Help with Bulldawgs

[justinman]

What is the most effective way to retrieve this bait? I've basically retrieved them as a jerk bait or jigged it in deep water. I've triggered small northerns and have only had one lazy muskie follow. The bait tends to get fouled up often on my retrieves. The tail gets hooked or the trebles get locked together. Does anyone have any tips they can share.

[bronzeback]

Throw something else.

In all seriousness though I haven't spent much time throwing dogs but this topic has been brought up before and the common consensus overall was that there really isn't a wrong way to bring a bulldog back to the boat. As long as it's in the water moving and that tail is fluttering along you can't go wrong.

Personally when I throw them I just like to reel it back like any other bait but with the occasional snap of the rod-tip or just drop the rod tip every now and again to make the bait roll or lurch forward.

[justinman]

Personally when I throw them I just like to reel it back like any other bait but with the occasional snap of the rod-tip or just drop the rod tip every now and again to make the bait roll or lurch forward.

Have you had much luck with this retrieve?

[Esox_Magnum]

I rip them and I mean RIP them, on the older soft rubber ones I would trash one in a few hours, I have litteraly ripped the harnesses out of them. Now on some lakes a lazy reel and twitch works best. What size dawg are you using?? I prefer the Mag and pounders. Little ones are for the wife and daughter.

Dawgs are one of my go to baits, start experimenting with retrieves till you find what they like. Really no wrong way to work a Dawg, you can even put double 10 blades on front and just cast and reel.

[50inchpig]

if you're having lots of problems with fouled hooks, try thumbing your line a bit on the cast to straighten the dawg out and you'll hardly ever foul. Most rods will heave a mag dawg so well you can thumb it a bit and still get a nice long cast.

Retreives, all work, you can do worse than reeling and pumping your rod from 10 to 11 oclock like you're swimming a bass jig, helps you see your line and keep it semi tight so you can feel the hits. Good baits, once you find what works for you with them you'll probably like them a lot more.

[delmuts]

"What size dawg are you using?? I prefer the Mag and pounders. Little ones are for the wife and daughter." OUCH!!

[urban cowboy]

We have a bulldawg rule in my boat. When the fishing gets tough someone always has a bulldawg tied on. Rip, twitch, straight retrieve... the great thing about a bulldawg is that you can fish it different every cast. I personally like the versatility of a shallow mag

[Cooter]

Correction: The little ones are for the wife, daughter, and pansies like Cooter!

[justinman]

What size dawg are you using?? I prefer the Mag and pounders. Little ones are for the wife and daughter.

I know they are not the small ones & I know I'm not throwing the pounders,so I guess its the mag.

Thanks for all your replies, The concensus is there is no wrong way to retrieve. I'll try ripping to see if that can trigger a strike. I hear alot of people say it's there goto bait so i'll just keep at it.

[justinT]

You can try just about anything w/ a bulldawg and it will work. If I'm working deep weeds or lazy fish, I'll go w/ long slow pulls. If I'm in the weeds, I'll snap them up. If I'm on some active fish, I'll rip them. Heck, a burned dawgball is good for a handful of follows and resulting f-bombs every year.

[honker23]

I like them off the front of the boat working the deep edges of a break with a rip-jig retrieve while the other guy in the boat can burn bucktails on top of the cover. Helps us see where the majority of the fish ar coming from. Negative....little pike LOVE them!

[muskieboy46]

I agree, no wrong way. Fish will bite them even covered in weeds sometimes. The problem is they are one of the worst baits for getting fish into the net. Make sure you set the hook hard! Take a step back if you need to. This weekend my friends lost 6 skis on them. Last night my buddy lost 2 including one that looked 53+. And the one he did catch I got the net under him just as the hooks came loose.

PS sharpen your hooks!

goodluck

[Lare Pie]

The reason your dawg is fouled up on the retrieve is because it's not laid out when it hits the water. Someone mentioned this earlier of thumbing the line. What you want to do is stop the bait short of the cast using your thumb. Just like a bucktail, if you stop it short the blades are laid up so as soon as you crank the handle the blades are spinning, no need to jerk it. When you stop the dawg short of its cast, you are laying out the hooks and tail. Thus resulting in a unfouled retrieve. Then you can retrieve however you want. All the fish that I've caught on lures like this, the fish hit the bait by attacking the head of the lure. Only ones that I've never got to the boat was because the fish grabbed the tail. Great lures, they catch many fish. Just stay at it.

[FutbolGuru]

"I like them off the front of the boat working the deep edges of a break with a rip-jig retrieve while the other guy in the boat can burn bucktails on top of the cover. Helps us see where the majority of the fish ar coming from."

+1

[delmuts]

Along this line of questions; What kind/brand of tails do you use to repair your dogs? I haven't seen any one that sells replacement tails for them. So??

[Castinski]

I haven't found any replacement parts yet either. I save the dawgs that are too ripped up to melt back together and when I get a bunch I make a FRANKENdawg out of the spare parts. At the very least, if the harness is really ripped out I cut off the tail and throw the rest out. Keep those tails in the boat for replacements.

[Shawn Kellett]

Thorne's usually has tails made from Shack Attack that work on dawgs.

[delmuts]

That's what i was wondering! I see that different places have replacement tails for other lures, but they don't say if they will work on dawgs.

[Shawn Kellett]

A plastic tail is a plastic tail. If you can melt it or glue it it'll work.

[Esox_Magnum]

Shack Attack curlie sue replacement tails or Tackle Indutries also makes replacement tails. I custom make my own dawg creations, I made a hot one this year, part of the fun of rubber.

[Muskiefool]

By far the best technique for Bulldawgs or any other rubber bait is to throw them in the trash before they get damaged, they will be safe there.

[cbrooks]

Rubber baits have gotten alot more durable the last few years. Super D's are the most undestructable. You can now catch multiple fish on bulldogs since they change there plastics. I never had a Curly Sue fall apart since I started using them a couple years ago. Caught many fish on them.

[kyleharty]

Ive used the tails from MTO, think they are the Shack Attack ones, on Mag Dawgs and Pounders and they work perfectly on both. I'm sure the Tackle Industries tails would work well too and probably be a little more durable, James' rubber feels tougher to me.

[grunttloors]

Along this line of questions; What kind/brand of tails do you use to repair your dogs? I haven't seen any one that sells replacement tails for them. So??

I sell 6 packs of replacmetn tails for Reg, Mag and Pounder sized swimbaits on my Tackle Industires site. You can also email Aaron at MTO and get them though him. They are at the bottom of each of my SuperD pages. They will work wtih Shack, Musky Inovations, SuperDs, etc but NOT Formula X baits like Lifelike lures. Easy to mix and match colors if you want to customize your swimbaits.

James

[delmuts]

Thanks James! I was looking at those this after noon!