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With GPS in hand and sonar unit at foot, most ice anglers understand the role technology plays in putting them on a hot bite.
But the engineering in their line and the bait tied to it can make a big difference between simply finding fish and putting them on the ice.
And Rapala’s UV Jigging Rap and Sufix 832 Ice Braid are tops among tackle designed by the lab-coat crew for the insulated-bibs brigade.
Like all Sufix 832 line, Ice Braid features a tight, 32-weave-per-inch composition that includes 7 Dyneema fibers, plus 1 GORE Performance Fiber. Translation: 832 Ice Braid is the thinnest, toughest most sensitive fishing line on ice. And it sheds water like duck feathers!
“It repels water and ice, so your line doesn’t freeze in your rod guides,” says Hall of Fame angler and ICE FORCE Pro-Staffer Tom Neustrom. “Anyone who fishes hardwater knows that’s a major advantage.”
Tie to a UV Jigging Rap to that line, and you can leverage cutting-edge technology for a one-two punch through the ice.
Ultra-violet (UV) enhanced colors make maximum use of available light to help fish locate UV Jigging Raps, an innovative update to a proven classic fish catcher. More so than fluorescent paint or any other bait coating, UV reflects the utmost amount of light energy. Hence, Rapala’s Orange Tiger UV design enhances a popular pattern such as Firetiger to a degree of visibility previously unimaginable.
“Absolutely shocking, the visibility of these lures,” said ICE FORCE ace angler Tony Roach. “I can see the UV Jigging Raps down the hole long after everything else turns into a grey mass of nothingness. And that brightness matters when I’m scooting from hole to hole looking for lively, feeding fish - walleyes, perch, crappies or trout. They’re the first to engulf UV.”
Neustrom shares Roach’s enthusiasm for the new UV Jigging Raps, noting that the technologically advanced coating helps draw fish from a distance.
“With ice fishing, you don’t always land right on the fish - you have to bring them to the bait,” he says. ”The UV Jigging Raps take the action and profile I’ve trusted for years and introduce the factor of long-range attraction.”
Rapala USA and Sufix are but two industry-leading ice-fishing brands which comprise ICE FORCE. Also in the line-up are other premium brands known for innovative technological advances: StrikeMaster, MarCum Technologies, Otter Outdoors, and Polaris.
“It’s no surprise that as an ICE FORCE brand Sufix would continue to push the envelope, technologically, to develop an ice-fishing solution like Ice Braid,” Neustrom says. “Ice fishing lines have been evolving for many years, but up until now, no one had nailed it 100-percent.”
“Sufix 832 Ice Braid is also the fastest-sinking winter-fishing braid available,” Neustrom says.
”It gets me down to the fish fast,” he says. ”What else can I say? Sufix and Gore create an unbeatable fishing bond on the ice. Not only is it round, thin and easy to handle, this stuff fishes with a strength and durability that seems impossible for such a low-diameter line.”
That pretty much covers every key trait that anglers want in a high-performance ice line.
Ice Braid comes in 50-yard spools of 4-pound test in a 1-pound diameter, and in 6, 8, 10, 20 and 30-pound test in an 8-pound diameter. It’s available in both Neon Lime and low-vis Ghost colors.
Speaking of colors, the UV Jigging Raps come in Green Tiger UV, Orange Tiger UV and Pink Tiger UV.
“For decades, Rapala has perfected natural baitfish flesh tones, but in certain conditions, colors that better catch the eye are better at catching fish,” Roach explains. “The key is catching more light, which the UV colors are designed, scientifically, to do.”
Like the original classics - which come in a wide range of traditional colors - the new UV Jigging Raps are lead weighted and balanced to perfection.
“No other ice fishing lure better simulates the erratic characteristics of a wounded baitfish,” Neustrom says.
A Jigging Rap’s unmistakable minnow profile carries single reversed hooks on the nose and posterior. So regardless of how a fish attacks, it’s running smack dab into a hook. Add in the center treble hook hung from a belly eyelet, and it’s fully armed, essentially not allowing for misses.
The new UV Jigging Rap comes in five fish-feeding sizes, from the 1 - 1/4" W2 (a nemesis to perch and crappies), to the 3 - 1/2" W9 (a meal fit for walleyes, pike and lake trout).
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