also going to be renamed the Surf Walker 2.0. Fairly early on Markos sent me some samples of the little 12.5cm/9.5g Floating, the 15.5cm/17g Floating and the 15.5cm/26.5g Sinking versions to play with and see what I thought. There are a few different design changes which include changing the position of the eye and reworking the internal weight system, plus some other subtle things which aren’t going to be so obvious. Straight away it was very apparent how much better these samples were casting, indeed it was almost obscene how far the 15.5cm/26.5g Sinking was going, and how well it cut through the wind with that aerodynamic shape. A while later the biggest 18cm/29g Floating and 18cm/42.5g Sinking samples arrived, but it wasn’t until a fair bit further down the line with all these Surf Walker 2.0 surface lures that the lightbulb finally went off in my head. I got back from my trip to Portugal where I had fished with the two 18cm sizes a lot, and it finally banged home to me how “complete” this range of surface lures is. Allow me to explain………….
Me banging the Surf Walker 2.0 18cm F29g (floating) out on the Penn Conflict XR Inshore 862MH 8’6’’ Max 45g (review to come) - it goes!
Like many of you I am sure, I have a propensity towards bass fishing lures which cast well. I don’t always need distance of course, but I often fish into headwinds or crosswinds, and I see no reason not to be clipping on the ability to cover a good amount of water when I turn to a hard lure. Whether that hard lure is meant to fish on the surface or sub-surface is a choice we make when we are out fishing - but I far prefer the lure if it casts well and doesn’t tumble around etc. Bloody hell these reworked Surf Walker 2.0 lures all cast like missiles, so I will explain why I now see these five different lures as a kind of warm and fuzzy “surface lure family”. I had no idea what the retail prices would be until I saw them starting to appear in the UK, so I am really pleased to see that these new surface lures come in at under £12. These are the specs of these new, reworked Surf Walker 2.0 lures:
Surf Walker 2.0 12.5cm F9.5g (floating), BR Mullet colour
Let’s take the three Floating models to start with because I guess we are almost conditioned to believe and understand that surface lures need to float (they don’t, but we will get to that later on). Now that Markos has ironed out a few niggles, these new Surf Walker 2.0 12.5cm, 15.5cm and 18cm Floating all cast incredibly well. You obviously need to take into account the different sizes and weights and applicable lure rod casting weights which will then get the best out of them, but these are now what I would call “very true” casting surface lures. If you can cast okay and you know how to play around a bit with different drop lengths and rod speeds for different lures then it’s pretty amazing how well these Floating versions go out. For sure the smallest 12.5cm at 9.5g isn’t going to cast as far as the larger 15.5cm/17g and 18cm/29g versions, but that’s simply a matter of physics. For a little 9.5g surface lure the 12.5cm Surf Walker 2.0 casts really well though, then the larger 15.5cm/17g seriously goes out. Bearing in mind how different it is when you cast lures of a greater volume - hard lures - to lures of a lesser volume - metals - on a rod where you can properly wind the 18cm/29g up, it’s impossible not to giggle at the water you can cover with this thing.
Surf Walker 2.0 18cm F29g (floating), Snow White colour
Keeping with the three Floating models then, these are what I would call silent surface lures in that there is no internal rattle to make more noise (albeit I can assure you that all trebles and split rings on “silent” hard lures make a decent amount of noise underwater regardless) - and with how subtly you can work these three lures I really like that. You can of course get these Floating versions to work pretty splashy and noisily if you want, but slow right down and you can also get them working with a high degree of finesse, in fact it’s because of this that I find myself turning to the largest 18cm/29g more than I thought I would. Not only is it almost silly how much water you can cover with it on the right rod, but for what is a pretty long-profile lure to many of us, you have actually got a potentially very subtle, obscene-range monster on the end of your rod. It’s how I caught my first ever bass in Portugal in fact. I needed to get way out behind some shallow reef that was just breaking the surface, and because it was pretty calm I was working the 18cm/29g with what I like to think was a high degree of subtlety! It went and worked and that first bass literally hung itself on the lure. Bear in mind here that we’re talking about a roughly 4lb bass on such a “big” surface lure and there was never any doubt. Bang and on, no messing.
Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm F17g (floating), Snow White colour
I have had a few bass in estuaries on the baby 12.5cm/9.5g Floating, indeed quieter backwaters is where I see myself using this one the most. On a lighter lure rod when you can get a decent bend out of a 9.5g lure, this baby covers some serious water. I really, really like the larger 15.5cm/17g Floating for almost any bass fishing situations where I am working surface lures in calmer to say mildly choppy water, indeed before I first got hold of the 18cm versions I envisaged myself using this one the most. I can work the 15.5cm/17g Floating very subtly, but then with a little more effort I can get it really splashing around if need be. It frigging flies on virtually any lure rods I might turn to for bass fishing, and the size/profile very much suits how I see a good bass lure to be. As I said earlier though, I also see myself using the largest 18cm/29g far more than I could have imagined with a lure that big - and it’s purely because I can still work it so subtly if I want to AND cover an obscene amount of water as well. My second bass I caught in Portugal was literally smaller than the 18cm/29g I caught it on, so it’s not as if I am worrying about the longer profile of the lure when I am working it across the top.
