Hard Pass

No, Thank You Rapala.

I could win the lottery and I’m not buying a $14 SR7 BEFORE taxes. I don’t care if you call it “Elite” and just launched the product line. PJ Fleck is also “Elite”, and I don’t buy what he sells either.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2024-03-07-102519-1.png
   

2. 

   Screenshot-2024-03-07-102519.png
   

The new normal, like groceries and trucks and boats. Nothing to worry about here.

Everything is out of hand. Yesterday I went to McDonalds and got a 1/4 cheese meal with a chocolate shake. $15!

So many better options then a Rapala. Being trapped at the hospital for 4 days I have shopped tackle ware house 10 times. And the options are endless. If I’m spending that much. It won’t be on a Rapala

I do like that color though…
DT

John Rasmussen wrote:

The new normal, like groceries and trucks and boats. Nothing to worry about here.

Like an almost 300 dollar natural gas bill for last month when it barely froze at night.

Bearcat89 wrote:

So many better options then a Rapala.

I find that their #5SRs and #5 JSRs on the river are tough to beat for durability and how true they run out of the box. The smaller flickershads don’t run nearly as true it seems and require more tuning. I’m done with their #7s though, as the flickershads at that size are just as good if not better. Unfortunately that secret is out though and their prices keep jumping, but are nowhere near what Rapala gets.

I just can’t believe that people buy the “Elites” when they are the same body, shape, running depth, but just a different paint job for $5 more. I know guys who do custom paint jobs for cheaper when ordered in bulk.

buckybadger wrote:

I just can’t believe that people buy the “Elites”

A lot of fishing lures are designed to catch fisherman’s wallets, not fish.

I love it when people buy a lure because of the color on top.

I wouldn’t trade my collection of SR5’s and JSR5’s for all the flicker shads or smash shads in the world. That being said, I’m not paying $15 for a shad rap.

My main beef with Rapala is their treble hook quality. Probably have $500 worth of Shadow Raps, I would say 70% have had to have their trebles replaced. Emailed them my disappoint in a Karen-gram and their response was …. They are not designed for walleye fishing, only bass fishing as bass have “stickier” mouths. I let them know Ill spread the word to my walleye friends to avoid them.

I’ve jumped on the Berkeley train. Relatively cheaper, and R&D is local to SD/IA, along with general quality.

Rapala Elite – I just saw these this morning. Hey, you can buy them at Mills 2 for $20.00

Yep, pass for me

Hooks – can’t say I have ever had a problem with their hooks. They are surely not Gamakatsu hooks but whos are.

The last Rapala I bought was the infamous “DT” series. They all fell apart the first day. Hitting the water at the end of a cast was enough to destroy them. OK, maybe a bad batch. I contacted Rapala to see if they would make this good and the reply I got was that “you probably wrecked them by hitting them against the side of your boat to get the weeds off”.

So you make a laughably inferior product and then insult my intelligence with a nonsense reply like that. They lost my business, lots of people sell crank baits. I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning Flicker Shads.

SR

I bought my first rapala from Ray Ostrom at Ostrom bait and tackle on 36th and lake for a buck

Price seems to be on par with the way other lures have jumped up. Look at muskie lures. I won’t pay it.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I bought my first rapala from Ray Ostrom at Ostrom bait and tackle on 36th and lake for a buck

In about 1976 or 77, Rapala came out with the Fat Rap and they were a game changer for us. But the standard of the time, they were a great deep running crank.

My dad loved everything about them but the price, which he called highway robbery. They were $1.29.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Everything is out of hand. Yesterday I went to McDonalds and got a 1/4 cheese meal with a chocolate shake. $15!

yeah my wife had me stop yesterday for a quick dinner.

4 reg cheese burgers-1 med fry – 1 pack of cookies- 2 small shakes. $28.23

all you got to do is wait patiently on Marketplace for all the pandemic fisher people to sell all their tackle that is just sitting in a corner of their basement. working out well for me for the last few years.

if you have good timing you can pick up $100 worth of ice fishing tackle from Walmart right now for 75% off too…..i did not time it right!

i am ready to pounce on a wheelhouse if the price is right after this short ice season!

yeah…….no sane person is paying that much for a crankbait.

There’s people paying 2000$ for a depthfinder. When I was little all my chores were basically based on what lures I could get. An hour of mowing in 1987 got you an SR5, a candy bar, and 4 Fuzz E Grub jigs out of the bulk northland bins. Its probably about the same now.

Crazy prices.I have a 3d printer I’m going to try doing crankbaits on. I’m guessing tuning might be an issue. We will see.

Riverrat wrote:

There’s people paying 2000$ for a depthfinder.

Actually they’re paying a lot more than that. The 22 inch NBT Battleship unit is $4 grand and its just a screen that plug and plays with Garmin.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Riverrat wrote:</div>
There’s people paying 2000$ for a depthfinder.

Actually they’re paying a lot more than that. The 22 inch NBT Battleship unit is $4 grand and its just a screen that plug and plays with Garmin.

So wouldn’t that just be a display monitor and not a depth finder? Just to back you up, an Apex 19 SI is over $5K.

Correct. Ridiculous either way.

Not to steal the thread but my hard pass has always been 400-500 dollar rods . I don’t own a rod over 150 bucks . I will say they are worth it over the 50 dollars rods but 2-500? . Is the quality that much better? Genuinely curious.

Lou, my son has two 3D printers. We make all kinds of stuff. At the range a couple dys ago i put couple rounds though some Glock mags we made. Bought the springs online, printed the mags – ended up being about $3 per magazine – work perfectly.
Where are you finding your Crankbait patterns? Thingaverse?

Didn’t you guys watch the State of the Union address last night? This is the best economy in history.

Correction:
couple days ago i put couple hundred rounds though some Glock mags we made

isu22andy wrote:

Not to steal the thread but my hard pass has always been 400-500 dollar rods . I don’t own a rod over 150 bucks . I will say they are worth it over the 50 dollars rods but 2-500? . Is the quality that much better? Genuinely curious.

Depends on the rod. One can see performance advantages with the higher end rods. There is a point where the added cost vs performance flips and you don’t get as much for your money the higher you go. If that makes sense.

isu22andy wrote:

Not to steal the thread but my hard pass has always been 400-500 dollar rods . I don’t own a rod over 150 bucks . I will say they are worth it over the 50 dollars rods but 2-500? . Is the quality that much better? Genuinely curious.

My most expensive rod is a $300 Loomis that I was given as a gift from someone who has now passed away. It’s caught some nice fish, but it doesn’t do anything more for me than the $100-$120 rods.

My favorite bottom bouncing rods are Ugly Sticks. That for sure makes me a 3rd world angler with today’s prices.

Thingverse has a lot. Printables and cults too.

I haven’t bought a Rapala crank bait in several years. The last ones I bought was when Rapala introduced the Scatter Rap. All of them are almost gone as 25 inch pike break the lips and pull the hooks out of the body. Don’t ask me how I know.