One of the booths that was really hoppin’ at ICAST was the Rapala booth.
Ike was there talking about how he came up with his custom colors for the DT series. He discussed how in the old days they left baits out in the sun to fade the colors for clear water or heavily pressured fish.
With his help, these Ike’s Custom Ink Colors are ready to go out of the package and don’t require all the tweaks that us old bass hounds used to use.
A new bait that Rapala is releasing is the Snap Rap. These baits have been used for deep water applications during its development. They will come in two sizes, and are really a modified ice-fishing design that lend themselves to vertical presentations.
An interesting introduction for Rapala is the BX Swimmer. These are made with a balsa wood body encased in plastic which is reported to give them an action very similar to the balsa cranks but with better durability and more consistent action from bait to bait. The BX is a jointed bait that will come in several colors and was designed as a shallow water lure.
Another new lure is the Clackin Crank which is built to dive to 10 feet and features the same noise technology as other baits in the Clackin series. This bait will stand out as its wobble is wide and aggressive.
Rapala has also introduced some new sizes of the original Shad Rap. They will come in a size 6 and 4 and are designed just like the originals.
Add to all this the introduction of new colors on several of the bait lines and for all you Rapala fans out there, you’ve got lot of goodies to consider for the up-coming season.
