Which raps did you use for the different techniques.
With Lead core? Casting? etc… There are 4 varieties, in your opinion, which does each excel at?
Thanks in advance. Want to get informed before I place an order.
The best advice I can give you for any crankbait fishing is that your best bet will be to match the baitfish that your target species is keying in on for the body of water where you’ll be fishing.
That said here are a few observations after a week of fishing nothing but Scatter Raps.
Scatter Minnow – My biggest fish for the trip (39.5″ pike) and actually most all of our BIG walleyes and pike came on the scatter minnow in Gold Alburns. (I also netted Joel Nelson’s 29.75″ monster ‘Eye that hit a minnow on day 5) Gold is always a hot producing color up on LOTW so that speaks for itself, but as for why the minnow put the biggest fish in the boat I think the reason we got more big fish on this bait is because it is the bait with the largest profile and bigger fish are frequenly looking for a bigger meal. Because of their lightweight balsa wood construction having the larger profile did make these baits more difficult to cast unless you are casting with wind at your back.
Scatter shads – These are a perfect all around bait that worked great for both casting shorelines or trolling with leadcore. Especially when were were looking for large numbers of eater size fish the bait killed the walleyes and sauger pulled with leadcore. My personal favorite color especially when the sun is shining happens to be hot steel… I picked up both my big bass (18.5″) for the trip casting a beaver dam and my big walleye (26.5″) pulling leadcore along a windblown shoreline with a hot steel scatter shad.
Scatter Crank – The scatter cranks work excellent for casting shorelines for bass as they cast extremely well and cut through the wind. The day I fished with Mark Fisher once we got the bite dialed in he had a field day with smallies casting a Caribbean Shad colored scatter crank. We had our best luck retrieving these baits very slowly and adding in a pause after every 4-6 cranks of the reel. I was also very suprised however at how effective these baits were trolled with leadcore for walleyes… I think Cal was the first to try this and he killed them on Day 3 using a Firetiger scatter crank. On day 4 when I fished with Holst our big fish of the day (26.5″ walleye) also came on a scatter crank pulled with lead… If I recall correctly it was Caribbean Shad as well.
Scatter Countdown – Scatter countdown is an excellent bait if you want to be able to cast in water deeper than 8-10 FOW. I have to be honest I hardly fished this as we were covering a lot of water and it fishes the slowest because you have to wait to count it down but one extremely effective approach that others used was slow retrieving either orange crawfish or perch colors in this bait over rocks. They were letting it get down to the bottom and then slowly bouncing it off the rocks like a craw/baitfish trying to escape can be absolutely deadly on both bass and walleyes.
Hope this helps 
Will, thanks for taking the time to give this detailed report. I was wondering the same thing. I just purchased some myself. Can’t wait to try them out. Thanks again for sharing, Chuck
Quote:
Which raps did you use for the different techniques.
With Lead core? Casting? etc… There are 4 varieties, in your opinion, which does each excel at?Thanks in advance. Want to get informed before I place an order.
I will echo what Will stated about trying to match according to bait fish present in whatever body of water you are fishing.
Countdown: I never tried a Scatter Rap countdown the entire trip. Mostly because I was fishing very quickly to shorelines or rock piles. I could see where this bait would be a great choice on some large crappies suspended over deep water, either trolling or casting and counting down to the desired depth.
Minnow: I mainly trolled this bait as I felt that it can be difficult to cast in a heavy wind, the lure is light and makes casting against wind or in a cross wind difficult. This bait is a very great trolling bait. My favorite for long lining trolling. I can see this bait tied on a lot in the fall on lakes such as mille lacs for the fall trolling run. The Gold Alburnus, Clown, and Yellow Perch are my favorite colors
Crank: This member of the Scatter Rap family is my personal favorite. Casts very well in any wind and trolls very smooth. It has a very tight wobble that mimic a small young of year baitfish. Carribean Shad and Demon are my 2 favorite colors as well.
Shad: Also a very versitale bait, whether casting or trolling is has a loose wobble than the crank and tighter than the minnow. Helsinki shad was the color that I tied 1st onto my casting and trolling rod each morning. This Scatter Shad in Helsinki color put a lot fish on the end of my line. The Golden Alburnus and Blue Back Herring are also a couple additional favorite colors.
