Post by Fishooked on Apr 20, 2009 21:21:04 GMT -4
RAPALA TIPS, TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS, By Jan Eggers
I sometimes wonder how many predators, divided over many, many species, I have caught in the almost 40 years I have been fishing with Rapala lures. It must be many and I really hope many more will follow in the years to come. I still remember how I got my very first pike on an 11 cm Original in my local polder waters. I also remember how I caught nice brown trout, double figure zander, hard fighting salmon, big perches on light and catfish on heavy tackle, my first black bass on a small Shad Rap, pirana, peacock bass, pacu, matrincha and cachorra on both floating and sinking small Rapala lures in Brazil. I haven't forgotten the ide, chub, Danube salmon, musky, grayling and artic grayling, huge lake trout, white bass, crappie, yellow perch and last but not least sea trout, walleye, rainbow trout and tiger musky, all of which I hooked on one of the many Rapala lures that have become more and more my best friends. Fishing for all these predators was done in different waters with different Rapala lures in combination with the right tackle under different conditions and circumstances.
Wherever you fish, the key to success is the right presentation of your lure in the right place during the right season. In this article I want to tell my Internet Rapala friends, which are my favourite Rapala lures for the most popular predators, which rod, line, reel and leader combination I use, how I present these lures during the various seasons of the year and a lot more of little tricks that mean a lot. I was wondering how I would do it, per species, per group of Rapala lures or per type of water? I have decided to do it according to the 6 tackle categories mentioned in the Rapala ABC-file, so from Ultra Light to Big Game Fishing.
Ultra Light
I think it is easy to understand that especially the smaller predators are the target for this kind of lure fishing. My number one predator choice for ultra light Rapala lure fishing is the brown trout in small streams, creeks and even the trout ponds in put-and-take waters. If we start with the last habitat mentioned, it makes quite some difference during what time of the year you fish there. Early spring and during late autumn and winter, the trout stay much deeper than in the warmer months of the year. If they are feeding on insects and even small fry from the surface, you'd better use a shallow running wobbler like the Rapala Original Floating in the sizes 3 and 5 cm, the Husky Jerk 6 cm and, this is no joke, the 5 cm Skitter Pop. I know, fishing with poppers for trout is almost unknown to many trout fishermen, but especially in hard-fished waters a change from what everybody is offering, can be very productive. Another rarely used UL trout lure that can be fished close to the surface, is the 5 cm Minnow Spoon. And not only small trout like them, I have even caught trout in the 3 - 4 kilo range with this lure.
Trout start feeding closer to the bottom when the water gets colder and now it is time to use UL Rapala lures that also swim deeper. Personally I prefer the 3 and 5 cm Countdown models, the 5 cm Shad Rap Count Down, the tiny Mini Fat Rap and last but not least the smallest 4 cm Risto Rap when the trout are hiding in deep holes.
Fishing from the banks of these trout ponds, I prefer a longer light spinning rod, say length around 250 cm, than fishing in small rivers with many trees and bushes where a short rod of 210 or even 190 cm is an advantage. Which line? Personally I prefer 0,12 or 0,14 mm dyneema line with a not too heavy snap at the end. If you prefer nylon, I can recommend 0,16 to 0,18 mm and try a fluorescent colour that gives you a better indication where your lure is. When you fish a small creek with a lot of obstacles on the bottom, it might be an idea to remove the first treble and only use the one at the tail. If you still hook weed or bottom, you can change this treble for a single or double hook. When fishing for trout in these small rivers, it is very possible to catch another predator loving small wobblers: the chub! Although it doesn't taste that well as a trout, it is always nice to catch these hard fighting members of the carp family that have learned to grab almost everything that looks edible.
Another interesting predator for UL spinning is the perch. I can recommend beginners to buy some small Rapala lures and fish the waters you know, from fishing with worms or maggots, to have plenty of perch. Perch are opportunistic hunters that are not afraid of bigger lures and when fishing with a 5 or 6 cm wobbler, one should not be amazed to catch a small Perca only a few centimetres bigger than the lure. When you have caught your first perches on a lure only half the size of the fish, you start to understand that a lure is not so soon too big for a predator. Besides these small Rapala lures, one can also use small Vibrax spinners and the smallest sizes of the Minnow Spin. One final advice: when you fish in waters where you can expect pike, please use a short and light wire, say 10 lb, leader. You will loose less lures and don't cause problems of dying pikes with a treble in their throat.
The lures mentioned in this chapter are also interesting for zander and I have caught double figure zander on even the smallest Rapala lures. When you really intend to catch zander with this UL tackle, the very last tip is to start fishing when everybody goes home. The last half hour of daylight and the first hour of the dark, are the best times for catching zander. This is the time when they are really active and hunt, so be active yourself - it brings fun!
