Scatter Shad Lip By Rapala

[BobP]

I like many of the lures in the Rapala line.  Got a couple of the scatter shads recently and frankly, I don't think I'll ever fish them.  It's hard to retrieve them without spiraling and that is not "hunting" - which should and can work at any retrieve speed.

[littleriver]

Hello everyone,  Thanks Bob and Nedyard for sharing your experiences. I will save my money. It's performance might explain why this bait was left hanging. A good bait a man will risk life and limb for in cold deep dark water. This thing can't dive more than a few feet deep and we're in the heat of August. Sounds like the rod tip wasn't even risked. With that said, I would like to make a curved lip bait. I know there are some good ones being made out there by TU members. 

Edited August 18, 2013 by littleriver

[nedyarb]

It was in about 2" of water on the edge. The line tie looks good to me, I think the lure just isn't very well designed. It hunts if a jerk the rod tip, but a lot of lures hunt if I do that!

[mark poulson]

Sounds like it really was designed to hunt for fishermen!   Hahaha

I know I bought one of each, four in total, and was so unimpressed by the first one I haven't even opened the last three.

It only semi-hunts at one speed, and getting that speed right is tricky at best.  Maintaining that speed throughout a retrieve, particularly on a long cast, requires a lot of faith that you've got it right at the start.  When you finally wind it back to where you can see it, and find out it's doing 360's, is really frustrating.

 

I may play around with the bill, and drill a hole in the center near the bait, to relieve some of the water pressure, particularly at higher speeds.  Since the baits are just sitting now it can't be any worse than it already is.  Finding a good, sharp bit is the key, so I don't crack the bill.  

In the past I've use bits with a steep angled cutting edge for plastics that were designed just for that.

But Rapala bills have always been really fragile.

I think I'll use a new brad point bit, in a drill press, since the cut the outline before they remove the material from the middle, almost like a hole saw.

[diemai]

I'm kinda sad to hear about these issues on Rapala lures , as I've always found them to be reliable ,  working and catching very well throughout my previous angling years .

Should they finally have fallen victim to commerce as well , in particular the more recent models ?

 

Last year I've purchased some  three or four MaxRaps , on one of these the weight shifting system does not function properly , takes a lot of shaking underneath the rodtip , before the BB's slide back into the tail for another cast , it's a nuisance to me .

 

                          greetz , diemai

[BobP]

I regularly fish Rapalas and the Scatter Shads were a disappointment to me.  It may be that the scatter lip was originally designed for one of the scatter series that I did not try and it might work great on that model and not on the Scatter Shad - who knows?  I got the scatter shad because it was the only one of the series with enough weight to cast with a baitcast reel. 

[littleriver]

One of the things that sticks out in my memory after visiting the rapala site was seeing all the different models with the new bill. Looked like they put it on every model crank they make. After making a few, one of the things learned was few things work everytime on every bait. Infact often finding just the right mix for each model is the hardest part. Bob may be right. This may work well on the bait it was origanlly designed for but notheir entire line. Also thinking Mark is right, its many models designed to catch fishermen not fish. Dieter is right too on commerce driven. Corporations are the way business is conducted today. Management beholden too investors and board of directors not customers. Companies nowdays are run by accountants not engineers. Often startups creators once bought out are replaced with these type managers. They care little for company rep or customers but focus mostly on making money and little else. They get to fatten their pockets at everyone elses expense including their own employees. It is the world in which we live in today. I can see the problem clearly but a solution eludes me.

[BobP]

Well, you can't run an successful company without marketing products.  If your products are lousy, market demand will fix the problem by reducing your sales until you fix the product or go out of business.  IMO, Rapala puts out some of the best wood baits on the planet in a time when wood baits are becoming rare from large manufacturers.  Look over the offerings from all manufacturers and count how many balsa or other wood baits are offered.  Not many!  You usually have to go to "boutique shops" to find them.  There are rational reasons for this, including quality control and volume production reasons.  But I personally think the best wood lures are better than the best plastic lures.  So to me, Rapala deserves kudos for working in wood baits and I'm not quite ready to ascribe "shady commercial motives" to my dislike of the Scatter Shad.  I'll continue trying future Rapalas and will keep buying some favorites from them as long as they make them.  But I won't be buying more Scatter Shads and I'll wait for kudos to appear among the user community before taking a chance on any of the other Scatter baits.  

[nedyarb]

The bottom of the lure says 'scatter rap 05'

[littleriver]

My first crankbait was an original floater black back with foil sides. I caught a good many bass on that bait right on thru to my early twenties. I still remember when I last saw it. It was ripped from me by a behemoth tarpon while bank fishing mangro trees along the edge of the intercoastal waterway in Florida. This inland hillbilly had never seen fish that big or strong. I thought I was prepared for anything with my 50 pound spider wire but  soon discovered I was wrong. I can still see it like a sport fishing photo with my  little lure hanging on the outside the mouth of this giant fish as it  leaped from the water and violently thrashed its head snapping my line instantly and then it was gone. A testament to the strength and attraction of this little plug. 

