Rapala X-Rap Walk 13

As mentioned in the previous post Doug and I boated two fish over the fifty inch mark on film the other day. I'm pretty excited to tell you about the lure we caught the fish on and how we had success but for complete details your going to have to watch the show.

Here is a little Taste!
I have often spoke about how each lure is part of play that should be in your playbook. The lure alone isn't going to give you success but it's the totality of the circumstance you are in. What? I'm saying there are many factors that have to be taken into consideration to consistently put trophy fish in the boat. You have to be able to read those factors and make correct adjustments to your game. The best anglers can just do that! Make the right call at the right times. Just like it takes so many factors of the Vikings Offense to have a successful touchdown. In short the Offense has to read the opposing defense and make the right play call then the boys up front need to fill their roll and make blocks, Favre needs to handle the snap, and then you just give the ball to Peterson and we score! With fishing for muskies you need to consider many different variables and apply that to your lure selection.

Odds in your favor
While Doug and I were on the water we had fished some outside weed edges but we did not contact the size of fish we wanted. Clue #1 we weren't fishing where the big fish were. We adjusted and looked shallow. We had calm water and low light. Typically from past experience a topwater lure would come to mind. A topwater lure also gives me almost 100% clean cast as the water we where fishing in was weed choked. A huge part in the game of musky fishing is having as many odds in your favor as possible. When you have clean cast, no weeds, you have more chance to boat a fish. Cast angle another part of our successful play. We decided to push up into super shallow and cast out towards the break. After getting all of those pieces of the play we needed to present the lure in a manner that would cause the fish to loose its grip and smash the bait! A large piece of presenting the lure in the correct manner was using a smaller then normal musky rod that being a 7' 11" Fenwick Elite Tech Flipping Stick, with Suffix Line and Suffix Fluorocarbon Leader.

Lure Presentation
The playbook was set in motion and we fired our cast. The Rapala X-Rap Walk 13 was called up to make a play. The lure is an amazing lure to say the least and I'm excited about it! Although you can work the bait in super fast motion I slowed the bait down in a rhythmic cadence. As I mentioned it takes a little practice but the goal is to get the lure to almost stay in a straight line but to flip back and forth in a Z pattern. I see a lot of guys work this lure with long sweeping rod pumps causing the lure to swing way left and right. I feel that by working the lure this way it will cause you to miss more fish. So with the goal is to work the lure back and forth but keeping in the same path while searching for fish. I do this by casting the lure out and with the a small amount of slack in the line I pump the rod tip with small twitches while reeling the reel just the right amount. Once you get the rhythmic cadence down you will have it dancing as it should. Now there are times when I have a fish come up behind the lure and sometimes it takes a change in that cadence to trigger a strike so I first try to speed the lure up. If that isn't working I will stop the bait and do long hard twitches causing the bait to stay in one location for a period of time but will turn from side to side throwing more water. If the fish still is following and won't take the bait on the surface go into your figure eight bringing the lure sub surface moving your rod tip back and forth while in the figure 8. Make sure to not only change speeds but to change water depths as this is by far one of the most crucial parts of the figure 8. I like to make my L turn at the boat then go really deep with the lure then come back up like a fleeing fish would to the surface and that is when I get almost all of my figure 8 strikes.

A Little More About the Lure
The Rapala X-Rap Walk 13 is made of super tough plastic, VMC hooks, a ball bearing rattle which causes a unique noise and is weighted perfectly making long casy easy. The bait is also one of the easiest walk the dog lures on the market. While filming with Doug I boated six muskies on this lure and had six bites. That is a 100% and that is one of the top aspects that this lure has over many and trust me I have missed many fish on other brand of topwaters. The hard plastic does not allow for a muskies teeth to sink into it and small body allows for the fish get good hooks while it chows down.


(Photo courtesy of Rapala)

The Rapala X-Walk 13 is just another important part of my playbook and I can guarantee I will score again with this bait!

Check out more at Rapala X-Rap Walk 13

You can purchase the Rapala X-Rap Walk 13 from KrugerFarms.com just go here KrugerFarms.com Sign in and look at the largest selection of Rapalas online!