Light
Probably I have a problem in finding enough space to describe the way of fishing I've done and still do the most and also like the most. Yes, light spinning is the method responsible for most of the predators I have caught in about 20 countries all over the fishing world. People often think Jan Eggers is only interested in fishing for big pikes, using big lures and heavy tackle. Wrong idea. For me it is not the size of the predator that counts but more the fun I have in spinning, no matter if I catch a small perch or giant pike. Catching predators on relatively light tackle, and this doesn't mean tackle that makes you loose almost every big fish, makes you have to play the fish a little longer, bends the rod tip more often and creates the nice sound of a working reel drag. One of the advantages of a light line on a small reel, a sensitive rod and a not too heavy stranded wire leader, is that you get a nice, more or less natural presentation for these smaller Rapala lures.
In the chapter about the 6 categories, I have listed all the lures fitting in this Light category and I am not going to repeat them. But I will pick the 3 best lures, simply because these are my all time favourites. I dare to say that the Jointed 11 Floating is the lure that I not like the most but love the most. If I had to go to an unknown fishing spot with a variety of predators, this J-11 would be my number 1 choice. And my second best light lure is almost identical, it is the 2 cm smaller J-9 which is used in shallower water or when there is more weed in summer and early autumn. Regarding the number 3 in my list of personal Light category favourites, I have some doubt between the Original Floating 11 and the Husky Jerk 10 but the rattles in the Husky Jerk make it gets the bronze medal in this category. Because a lot of the zander, pike and perch fishing in my local Dutch polder canals is done in the colder time of the year, some wide wobbler action, when you reel in slow, is a huge advantage and these jointed models have that special action.
When fishing with a modern braided super line, my favourites are Power Pro and FireLine, you really feel every movement of these lures and also see the action reflectioned in the vibrations of the rod tip. When you don't feel or see this action, it is a sign there is some weed or something else hanging on the hooks or that the wire of the leader is hooked behind a treble. There is also another possibility why you don't feel the right action: the starting speed of the lure has been too slow! Yes, one should start the lure with a few fast turns of the reel handle to get the desired depth and the right wiggle of the lure. This wide action of the jointed Rapala is irresistible for almost every predator it passes by, no matter if they are hungry or not. There is one very special moment that you don't feel the action of the lure for a split second that I like. It can happen you feel all at once no pressure on your line, as if the lure is bitten off. This is the moment a pike or zander grabs the lure from behind and almost immediately you feel the fish on the hooks. Besides feeling the predator attacking the lure, it also happens quite often in the more or less shallow waters where I use this J-9 and J-11 that you see the pike follow the lure and/or take it. But there are also days, after a storm and heavy rain, that it is impossible for the predators to see my slow moving J-9 or J-11 lure. In this brown/grey-coloured water the visibility is not more than half a meter and under these conditions I prefer to use hot colours like the CLN, GFR and FT. It gives me more confidence, so it works!
If you want some real surface action in this Light category, you should hang a 5 or 7 cm Skitter Pop on the leader. I dare to say that the introduction of the Skitter Pop has changed my way of fishing in the warmer months of the year. I can get excited by the explosion of the water surface, the leaping pikes, and a few times a perch and zander, and this in water with a lot of weeds where it was impossible to use other Rapala lures. It is not the size of the fish that give you the most fun and satisfaction. No, it is the excitement of the sudden strike, sometimes in front of your feet, or seeing the pike coming towards your lure in a big wave on the surface that makes this technique so very interesting. One advice when you see a predator strike at your Skitter Pop: wait one second before setting the hook! This is a kind of a guarantee that the fish has the lure between the jaws and that you don't pull it away in front of its nose.
From surface fishing in summer we go to down deep light fishing in wintertime. Our target is the zander in sometimes 15 to 20 meters deep water. We fish from a boat with depth sounder on lakes and big canals with a lot of structure where you can expect both prey fish and zander. We use short rods, sometimes even one piece spinning rods of 180 cm that have some top action and on the rod we put a small and modern spinning reel with 0,12 mm dyneema line on the spool. Why a modern reel? Simply because these reels have no longer the possibility of the bale going back when you set the hook. So you have direct contact with the fish which is very important when you want to set the hook properly in 18 meters depth. Fishing in such deep waters means you need special lures and my favourites are the 4 cm Rattlin' Rapala and the 5 cm Minnow Spoon. The first one has the sound of the rattling balls inside the lure as a bonus and the 2nd one the extremely interesting wobbling action when fished with little jerks up and down. Especially in an area where a lot of vertical fishing is done with shads, twisters and blade pilkers, something with a total different action will do the job.