Lots of options in the Scatter Rap family. If I was held to one style and one color it would be the Scatter Rap Crank in Helsinki Shad color. That is my cofindence color in the Scatter Rap.
Wow, not much left after the incredible detail both Will and Cal went into. I’ll offer my 2 cents from the experiences shared in my boat as well.
Minnow – As discussed, this was definitely our big fish bait. Troll the same area with shads that produced fish, then put down a minnow to see some of the big fish that were also down there. Gold Alburnus produced so well, we had a hard time giving the other colors a try, though I put several 24-26″ fish up on firetiger in the minnow as well. As discussed, to me this is a trolling bait unless the wind is low.
Crank – Definitely the most surprising bait-style of the trip for me. I considered this at first a “bass-bait” only, but was surprised to see how versatile the crank was when trolled. Esp. in Demon, you couldn’t keep the smallies away when casting, and for sheer numbers of fish, it outproduced almost everything in my boat while trolling. Carribean shad for Cal, and Blue Back Herring for Grant put alot of fish in the boat trolling as well. Definitely the best-casting bait of the bunch.
Shad – Probably the best all-around bait style for all species and numbers, the Shad dives only slightly deeper than the Crank, but that made the difference many times when casting, esp. for the eyes. This bait in Helsinki was about as go-to as it got for trolling as well, and I would’ve loved to have had some in Demon, Gold Alburnus, and Firetiger in my boat!!!!!
Countdown – Like the other guys, I’m disappointed in myself for not giving this bait more of a chance. It’s slightly less erratic to my eye, probably because of the weight, but gives you the option of fishing those deeper breaks so well. I’ve already got some for trout fishing, can’t wait to use them. That said, this would be a great bait for covering long underwater points with sand/gravel on top.
Trolling Observations – These baits held their tune quite well, and none of them had issues with rolling on me except the minnows when on-bottom. A swivel would’ve corrected this, but would you believe that I forgot them? 
Either way, these baits are not designed to be slammed into bottom or plowed through rocks, mostly because the erratic kick that triggers fish off of structure is already present in the bait’s natural motion. More on that for casting, but we definitely did better keeping our baits just above bottom rather than digging up the dirt.
More-so than with most baits, I felt that any change or pause in the troll really triggered fish. We caught so many fish just setting out baits, sweeping the rods, and while slowing/turning, it was more than coincidence. These baits really get erratic, when picking up slack line on a retrieve. They shake pretty well on a straight retrieve, but give them slack, let the bait float up (they’re ultra bouyant), and start back up again to really see them shine.
Casting Observations – The bouyancy really aids in their snag-proofing. We really put some baits deep in rocks, only to let them float back out again and continue the retrieve. Just like with the trolling, pauses, and slow re-starts really triggered fish. Mark Fisher really was a pro at this, and helped to unlock that secret early.
Because this feature is “built-in,” I think the point that needs to be driven home hardest is to resist your natural tendency to slash that rod back and forth and impart your own action. The bait has it, and getting crazy with the rod will only make that bait roll, especially the crank. Let it do the work, and you’ll be impressed with the results!
Joel
So what are the dive curves for the baits. I have a relitively shallow lake and most trolling is done in 4-6 FOW. I can imaging the shads dive a little deeper than the minnow? I bought only 2 as you have to be rich to buy them…. 
Chappy:
If you do most of your trolling in 4-6FOW, the Crank, Shad, and Minnow will all work well. In that shallow of water, you might need to position your rod tip high enough in the holder so the minnow and shad allow you to get enough line out without digging bottom.
Keep in mind that the minnow is the deepest diving of the baits. James and I were able to get 10-11 FOW trolling with the minnow, long lining it at 180 feet or so. Halve that distance and keep the rod higher to achieve your target depth. I can say in terms of casting, you’ll have no problems with those depths on any of the baits.
Use whichever type and color combination you have the most confidence in, and adjust from there!
Joel
Thanks Joel….We typically pull crawler harness and spinners 35 feet behing the boat.
If you can pull right over the fish like that and they’re snapping, you’ll have no problem with any of the baits. You’ll be able to get the most line back with the crank, then the shad, then the minnow, in that order. However, it doesn’t seem like that’s a problem. Boards would be great in that shallow too. Good luck!
Joel
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