 

i too like rapalas. I put them on a pedestal for many years and would buy no other. I liked everything about the baits, the build, the packaging and the story behind their origins. The colors and varieties seemed endless. I wanted them all. But could only afford one or two a month. I would spend much time plotting and groping over which ones to buy next. Often changing my mind, right up to the last possible second. Shad raps, original floaters and the rattle trap are some of my own favorites. The blue back  rattle trap is a real go to bait here in the fall on the rivers when the fish are on the minnows. I would fish them till the paint was worn completely away from the front of the bait as it skipped along the rocky river bottoms. I still have a large collection these and several still new in boxes. I would order them by the dozen as funds got better with higher paying jobs. But like all things this too passed . Wife kids; priorities change like seasons. Now I would have a hard time finding a those boxed beauties as they are most likely buried somewhere unknown in the basement. Still their memory is fresh with me. 

 

I wanted to share this link.

 

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=RAP1V:FH

 

I am certain loyal fans like myself and millions just like me buying Rapala quality lures has gotten the company to where it is today. They are not the quant little lure manufacturer of my imagination. They are a multinational corporation with quarterly net sales worldwide of 81.4 million Euros  or 108.555 million us dollars. Multiply that by 4 and one gets 434.222 million annually. Little wonder a mistake is made from time to time.  

[mark poulson]

littleriver,

I, too, fished the original Rapala, when I could finally afford it, back in the early 60's.  Mine is snagged in the middle of an eastern Sierra Nevada trout stream.

Over the years I've bought many Rapala lures.

But their deep divers have/had fragile bills.  They broke at the line tie if you hit them on a rock, or even slapped weeds off them on the water.

I figured it had to do with the metal in the bill, and maybe some weird painting process, like a radio-cured topcoat that caused stress at that point.

The DT series holds up much better, so they have obviously finally changed something.

I love their DT series.  

[littleriver]

Mark

 

 Sorry to hear about your loss. I was upset about losing the fish but losing that particular bait left a mark. A small gift from father to son. I should have known better. I had lost in much the same manner what I believed was the same the fish in the exact same spot only the day before on a white super fluke. He wasn't biting super flukes a second time. The fish first came to my attention as I watched it break on small schools of minnows. My first bass had been taken on this very bait when thrown to a breaking fish many years before. A lesson I have never forgotten. So, I thought why not try it. Sure enough, like the bass of my youth, the tarpon could not resist the wiggle of this little lure. 

 

I too have a few of the Dt series baits. What I do not have is much experience with them. Not so much time on the water the past few years. I hope to change that in the days ahead. Thank you for the endorsement. I will be tying them on more often when I do go, 

[BobP]

I've had guys ask whether I could/would replace broken lips on their Rapala DT series baits.  Nope - the work and materials involved are worth more than a new DT crankbait.  That has not lessened my liking for fishing DT series baits however.

 

To me, crankbaits are not to be considered immortal.  Durable, yes, but idiot and/or wear proof no.

[bobitas]

Hello,first sorry about my bad English ,

For bend Lexan or any polycarbonate i get some pipe and band it in diferent angle 45 degree  or depend how much curve your need.Than mark center line on pipe and on finished lip.Heat(Hot air gun,small gas burner or similar )lip,and with gloves pressure lip on curved part(inside curve) of pipe.You will get Finnish lip in second.

Hope i helped.Best regards from Doboj,Bosnia.

[mark poulson]

Hello,first sorry about my bad English ,

For bend Lexan or any polycarbonate i get some pipe and band it in diferent angle 45 degree  or depend how much curve your need.Than mark center line on pipe and on finished lip.Heat(Hot air gun,small gas burner or similar )lip,and with gloves pressure lip on curved part(inside curve) of pipe.You will get Finnish lip in second.

Hope i helped.Best regards from Doboj,Bosnia.

 

Great idea!  Thanks.

[nedyarb]

FYI, I think the lip is bent more like on a spoon. Side to side bend and front to back. I like the pipe idea though!

[diemai]

FYI, I think the lip is bent more like on a spoon. Side to side bend and front to back. I like the pipe idea though!

......I think , that the way , bobitas has described , comes close to a Finnish saddle lip  .

 

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mjfHidpYHK6d1Kb69yyyDSw.jpg

 

Imagine you'd cut out a kinda disc from the deepest part of the wall of the inner "knee" of such 90° bent piece of tubing as pictured , .......this is about how a Finnish saddle lip is shaped .

 

Off course the pictured pipe is out of dimensional relation , .......either the tube needs to thicker in diameter , or the bent radius has to be sharper(smaller) , ..ist just an example to help to figure out .

 

@ bobitas

 

Thanks for advice , ..!

 

Greetz , diemai

[bobitas]

Pipe idea is solution for Finnish lip,and diameter of pipe is something what make side more or less bended.

Greetz,Bobitas.

Ps. I'm very happy to make contribute for this great site.