If you have found a promising spot with your echo sounder, you drop your lure into the water next to the boat and let it sink to the bottom. Reel in so that the line is straight between lure and rod tip and give a little jerk so that is goes up 30 - 40 cm. Wait a split second and let it sink gently to the bottom and repeat this action again. Just do it quietly and often, especially in winter time when it is rather cold, it is better to make slow, short jerks than moving it up and down too fast. It can be very interesting to hear by the rattling sound of your Rattlin' Rapala that a zander, and sometimes also a perch and pike, grab your lure. This way of zander fishing has become very popular in Holland in the recent years.
I realise I can write about light spinning for garpike in brackish water, for black bass in the U.S.A., but also in Spain and Italy. I can also write about fishing for asp, Aspius aspius is the official name, in Germany and Austria, for wild brown trout in the rivers of Central Finland or just for arctic grayling and walleye in Canada. But I better stop this chapter and have a closer look at the next category.
Medium
As mentioned in other chapters of the Rapala ABC, there is not much difference between techniques and tactics of the categories Light and Medium. The main difference is we fish with stronger rods that can handle heavier lures, the spinning reels are bigger and now we also use more baitcasting reels with stronger line. The simple purpose is to catch some bigger and stronger predators with bigger lures. In the Rapala lure selection we find more than 30 lures that qualify for this category and you can say the average weight of these lures is between 10 and 20 grams. I dare to say that this Medium category is interesting for the average lure fisherman starting to fish with Rapala lures. His rod, reel and line are strong enough to handle the biggest pikes and strongest trout but he is still able to cast and present small lures starters prefer to use in the beginning of their lure fishing career.
Besides casting from the bank and the boat, there is also another method becoming very popular in Europe: trolling. In the U.S.A. this method was known and used already a long time, but in the last 10 years it became a hit in several European countries. By adapting the tackle, from new braided lines to new left handed baitcasting reels in combination with longer baitcasters, the European fishermen developed a way to troll with smaller Rapala lures, even in shallow waters. It is an easy and somewhat lazy way of fishing for predators that is very effective for you cover a lot of water. Some lures from the light category that are doing very well when you troll them, are the J-13, Husky 13, Floating Magnums 9 and 11 and last but not least the bigger models of the Shad Rap, both shallow and deep runners. The right choice of your lure depends for a great part on the depth of the water you fish and the time of the year. We know a lot of predators are active above the thermocline in summer and stay deep in winter. We also know that reducing the distance between the boat and the lure, prevents it to go deeper. This enables to troll Rapala lures that will swim 4 meters when you have them 30 meters behind the boat, in water of 2 meters deep when you troll them 5 meters behind the boat. To get an idea how deep most of the Rapala lures swim when trolled behind a boat, have a look at the Trolling Depth Chart in one of the other chapters of this Rapala ABC. Finally, some tips when trolling: change the speed of your lure by moving your rod tip forwards and backwards. When you troll in sunny weather and clear water, the best colour of your plug, and I have tested this in many waters in many countries, is - just black! Don't ask me why, statistics show it really works.
In practice you see more things that don't fit in the normal thinking we have about how predators behave. Take for instance the fact that it is much easier to catch really big pike, say over 15 pounds, in wintertime than in summer. People expect cold blooded animals like pike to eat more in the warmer water in summer but the fact is that we catch a lot of big pikes on the bigger lures in wintertime. And believe it or not, I have more success trolling bigger lures at a rather high speed in wintertime than with smaller lures one would expect to do well. The length of the rods I use in this category is adapted to the way of fishing. In the boat I prefer shorter rods, from 180 to 240 cm, than when fishing from the bank. If I have to make long casts, I even use rods with a length of 330 and 360. I'll give two examples where these long rods were the difference between catching nice fish or no fish at all. Fishing from the rocky banks of the islands in the mouth of the Taltson River in Canada, you had to cast a long distance to reach the current behind the reefs where the big pikes were waiting. Only with a long rod of 11 or 12 feet this was possible. The same long spinning rod also helped to get the hooked pikes safe over the shallow rocks by holding the tip high.
A similar situation once happened to me in the Ponoi river in Russia in summertime when the water was very low and the salmon could only be found in the middle part of this big river full of rocks, boulders and other obstacles. Casting Countdown Rapala plugs as far as you could, proved to be the only way to catch these salmon. I was so lucky to have an 11 feet spinning rod with me and caught no less than 49 Atlantic salmon during this 4 days trip while other fishermen had a hard job to catch one or two per day.
