Shad Rap

Shad Rap in an Exclusive Fleet Farm color, Hot Flash

In one's fishing lifetime baits come and go.  In my early 20's Kevin and I would fish a Johnson Silver Minnow or a Moss Boss for bass in the mats of pond weed above the Alma, WI dam.We'd tie our own jigs to fish walleyes on the wing dams or in the sloughs. Smithwick Rattlin' Rouges were on the top of that list as it was a go to bait for trolling 3 Mile Reef on Mille Lacs, and did we get some dandy's.  Well the last 20 years or so, the number 1 artificial bait in the boat for catching walleyes is Rapala's Shad Rap.  There are plenty imitations and admittedly I have a few of them yet there is something about a Shad Rap that is irresistible to a walleye.   They run true out of the box, maybe it's that wobble, they do not have a sound chamber for internal rattles, about the only thing that I have figured out is often the color makes the difference.  Of course this is what they say about color, they are meant to catch the fisherman, not fish.  My obsession with these baits is sort of a testament to that theory, however over the years some proven patterns work better than others, and of course how would one ever know if a new color worked or not if one never tried it!  Being a guy that say's one never knows, in the boat is quite a menagerie of #5 and #7 Shad Raps of various colors.  Always on the prowl for the latest and greatest, Fleet Farm's ad this week featured Shad Raps on sale for $5.99 and included was some of their exclusive color schemes, unique to Fleet Farm.  Being deemed an Essential Business, essentially I was driven to check out what they had, knowing my collection needed an update!  It was once told to me that Fleet Farm sold more Rapala's than any other retailer.  I have no proof however last year Fleet Farm sold to a larger retail firm.  At that time their Shad Raps

A new twist called Frosted

were priced at $4.99 for a #5 and they would go on sale for $3.99, a real bargain.  After the new owners took over the price jumped to $6.99/$5.99 on sale.  They are still a little cheaper than most places however it is good that the majority of my inventory was bought before last year!   Seeking out their exclusive colors two really caught my eye.  The first is a derivative of a perch pattern called Hot Flash.  I have had good luck with the latest neon versions of  the perch pattern as they really stand out, especially at night.  Add to the fact that any orange seems to do well, it was a simply a had to have color and in the cart it went.  One of my thoughts for opener was a light colored crankbait, in a white, like what was posted a few weeks ago, a Wonder Bead pattern, this Shad Rap with an iridescent whit top and mirror chrome sides appeared called Frosted.  A great name, how on earth could one pass that up so it joined the other in the cart.  There were some other neat colors yet not enough to catch my interest, maybe later.  There is a trend in custom bait colors, similar to those first offered on deep diving Reef Runners , colors with funky names like Cheap Sun Glasses or Heat Stroke.  This trend has reached into the Shad Raps with a company called Viper Custom Tackle which offers various colors including ones that you might have developed, which has products in Cabela's.  They are not cheap but interesting as these weird colors are popular for fishing walleyes in clear water.  If in the future there is a have to have color maybe I'll pull the trigger but for now the tackle box marked Shad Rap's is pretty loaded to the gills!  Sorry for the pun.

Neon Green Tiger UV

Trolling Shad Raps at night during our Annual Minnesota Fishing Opener with Team Walleye has been my go to methodology, good for about 8 - 10 walleyes in the boat during that 90 minutes of time between sunset and completely dark.  With 7 boats in our team, the other guys seem reluctant to troll, whether they are uncomfortable trolling, don't have the equipment, I am not sure but it is a deadly technique, especially in the shallows ( 5 - 7 feet) in the spring.  While the tried and true method is a jig and minnow on Leech Lake, one can cover more ground looking for active fish via trolling a Shad Rap.  A #5 Shad Rap runs about 5 - 7 feet with about 75 feet of line out and is perfect.  As stated earlier these new colors offer new opportunities and last year this Green Tiger UV (Also a Pink Tiger UV) were on fire.  I would have to say that my number one color is the crawdad but that's changing and the reason that first color, Hot Flash is so appealing, a cross between a crawdad color and the tiger pattern, how could it miss!  A favorite memory is fishing Sunday night on Leech a number of years back.  With Mark Mayerich and his son Adam in the boat, we stopped at 8:30 and it was announced.....we are going to troll.  Not exactly the style they were used to and eventually I had to rig them up as it made no sense trolling with spinning rigs and 8 pound test, those shad raps were too expensive to leave on the bottom of the lake.  I carry bait casting rigs specifically for these situations so attached a different colored Shad Rap to each rod and told them to simply let out so many passes of line on the spool.  In 90 minutes we had netted 18 walleyes, one every 5 minutes, with Mark catching the majority.  Of course this is the problem with having so many colors to chose from, if one is hot you'd better have a second one for yourself, dang another reason to shop!  In truth my theory is all crankbait strikes are reaction strikes.  This thing coming through the water is creating a pressure wave that the fish can feel, it goes to investigates and notices this thing trying to flee..........bang, it hits the lure out of instinct, hit first, taste later.  Having said that, it's both the vibration and profile that are the true triggers, and believe that color just helps add to that profile, how visible is it in the waters you are trolling?  Over the years I have had identical baits both in size and color yet one seems to hammer the fish while the other is left alone.  The thought is that the good bait has a better vibration pattern, something it is difficult to quantify, much more attractive to fish than just the same bait.  Maybe the lip is off, or is perfect, it's hard to tell except for the teeth marks or the battered edge of the diving lip on the bait that really works well.

Crawdad Color, Currently My #1 Color Success

So waiting for opener has been decided.  It seems like it's the first of November, will there be enough ice by Thanksgiving or will we have to wait till after Christmas?  Mother Nature has decided that we need to cancel our traditional opener scheduled for May 9th and move it to the first weekend in October.  It is looking more like our two trips to Lac Seul, one in May and the other in June don't look like they are happening either.  So much for all the new strategies for this year! The good news is that October should be an ideal time to troll walleyes on Leech Lake and I have some perfect spots where no one in my group has fished, some shallower mid lake reefs as well as Rocky points.  My brother Steve and I are working on Plan C, maybe just a couple of us will head up to Leech, assuming it's open, and we can stay in a small group. It might take till the end of the month to decide.  Either way Fleet Farm's sale ends on Saturday, maybe another excuse!