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From the northern plains to the Florida peninsula, baits in Rapala family of brands have caught the big fish that won recent walleye, bass and redfish tournaments.
In North Dakota, Rapala pro-staffer Chris Gilman threw No. 5 and No. 7 Glass Shad Raps and dropped Rapala Jiggin’ Raps to win the Sept. 19-21 Cabela’s National Walleye Tour Championship on Devil’s Lake.
In Minnesota, Rapala pro-staffer Michaela Anderson threw a Terminator spinnerbait to win the co-angler division of the Minnesota Federation of Bass Anglers (MFBA) State Tournament on Lake Le Homme Dieu in the Alexandria Chain of Lakes. Terminator is one of many respected names in the Rapala family of brands.
In Florida, Capt. Rick Murphy won two recent tournaments, throwing Rapala X-Raps and Twitchin’ Raps to in-shore redfish off the coast of Sarasota and Ruskin, Fla.
Gilman Gets ‘Em On Glass Raps
A former FLW Walleye Championship winner and FLW Walleye Angler of the Year, Gilman weighed 55.91 pounds to narrowly edge out his roommate, Josh Vanderweide, who weighed 55.86 pounds. “He was also fishing Jiggin’ Raps, but his spot was 25 miles from mine,” he said.
Most of Gilman’s Day 1 weight of 17.55 pounds, which put him into third place, came on white and perch-pattern Glass Shad Raps. “The fish were sitting in rocks in three to six feet of water,” he said.
Gilman threw his Glass Raps on a 6-foot, 9-inch medium-light spinning rod spooled with 10-pound-test Sufix 832 Braid. “I can cast the Glass Shad Raps a mile with the 832 braid,” he said. “And the strength of the 832 is unreal.”
On the second day, Gilman moved into second place after catching 16.10 pounds, mostly on 7/8th oz. No. 9 Jigging Raps he vertically jigged around a rock hump that topped out at about 25 feet. The Jigging Rap’s weight and action was more important than the color pattern. “Color did not seem to matter,” he recalls. “I could slide around the hump and pick off the active fish.”
He threw the Jiggin’ Raps on 20-pound-test Sufix 832 braid spooled on a 6-foot, 3-inch medium-action spinning rod.
More than half of the 10 anglers fishing on the tournament’s final day upgraded with 20-plus-pound bags, but few caught them as fast as Gilman and his co-angler, Jason Converse. They had their limit by 8:30 a.m. and headed back to the event site to wait for the weigh-in.
“As fast as my partner and I could get the Jiggin’ Raps down, we had one on - it was almost magical,” Gilman said. “We got there around 8:00 and had a limit by about 8:20. We could have eight in possession, so I kept catching them until I had a limit that I thought I could win with.”
He weighed 22.26 pounds to win by a mere 0.05 pounds.
Anderson Tops Field With Terminator T-1
Anderson’s co-angler MFBA Tournament of Champions win qualifies her for the 2014 TBF Northern Division Championship in Michigan. Her two-day total of 25.59 pounds of bass was more than a pound better than the runner-up (24.22 pounds) and almost three pounds better than third place (22.70 pounds).
“As a co-angler, a lot of it is dependent on who you draw as a boater, and I was very lucky that both days my boaters were around fish,” Anderson said.
She weighed 11.15 pounds on the first day of the two-day competition to put herself in contention, at 5th place. She and her boater targeted deep weed lines and a few shallow weed patches.
Anderson’s biggest Day 1 bass came out of weeds in about four to six feet of water on a ¼ oz. Terminator T-1 Original Titanium Spinnerbait (Bright White Shad pattern with dual, silver willow blades) with a white Trigger X Slop Hopper as a trailer. She caught the four other fish she weighed on a 5-inch, wacky-rigged Trigger X Flutter Worm (green pumpkin/purple flake). She paired that with a ¼ oz. VMC Tungsten Worm Weight and a VMC SpinShot Hook. She and her partner targeted deep weed lines in 16 to 20 feet of water.
“I was fishing really slow, with most fish biting on the fall,” Anderson said.
On the second and final day, Anderson caught a limit of 14.44 pounds, which included a 4.45-pound kicker that was the biggest bass weighed that day.
“The second day was key to my win,” she said. “It was extremely windy - with 20 mph south winds - so it was tough to fish main lake weed lines.”
She and her boater targeted vegetation in three to six feet of water and docks.
“I had a few fish from around docks with some lily pads and a few fish from a shallow weed clump near deeper water,” she said. “My big fish came around some downed trees and sparse lily pads. I think a major key was the water around the lily pads was not as clear. We were on one of the smaller lakes on the chain and the water was dirtier than some of the bigger lakes on the chain.”
Anderson caught all of her Day 2 fish while slow-rolling her white Terminator T-1 spinnerbait. She threw it with a 6-foot, 8-inch medium-heavy, fast-action baitcasting rod on 14-pound test Sufix Castable Invisiline Fluorocarbon spooled on a baitcasting reel.
Murphy’s Teams Take Two
Murphy and partner Geoff Page threw Rapala Twitchin’ Raps and modified No. 8 Rapala X-Raps to win the recent Florida Pro Redfish Series’ West Coast Round 4 event out of Sarasota, Fla.
Although Redfish around Sarasota are “locked in” on baitfish with a minnow profile this time of year, Murphy said, they were really spooky during practice and the tournament.
“Anything that wasn’t right in their zip code, right in the level of the water they were in - so all they had to do was open their mouth and eat it - would spook a whole school,” he said. “You can’t imagine how crazy it is to throw to 300 fish and if you throw the bait wrong, it’s like the parting of the Red Sea!”
Getting the fish to bite required some out-of-the box thinking - and side-cutters and hook file. Murphy cut off the X-Rap’s bill and filed down the rough spot. That would prevent it from diving too deep when he twitched it.
“Instead of a suspending bait, it became a floater,” he explained.” But not exactly a topwater. When you’d twitch it, it’d go just below the surface, but wouldn’t dive.”
Thus modified, the X-Rap required a very specific presentation to avoid spooking the fish. “You’d throw it out in front of them, so they wouldn’t see it splash and you’d let it sit on the surface while the circles from where it landed dissipated,” Murphy explained.
Murphy and Page’s two-fish limit weighed a combined 14.29 pounds. The first fish weighed 6.93 pounds, the second, 7.36 pounds. The latter was the tournament’s biggest.
On Sept. 14, Murphy worked the modified X-Rap pattern to weigh 14.44 pounds and win an IFA Redfish Tour event out of Ruskin, Fla. Their first fish weighed 7.71 pounds; the second, 6.73 pounds.
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