As said earlier, it is impossible to put all the good advice and practical tricks I know in a few pages on this web site. But I promise the Rapala fans to continue with this practical information. I will end this Medium category which the very best tip I ever got and which works in all fishing spots all over the world. It comes from my friends at The In-Fisherman in Brainerd, MN, U.S.A. They have developed a formula for successful fishing and it is: F + L + P = S. I will explain this formula which helped me a lot. F stands for Fish. The more you know about the behaviour of the fish you intend to catch, the better results you get. L stands for Location. You can only catch a certain predator if you know it is there and that can differ from month to month. Some fishes migrate for spawning, some follow the bait fish they need for food and others look for cooler water in summer and warmer water in winter. The P stands for the very important Presentation and the most natural presentation of your lure makes the fish grab your lure sooner than a lure presented in a lousy unnatural way. If you have these F, L and P right, you will more or less automatically get the S of Success. Enough about this Medium category and let's have a look at the next one.
Medium Heavy
There is no sharp line between Medium and Medium Heavy and it is even possible to use the same lure for both categories. It is more the size of the predators one expects than the weight of the lures and I'll give some examples. When I go spinning with a Rapala J-13 in a body of water where the average size of the pike is a few kilos, I use medium tackle. But when I use the same lure in a water known for its big pikes and wels catfish, I prefer stronger tackle that fits in the medium heavy category. It can also happen that the weight and size of the lure give you the idea you can use medium tackle but the resistance under water when you fish this lure, makes you should use stronger, medium heavy tackle. You want an example? Take for instance the Risto Rap 8, the SSR 9 or the Down Deep Rattlin' Fat Rap that is 7 cm long. These lures don't weigh over 20 grams but their big swimming lip causes so much resistance when you fish them that it is better to use a spinning rod that can handle 30 - 50 grams.
Of course there are also Rapala lures with more weight that fit in this category and some popular ones I use quite often are the Original Floating 18, the Magnum Floating 14 and the new Deep Suspending Husky Jerk 12. It is the same story regarding the length of the rods: adapt them to the circumstances! When trolling you had better use a short rod and when you have to make long casts from the bank, a long rod will do a better job. Fishing with bigger lures and stronger rods, also means you have to adapt your line and I prefer super lines with a diameter that ranges from 0,20 to 0,25 mm. I know fishermen spinning for big trout and salmon preferring 0,30 to 0,45 mm nylon because that has more stretch and reduces the risk you make a hole in the jaws of the fish and loose it. In my opinion it might be better to use a rod with a softer rod tip and still use the braided dyneema line but I also know that as long as there are fishermen, there will be discussions about the right tackle. I think we can say everybody is a little bit right and as long as it makes you happy and gives you more confidence it is all right.
I use this kind of tackle most when trolling in deeper water with some of the Rapala wobblers just mentioned and when I fish for big pikes in Canada, the Baltic Sea and Ireland. If I have a special tip? Yes, and here it comes. This category is suited very well for fishing with a baitcasting reel and baitcaster rod. A lot of fishermen think about problems like bird nests, backlash, wrong tuning of the reel, a right hand reel handle and fishing with the rings upside. I can understand this but with the modern baitcasting reels, now more and more available in a left-hand version, the problems are way less than in the past. There are even reels now with a so-called Anti Backlash system that are very easy to use. With a bait casting reel you have more power to drill and land a fish and you can fish with them many years without the mechanical problems like a bad closing bale normal reels are known for. When you intend to go for the real big predators, both in fresh and salt water, you need tackle and tips from the next category.
Heavy
Now we talk about Rapala lures weighing more than 30 grams that will be fished with rods with a casting weight of 50 grams and more and also stronger lines. I have used this tackle for musky fishing in the U.S.A., catfish in Austria, big and strong pike from Lough Mask in Ireland and last but not least 30 pound lake trout in the very north of Canada. People look surprised when you put an 18 cm Floating Magnum, 20 cm Rapala Sliver or 22 cm Countdown Magnum on your extra strong leader with even stronger snap. They don't believe you can catch fish with these huge lures but the reality shows time and time again these predators just mentioned have no problems to grab these lures between their jaws. This is also the category where almost every fisherman uses baitcasting equipment and trolling is more popular than casting. Not so surprising for casting these big lures for several hours becomes very tiring.
There is not much more to say about this heavy fishing but here come some final tips. First of all I use longer leaders than when fishing with lighter tackle. Big fishes that are hooked, like to twist around the line and that is why I prefer leaders of at least 60 cm long. I mentioned strong snaps and personally I prefer the so called Cross Lock snap which is hard to open and still gives the big wobbler enough freedom to show the predators its unique Rapala action. I consider fishing with these big lures and heavy tackle more or less as the optimum of lure fishing. And believe me, playing a 25-pound pike, 30 pound lake trout and musky and if you are lucky a 50 pound plus catfish on this sturdy tackle, still makes your heart beat faster.