A friend of mine banging the Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm F17g (floating) out on the SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g lure rod
You know how much I like the Patchinko 140 and what it does so well for so many of us, and I reckon the Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm/17g Floating casts easily as far as the Patchinko albeit I’d still be turning to the Patchinko 140 for rougher conditions over the Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm/17g Floating. The longest Surf Walker 2.0 18cm/29g in my eyes leaves the Patchinko for dead if you are using a lure rod which can properly cope with the larger size and volume of this lure - not that distance always matters of course. It’s a very unscientific observation by the way, but I know what I see. The largest Surf Walker 2.0 18cm/29g Floating also copes very well in the sort of bouncy conditions in which the Patchinko 140 thrives so well.
Surf Walker 2.0 18cm S42g (sinking), Sayoris HK colour
But we also need to talk about the two Sinking versions of the Surf Walker 2.0 surface lures - the 15.5cm/26.5g and 18cm/42.5g. I would imagine that the Floating versions of these new Surf Walker 2.0 lures will sell the best in countries like the UK and Ireland where we tend to shy away from sinking hard lures because we don’t really understand them, but in the most basic terms possible, if you need even more distance or an even greater ability to punch a surface lure into a stronger headwind, try these Sinking ones. I still catch myself giggling literally every single time I whack the 15.5cm/26.5g one out there on the sort of regular casting weight lure rod so many of us would use, and then on a more powerful lure rod which is designed to cope with heavier lures, the 18cm/42.5g is literally daft how it goes out. Neither Sinking version is remotely hard to get back up on the surface and working as a surface lure by the way. For sure they will sink if you let them, but I tend to adopt a US-style pencil popper retrieve and I find it really easy to work the Sinking versions like this when they are at range especially (check my YouTube video about this here). Get this retrieve style going right and you can almost hold these Sinking versions in place and work the (vertical) rod to keep them splashing. I was absolutely amazed at how well the biggest 18cm/42.5g version fished happily away in those incredibly hectic and intimidating conditions we found in Portugal recently, but for sure I would advise using a more powerful lure rod to get the best out of its incredible casting abilities.
Surf Walker 2.0 18cm S42g (sinking), Snow Lemon colour
Technically the two Sinking versions don’t have an internal rattle for a bit more “come and get me” noise in bouncier conditions especially, but in fact the internal weight design has been deliberately modified to throw some good internal noise out when you work these lures. So it’s not a rattle as such, but they are making some noise which I like in bouncier conditions especially. In the most basic respects I see these two Sinking versions as casting even further and/or literally slicing through the wind if need be, and because I know the lures, I know how easy they are to work on the surface. For sure you aren’t working them as subtly as the Floating versions, but that surely is the point. Options.
Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm S26.5g (sinking), Sayoris HK colour
But then you’ve got this whole sinking thing as a potential extra arrow in the quiver which I fully intend to properly explore this season. What happens when you are fishing slightly deeper water where you can let the lures sink down a bit, work them a little bit underwater, bring them back on top, and repeat? I don’t know by the way, but I really like the idea of it. I also like it in calm conditions when you can wake these Sinking lures very subtly across the top as well, indeed with how the Sinking versions sits in the water compared to the Floating versions, they both wake subtly differently on a straight retrieve. How about sometimes stopping the lure to let it sink a bit and then start retrieving again when waking them across the top? The lure comes back up and wakes across the top and I wonder if bass will hit it as you start the retrieve from pausing and sinking? And yes, I also wonder about all these lures at night and what they might do. You know how I enjoy trying stuff out.
Surf Walker 2.0 15.5cm S26.5g (sinking), Snow Lemon colour
So this is why I have come around to seeing these five reworked Surf Walker 2.0 lures a kind of “family”. For sure there are many other types of surface lures which we will turn to for bass fishing, but with these five lures I reckon I have got all the bases covered if I want to fish with a narrower-profile lure - which I often do. I have gone from rarely carrying the first version for my bass fishing to obsessing about the new 2.0 versions and what they offer me. I have not smashed loads of bass on all of them yet because I simply haven’t had them for quite long enough to take advantage of the times of year and/or conditions when I most fancy bass on surface lures, and without a doubt I fish with soft plastics more and more - but I know they work, and I am going to really enjoy giving all these things a lot of water time this year. I will report back of course.
My first bass in Portugal, taken on the Surf Walker 2.0 18cm F29g in the Atherina colour
Last but not least the Six Nations starts again tomorrow, and as per usual I shall be watching it with hope and anticipation as an England rugby supporter. Whether we get anywhere in the tournament is very much open to debate, but surely hope springs eternal once again with a new and less toxic coaching environment? Or are my yearly hopes set to be cruelly dashed upon the rocks of broken dreams yet again? If you are from Ireland or France then could it be your tournament to lose? Very, very excited. You all have a good weekend.
Surf Walker 2.0 12.5cm F9.5g (floating), Atherina colour
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