Trolling Rapala DT’s ?

Anyone ever lead or long line troll Rapala DT’s? I was just wondering how they ran and if they are worth it (as opposed to a regular Shad Rap). I saw them at Gander for $2.99 and was considering the fat DT-6’s for this purpose.

I not sure about your questions but where are you seeing these dts for that price? I am looking at gander online and am not seeing them.

Thanks
Dan

Looked at the gander in Blaine and didnt find any either. Doesnt surprise me. Walk out of that store empty handed far more times than finding what I want there.

I see they had bandit lures for $2.99. Anyone ever try them. Looked to be 700 series.

I went to the Blaine Gander and didn’t find the $2.99 raps, found them in Forest Lake, and heard of them first in Maple Grove.

The 700 series Bandits worked for mwe the one time I tried them, deep cranking for bass. The fish were snapping at the time, I usually use DT16s, the 700 is used in similar situations.

The one thing I remember is I changed out the line tie because it was too tight. Otherwise, the fish hit it HARD, it seemed like a little more violent then the DTs I was using.

I was wondering the same, rockford ill gander has them for $3.99.

Sorry, Yes, they were $3.99 – not $2.99. Lots of other stuff there at 60% off too. They are trying to move it out for the ongoing remodel project. Store clerk said it will drop more next week to get-rid of stuff for more remodeling – up to 90% she said. (It’s at the hated Lakeville store.)
Still wondering if anyone ever trolls these fat DT’s and how they run/work for you? I think they are primarily marketed as a casting crank to the Bass guys, but the smaller size DT’s may be good for trolling too.????

Thanks for the heads up. Are you only seeing this is the dt16?also sorry about side tracking the post.

Fat and slender versions are available – from DT 4 to 16. Many color combo’s.

Don’t bother going to the Woodbury GanderMnt…

Pete, you deffinatley have the sickness.

If anyone ever comes up with a cure for “the sickness” we all must silence them before our wives find out…

-Mark

Dang Pete. Thats a good haul even by my standards.

Every crank has a different flash, wobble, action, something. I tried the DTs the last couple years (mostly 10s) and found that they do catch walleyes and saugers, and not just bass.

Thanks B Robinson!! …12 posts to finally get some kind of an answer. Maybe it was because I was not talking about plastics or blades.
I’m thinking of dragging them around on lead or on long lines in the shallower water in May/June. I’m hoping the wierd fat-rap body style proves to be positive when the shad or stick bodies arn’t cutting it. I think Pete had the same idea though. …If nothing else, at least the wife thinks their pretty.

Hey Splitshot

Sorry for getting this thread sidetracked

Like Brain mentioned above, Trolling DT crankbaits is just another tool in the box and can be very effective. I love them for casting on wingdams, but actually started fishing them 6 or so years back as a trolling bait… and low and behold my two largest walleyes were both caught trolling them on the river

I tend to troll them very slowly. Not that a fast troll wont work, but with such an aggressive action I believe it can be too much.

That’s just my experience with them, hope this helps

Thanks Pete. I have always tended to stick with regular Shad Raps, Stick style baits, or WalleyDivers most of the time – for casting or trolling. I have been looking at these DT’s for some time now and wondered how the more agressive action would be for regular trolling. I’m more of a jig guy when it comes to wing dams anyhow, but it is nice to know that the DT’s do work for trolling applications as well as for casting, especially at $3.99 a pop.

You know what’s funny? I don’t think I’ve ever casted the DT cranks, outside of the 3s and 4s for smallies. And other cranks actually outperformed the DTs for those guys.

I think the idea of longlining them is worth trying. I’ve had them on lead before, and they worked well at really getting down deep. Try different options and see if they work. When I run a DT, I have something on the other rod that is not very similar, and see if the fish can tell me what they prefer. Good luck to ya.

Will the DT10s go deeper than 10′ when trolled or is that it? What about casting them in the current will they go any deeper then?

It looks like they will go down to 21′ with 210′ of #10 mono

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Will the DT10s go deeper than 10′ when trolled or is that it? What about casting them in the current will they go any deeper then?

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I believe these cranks are designed for more casting than anything. The only reason I tried trolling them was because I knew they’d dig deep, and in a specific system that I catch saugers on, all 3 other rods (when I have another angler with me) catch fish, but my deep one never did. DTs have worked in the past, but I don’t troll them very often since I found another Rapala that works on my deep rod. If I remember correctly though, they did seem to dig deeper than 10′. Believe I had around 95′ of line out and had it in the 13-15′ range, but don’t completely quote me on that.

I troll them on wing dams and and break lines. They run nice, dig quick on short – 20 to 30 foot casts for short runs that typically run 6-10 feet deep. Cast out, hit the zone quick on a short troll. Pull them in, spin the boat and repeat.

Lost pleanty of them retail $10+ bucks each….

-J.

Hell, that’s just chump change for you, Jon…

You make a good point though- they are designed to get down to a certain range in a short amount of time. For the application you’re referring to, I bet that works real well.

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I see they had bandit lures for $2.99. Anyone ever try them. Looked to be 700 series.

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Mike, I have had great luck with Bomber’s Long A type deep runners on the River, Mille Lacs, Leech, Winnie, Cass and Bemidji. They run pretty true. I have also used the 700’s in certain portions of Pool 3 with success as well!