I sometimes wonder how many predators, divided over many, many species, I have caught in the almost 40 years I have been fishing with Rapala lures. It must be many and I really hope many more will follow in the years to come. I still remember how I got my very first pike on an 11 cm Original in my local polder waters. I also remember how I caught nice brown trout, double figure zander, hard fighting salmon, big perches on light and catfish on heavy tackle, my first black bass on a small Shad Rap, pirana, peacock bass, pacu, matrincha and cachorra on both floating and sinking small Rapala lures in Brazil. I haven't forgotten the ide, chub, Danube salmon, musky, grayling and artic grayling, huge lake trout, white bass, crappie, yellow perch and last but not least sea trout, walleye, rainbow trout and tiger musky, all of which I hooked on one of the many Rapala lures that have become more and more my best friends. Fishing for all these predators was done in different waters with different Rapala lures in combination with the right tackle under different conditions and circumstances.
Wherever you fish, the key to success is the right presentation of your lure in the right place during the right season. In this article I want to tell my Internet Rapala friends, which are my favourite Rapala lures for the most popular predators, which rod, line, reel and leader combination I use, how I present these lures during the various seasons of the year and a lot more of little tricks that mean a lot. I was wondering how I would do it, per species, per group of Rapala lures or per type of water? I have decided to do it according to the 6 tackle categories mentioned in the Rapala ABC-file, so from Ultra Light to Big Game Fishing.
Ultra Light
I think it is easy to understand that especially the smaller predators are the target for this kind of lure fishing. My number one predator choice for ultra light Rapala lure fishing is the brown trout in small streams, creeks and even the trout ponds in put-and-take waters. If we start with the last habitat mentioned, it makes quite some difference during what time of the year you fish there. Early spring and during late autumn and winter, the trout stay much deeper than in the warmer months of the year. If they are feeding on insects and even small fry from the surface, you'd better use a shallow running wobbler like the Rapala Original Floating in the sizes 3 and 5 cm, the Husky Jerk 6 cm and, this is no joke, the 5 cm Skitter Pop. I know, fishing with poppers for trout is almost unknown to many trout fishermen, but especially in hard-fished waters a change from what everybody is offering, can be very productive. Another rarely used UL trout lure that can be fished close to the surface, is the 5 cm Minnow Spoon. And not only small trout like them, I have even caught trout in the 3 - 4 kilo range with this lure.
Trout start feeding closer to the bottom when the water gets colder and now it is time to use UL Rapala lures that also swim deeper. Personally I prefer the 3 and 5 cm Countdown models, the 5 cm Shad Rap Count Down, the tiny Mini Fat Rap and last but not least the smallest 4 cm Risto Rap when the trout are hiding in deep holes.
Fishing from the banks of these trout ponds, I prefer a longer light spinning rod, say length around 250 cm, than fishing in small rivers with many trees and bushes where a short rod of 210 or even 190 cm is an advantage. Which line? Personally I prefer 0,12 or 0,14 mm dyneema line with a not too heavy snap at the end. If you prefer nylon, I can recommend 0,16 to 0,18 mm and try a fluorescent colour that gives you a better indication where your lure is. When you fish a small creek with a lot of obstacles on the bottom, it might be an idea to remove the first treble and only use the one at the tail. If you still hook weed or bottom, you can change this treble for a single or double hook. When fishing for trout in these small rivers, it is very possible to catch another predator loving small wobblers: the chub! Although it doesn't taste that well as a trout, it is always nice to catch these hard fighting members of the carp family that have learned to grab almost everything that looks edible.
Another interesting predator for UL spinning is the perch. I can recommend beginners to buy some small Rapala lures and fish the waters you know, from fishing with worms or maggots, to have plenty of perch. Perch are opportunistic hunters that are not afraid of bigger lures and when fishing with a 5 or 6 cm wobbler, one should not be amazed to catch a small Perca only a few centimetres bigger than the lure. When you have caught your first perches on a lure only half the size of the fish, you start to understand that a lure is not so soon too big for a predator. Besides these small Rapala lures, one can also use small Vibrax spinners and the smallest sizes of the Minnow Spin. One final advice: when you fish in waters where you can expect pike, please use a short and light wire, say 10 lb, leader. You will loose less lures and don't cause problems of dying pikes with a treble in their throat.
The lures mentioned in this chapter are also interesting for zander and I have caught double figure zander on even the smallest Rapala lures. When you really intend to catch zander with this UL tackle, the very last tip is to start fishing when everybody goes home. The last half hour of daylight and the first hour of the dark, are the best times for catching zander. This is the time when they are really active and hunt, so be active yourself - it brings fun!
