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I have heard the the rapala x-rap is a killer bait for this time of year. Any truth to this? I am dying to get out on the water, but i am not an experienced winter time fisherman. I am planning a trip next week hopefully, and I want to gain an "edge" on trying to get these lethargic fish to bite. Any suggestions?
As the water temps near 50-55 the Jerkbait (X-rap) bite will improve. Fish can be caught on them right now but it has to be fished slowly. The x-rap is a good bait. Right now I would probally try to throw the 8 size.
Just last weekend on the In-Fisherman television show they were using X-Raps to catch smallmouth...the technique was" "Twitch-twitch-pause...................Twitch-twitch-twitch-pause...............Lots of times if not most of the time the hits came on the pause. They had two rods rigged up with an X-Rap...one with a size #10 and the other with a size #8. They were mainly throwing the #10, if they got bit but didn't hook up then they immediately followed through by casting the #8. I don't have any X-Raps in my box but they're on my list. Just this week I got a couple of Lucky Craft Pointers while Bass Pro had them on sale (two for 22.00 dollars)...this is the first time I've ever spent that much on a single lure, I guess there's a first time for everything.
If the bass are really sluggish i would bet that a slowly worked #10 X-rap would be the ticket. I love these baits. The action is just amazin and they catch fish in any weather for me. I just recently went out and bought the new deep diving version but i havent had time to fish with them yet. Good luck!
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH........ Be berry, berry quayet........
Yeah, I saw the In-Fisherman show this past weekend... The guy in the back of the boat was throwing a tube and not catching a thing... the host in the front of the boat had a pink over white x-rap and tearing up smallmouth, 3 & 4 pounders one after the other..... finally the guy in back of the boat says if you catch one more I am changing to the x-rap... Bam, he changed to the x-rap and started catching them.....
Well I was told by a very famous fisherman that on Dale Hollow that the smallmouth would generally hit a Rouge more often than a Rapala. He said the Rapala was a better made lure and half of the Rouges ran crooked out of the box but that they did trigger smally's on Dale better than the Rapala's. Of course In-fisherman staff must use the sponsors lures, rods, etc so of course that's what you will see them catch them on. That being said I've caught several nice one on Dale with the X-rap but the Husky Jerk doesn't seem to work as well down here as it does in the North. Just my 2 cents. In fisherman is a great show but they really support their sponsors. I noticed them using all star rods on a show recently and I thought I've never seen them use a rod that wasn't a sponsor but at the end of the show I saw that All Star had signed on as a sponsor. Not sure how that works because they also have Shakespere rods as a sponsor.
[QUOTE=tacoma;289197]Well I was told by a very famous fisherman that on Dale Hollow that the smallmouth would generally hit a Rouge more often than a Rapala. He said the Rapala was a better made lure and half of the Rouges ran crooked out of the box but that they did trigger smally's on Dale better than the Rapala's. Of course In-fisherman staff must use the sponsors lures, rods, etc so of course that's what you will see them catch them on. That being said I've caught several nice one on Dale with the X-rap but the Husky Jerk doesn't seem to work as well down here as it does in the North. Just my 2 cents. In fisherman is a great show but they really support their sponsors. I noticed them using all star rods on a show recently and I thought I've never seen them use a rod that wasn't a sponsor but at the end of the show I saw that All Star had signed on as a sponsor. Not sure how that works because they also have Shakespere rods as a sponsor.[/QUOTE]
Shakespere has owned Allstar for about 2 years now. They also own Pfluger which are the reels that they use on the show.
[QUOTE=Toadman;289212]Shakespere has owned Allstar for about 2 years now. They also own Pfluger which are the reels that they use on the show.[/QUOTE]
Well thanks, that explains that. I knew they fish with sponsors products almost exclusively so that's what you see them catch fish with. Even if another bait is better they will spend extra time trying to catch fish with a sponsors lure. I don't blame them, they are in this to make money. In-fisherman and Bass have both been bought out and push brands. I thought GM or Ford would have jumped on the bandwagon to keep some good ole boys but Toyota is putting the bucks there.
As far as the "In-Fisherman" show goes, I guess a little "editing" can glorify any sponsored lure company they want.... for all we know, the guy could have been catching them on a .15 plastic Zoom worm from wal-mart, then sticking a x-rap in its mouth and chuck it back in the water for the camera man to film....The fishing shows never show a guys bad day on the water.....