Light
Probably I have a problem in finding enough space to describe the way of fishing I've done and still do the most and also like the most. Yes, light spinning is the method responsible for most of the predators I have caught in about 20 countries all over the fishing world. People often think Jan Eggers is only interested in fishing for big pikes, using big lures and heavy tackle. Wrong idea. For me it is not the size of the predator that counts but more the fun I have in spinning, no matter if I catch a small perch or giant pike. Catching predators on relatively light tackle, and this doesn't mean tackle that makes you loose almost every big fish, makes you have to play the fish a little longer, bends the rod tip more often and creates the nice sound of a working reel drag. One of the advantages of a light line on a small reel, a sensitive rod and a not too heavy stranded wire leader, is that you get a nice, more or less natural presentation for these smaller Rapala lures.
In the chapter about the 6 categories, I have listed all the lures fitting in this Light category and I am not going to repeat them. But I will pick the 3 best lures, simply because these are my all time favourites. I dare to say that the Jointed 11 Floating is the lure that I not like the most but love the most. If I had to go to an unknown fishing spot with a variety of predators, this J-11 would be my number 1 choice. And my second best light lure is almost identical, it is the 2 cm smaller J-9 which is used in shallower water or when there is more weed in summer and early autumn. Regarding the number 3 in my list of personal Light category favourites, I have some doubt between the Original Floating 11 and the Husky Jerk 10 but the rattles in the Husky Jerk make it gets the bronze medal in this category. Because a lot of the zander, pike and perch fishing in my local Dutch polder canals is done in the colder time of the year, some wide wobbler action, when you reel in slow, is a huge advantage and these jointed models have that special action.
When fishing with a modern braided super line, my favourites are Power Pro and FireLine, you really feel every movement of these lures and also see the action reflectioned in the vibrations of the rod tip. When you don't feel or see this action, it is a sign there is some weed or something else hanging on the hooks or that the wire of the leader is hooked behind a treble. There is also another possibility why you don't feel the right action: the starting speed of the lure has been too slow! Yes, one should start the lure with a few fast turns of the reel handle to get the desired depth and the right wiggle of the lure. This wide action of the jointed Rapala is irresistible for almost every predator it passes by, no matter if they are hungry or not. There is one very special moment that you don't feel the action of the lure for a split second that I like. It can happen you feel all at once no pressure on your line, as if the lure is bitten off. This is the moment a pike or zander grabs the lure from behind and almost immediately you feel the fish on the hooks. Besides feeling the predator attacking the lure, it also happens quite often in the more or less shallow waters where I use this J-9 and J-11 that you see the pike follow the lure and/or take it. But there are also days, after a storm and heavy rain, that it is impossible for the predators to see my slow moving J-9 or J-11 lure. In this brown/grey-coloured water the visibility is not more than half a meter and under these conditions I prefer to use hot colours like the CLN, GFR and FT. It gives me more confidence, so it works!
If you want some real surface action in this Light category, you should hang a 5 or 7 cm Skitter Pop on the leader. I dare to say that the introduction of the Skitter Pop has changed my way of fishing in the warmer months of the year. I can get excited by the explosion of the water surface, the leaping pikes, and a few times a perch and zander, and this in water with a lot of weeds where it was impossible to use other Rapala lures. It is not the size of the fish that give you the most fun and satisfaction. No, it is the excitement of the sudden strike, sometimes in front of your feet, or seeing the pike coming towards your lure in a big wave on the surface that makes this technique so very interesting. One advice when you see a predator strike at your Skitter Pop: wait one second before setting the hook! This is a kind of a guarantee that the fish has the lure between the jaws and that you don't pull it away in front of its nose.
From surface fishing in summer we go to down deep light fishing in wintertime. Our target is the zander in sometimes 15 to 20 meters deep water. We fish from a boat with depth sounder on lakes and big canals with a lot of structure where you can expect both prey fish and zander. We use short rods, sometimes even one piece spinning rods of 180 cm that have some top action and on the rod we put a small and modern spinning reel with 0,12 mm dyneema line on the spool. Why a modern reel? Simply because these reels have no longer the possibility of the bale going back when you set the hook. So you have direct contact with the fish which is very important when you want to set the hook properly in 18 meters depth. Fishing in such deep waters means you need special lures and my favourites are the 4 cm Rattlin' Rapala and the 5 cm Minnow Spoon. The first one has the sound of the rattling balls inside the lure as a bonus and the 2nd one the extremely interesting wobbling action when fished with little jerks up and down. Especially in an area where a lot of vertical fishing is done with shads, twisters and blade pilkers, something with a total different action will do the job.
If you have found a promising spot with your echo sounder, you drop your lure into the water next to the boat and let it sink to the bottom. Reel in so that the line is straight between lure and rod tip and give a little jerk so that is goes up 30 - 40 cm. Wait a split second and let it sink gently to the bottom and repeat this action again. Just do it quietly and often, especially in winter time when it is rather cold, it is better to make slow, short jerks than moving it up and down too fast. It can be very interesting to hear by the rattling sound of your Rattlin' Rapala that a zander, and sometimes also a perch and pike, grab your lure. This way of zander fishing has become very popular in Holland in the recent years.
I realise I can write about light spinning for garpike in brackish water, for black bass in the U.S.A., but also in Spain and Italy. I can also write about fishing for asp, Aspius aspius is the official name, in Germany and Austria, for wild brown trout in the rivers of Central Finland or just for arctic grayling and walleye in Canada. But I better stop this chapter and have a closer look at the next category.
Medium
As mentioned in other chapters of the Rapala ABC, there is not much difference between techniques and tactics of the categories Light and Medium. The main difference is we fish with stronger rods that can handle heavier lures, the spinning reels are bigger and now we also use more baitcasting reels with stronger line. The simple purpose is to catch some bigger and stronger predators with bigger lures. In the Rapala lure selection we find more than 30 lures that qualify for this category and you can say the average weight of these lures is between 10 and 20 grams. I dare to say that this Medium category is interesting for the average lure fisherman starting to fish with Rapala lures. His rod, reel and line are strong enough to handle the biggest pikes and strongest trout but he is still able to cast and present small lures starters prefer to use in the beginning of their lure fishing career.
Besides casting from the bank and the boat, there is also another method becoming very popular in Europe: trolling. In the U.S.A. this method was known and used already a long time, but in the last 10 years it became a hit in several European countries. By adapting the tackle, from new braided lines to new left handed baitcasting reels in combination with longer baitcasters, the European fishermen developed a way to troll with smaller Rapala lures, even in shallow waters. It is an easy and somewhat lazy way of fishing for predators that is very effective for you cover a lot of water. Some lures from the light category that are doing very well when you troll them, are the J-13, Husky 13, Floating Magnums 9 and 11 and last but not least the bigger models of the Shad Rap, both shallow and deep runners. The right choice of your lure depends for a great part on the depth of the water you fish and the time of the year. We know a lot of predators are active above the thermocline in summer and stay deep in winter. We also know that reducing the distance between the boat and the lure, prevents it to go deeper. This enables to troll Rapala lures that will swim 4 meters when you have them 30 meters behind the boat, in water of 2 meters deep when you troll them 5 meters behind the boat. To get an idea how deep most of the Rapala lures swim when trolled behind a boat, have a look at the Trolling Depth Chart in one of the other chapters of this Rapala ABC. Finally, some tips when trolling: change the speed of your lure by moving your rod tip forwards and backwards. When you troll in sunny weather and clear water, the best colour of your plug, and I have tested this in many waters in many countries, is - just black! Don't ask me why, statistics show it really works.
In practice you see more things that don't fit in the normal thinking we have about how predators behave. Take for instance the fact that it is much easier to catch really big pike, say over 15 pounds, in wintertime than in summer. People expect cold blooded animals like pike to eat more in the warmer water in summer but the fact is that we catch a lot of big pikes on the bigger lures in wintertime. And believe it or not, I have more success trolling bigger lures at a rather high speed in wintertime than with smaller lures one would expect to do well. The length of the rods I use in this category is adapted to the way of fishing. In the boat I prefer shorter rods, from 180 to 240 cm, than when fishing from the bank. If I have to make long casts, I even use rods with a length of 330 and 360. I'll give two examples where these long rods were the difference between catching nice fish or no fish at all. Fishing from the rocky banks of the islands in the mouth of the Taltson River in Canada, you had to cast a long distance to reach the current behind the reefs where the big pikes were waiting. Only with a long rod of 11 or 12 feet this was possible. The same long spinning rod also helped to get the hooked pikes safe over the shallow rocks by holding the tip high.
A similar situation once happened to me in the Ponoi river in Russia in summertime when the water was very low and the salmon could only be found in the middle part of this big river full of rocks, boulders and other obstacles. Casting Countdown Rapala plugs as far as you could, proved to be the only way to catch these salmon. I was so lucky to have an 11 feet spinning rod with me and caught no less than 49 Atlantic salmon during this 4 days trip while other fishermen had a hard job to catch one or two per day.
As said earlier, it is impossible to put all the good advice and practical tricks I know in a few pages on this web site. But I promise the Rapala fans to continue with this practical information. I will end this Medium category which the very best tip I ever got and which works in all fishing spots all over the world. It comes from my friends at The In-Fisherman in Brainerd, MN, U.S.A. They have developed a formula for successful fishing and it is: F + L + P = S. I will explain this formula which helped me a lot. F stands for Fish. The more you know about the behaviour of the fish you intend to catch, the better results you get. L stands for Location. You can only catch a certain predator if you know it is there and that can differ from month to month. Some fishes migrate for spawning, some follow the bait fish they need for food and others look for cooler water in summer and warmer water in winter. The P stands for the very important Presentation and the most natural presentation of your lure makes the fish grab your lure sooner than a lure presented in a lousy unnatural way. If you have these F, L and P right, you will more or less automatically get the S of Success. Enough about this Medium category and let's have a look at the next one.
Medium Heavy
There is no sharp line between Medium and Medium Heavy and it is even possible to use the same lure for both categories. It is more the size of the predators one expects than the weight of the lures and I'll give some examples. When I go spinning with a Rapala J-13 in a body of water where the average size of the pike is a few kilos, I use medium tackle. But when I use the same lure in a water known for its big pikes and wels catfish, I prefer stronger tackle that fits in the medium heavy category. It can also happen that the weight and size of the lure give you the idea you can use medium tackle but the resistance under water when you fish this lure, makes you should use stronger, medium heavy tackle. You want an example? Take for instance the Risto Rap 8, the SSR 9 or the Down Deep Rattlin' Fat Rap that is 7 cm long. These lures don't weigh over 20 grams but their big swimming lip causes so much resistance when you fish them that it is better to use a spinning rod that can handle 30 - 50 grams.
Of course there are also Rapala lures with more weight that fit in this category and some popular ones I use quite often are the Original Floating 18, the Magnum Floating 14 and the new Deep Suspending Husky Jerk 12. It is the same story regarding the length of the rods: adapt them to the circumstances! When trolling you had better use a short rod and when you have to make long casts from the bank, a long rod will do a better job. Fishing with bigger lures and stronger rods, also means you have to adapt your line and I prefer super lines with a diameter that ranges from 0,20 to 0,25 mm. I know fishermen spinning for big trout and salmon preferring 0,30 to 0,45 mm nylon because that has more stretch and reduces the risk you make a hole in the jaws of the fish and loose it. In my opinion it might be better to use a rod with a softer rod tip and still use the braided dyneema line but I also know that as long as there are fishermen, there will be discussions about the right tackle. I think we can say everybody is a little bit right and as long as it makes you happy and gives you more confidence it is all right.
I use this kind of tackle most when trolling in deeper water with some of the Rapala wobblers just mentioned and when I fish for big pikes in Canada, the Baltic Sea and Ireland. If I have a special tip? Yes, and here it comes. This category is suited very well for fishing with a baitcasting reel and baitcaster rod. A lot of fishermen think about problems like bird nests, backlash, wrong tuning of the reel, a right hand reel handle and fishing with the rings upside. I can understand this but with the modern baitcasting reels, now more and more available in a left-hand version, the problems are way less than in the past. There are even reels now with a so-called Anti Backlash system that are very easy to use. With a bait casting reel you have more power to drill and land a fish and you can fish with them many years without the mechanical problems like a bad closing bale normal reels are known for. When you intend to go for the real big predators, both in fresh and salt water, you need tackle and tips from the next category.
Heavy
Now we talk about Rapala lures weighing more than 30 grams that will be fished with rods with a casting weight of 50 grams and more and also stronger lines. I have used this tackle for musky fishing in the U.S.A., catfish in Austria, big and strong pike from Lough Mask in Ireland and last but not least 30 pound lake trout in the very north of Canada. People look surprised when you put an 18 cm Floating Magnum, 20 cm Rapala Sliver or 22 cm Countdown Magnum on your extra strong leader with even stronger snap. They don't believe you can catch fish with these huge lures but the reality shows time and time again these predators just mentioned have no problems to grab these lures between their jaws. This is also the category where almost every fisherman uses baitcasting equipment and trolling is more popular than casting. Not so surprising for casting these big lures for several hours becomes very tiring.
There is not much more to say about this heavy fishing but here come some final tips. First of all I use longer leaders than when fishing with lighter tackle. Big fishes that are hooked, like to twist around the line and that is why I prefer leaders of at least 60 cm long. I mentioned strong snaps and personally I prefer the so called Cross Lock snap which is hard to open and still gives the big wobbler enough freedom to show the predators its unique Rapala action. I consider fishing with these big lures and heavy tackle more or less as the optimum of lure fishing. And believe me, playing a 25-pound pike, 30 pound lake trout and musky and if you are lucky a 50 pound plus catfish on this sturdy tackle, still makes your heart beat faster.