crank baits

I have lost more shad raps this year than any other. not the hole rap just the body. has any one else had this problem? maybe its time to switch to a new crank bait. any thoughts?

Gillman,
I know I need more info, what is happening to the body? I periodically break the lips off when I am bouncing off of “sharper” rocks such as concrete type rip-rap. I also know the quality of the rapala plugs is not quite what it was. Lately, some of the plugs tend to spin-out when you troll much above 3 to 4 mph’s. This never happened before last year.

I hope I’m not letting the cat out of the bag too soon, but in the near future the EFN store will be offering a line dynamite plugs through B-Fish-N Tackle. I know I’m excited about this offering and if you’re a died hard plug fisherman you’ll like it too! Just something to consider for the future. Jon

Yes! The shad rap quality has gone to heck. The bodies are seperating from the bills, the cranks run poorly, cheap hooks…. and this is all new to this years product. I’ve even had smaller fish pull the internal wire, which runs from one hook to the other inside the balsa, right out the side of the bait! Not good.

Here’s a post Staffer Dustin Stewart made on the raps, back in early May. The problems were showing up immediately this season as soon as we started using them. We reported the same problem you’re seeing now… as well as some others.

http://www.fishtheriver.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=pool4&Number=16844&Forum=pool4&Words=shad%20raps&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=16844&Search=true#Post16844

As a result we went hunting for some replacement cranks ‘cuz we were sick of paying $5/pop for cranks and only having a percentage of them useable right out of the box. We found them! Shad rap style cranks that actually run true at 4+ MPH and in ALL the old discontinued “rap” patterns we all loved so much before the brass at normark discontinued them. Stickbaits, a whole line of top-quality pike and muskie lures. And EFN will be the ONLY, and I do mean ONLY source for these baits on-line. And we will be selling them at prices nobody else will be able to touch.

So stay tuned. The solution is coming. We took this real serious, tried a bunch of different products starting back in late May, contacted the manufacturer of the product line that really impressed us…. and we’ve been in contractual negotiations ever since. All the papers are signed. Its a done deal. And we’ll be making an official announcement in a couple of weeks at the latest.

This..Is most COOL ..As I witness JUST last week…Dustin pull out 4 shad raps and only 1 worked?…We spent Almost a whole hour trying to “tune” up the baits…with only one that was usable…These were baits that had never even been in the water????GGEEEZZZZ Is Dusty A “BAD MAN “
when this happens…LOL

SWANY

looking forward to trying them. hope they come in 5 and 7 sizes.wish i would have read them posts this spring I could have saved a lot of money and headaches

James, thanks for posting the link to the previous thread. I was going to do the same thing so I didn’t have to retype all the angry feeling I have about the new Shad Raps.

The search tool on this site is just awesome!

I noticed that all of the Storm products and the new Jointed Shad Raps are assembled in Estonia. In the past, I believe, most of the Rapala products were assembled in Galway, Ireland. If the newer “problem” shad raps are being assembled in the Estonia plant that might explain the quality control problem. Looking forward to the new line of cranks from EFN (I’ll need to get another tackle box…).

I talked to a salesman at Gander Mountain and he explained that Normark and some other company either merged or Normark was bought by them. Shad Raps are not being made at the same place they were last year. The other manufacturer is using there hooks and probably a new set-up for producing the Shad Raps. I finally did get some of this years products and they are pretty much junk. Too Bad!!! Used to be a good product. If I can get anymore infomation on this I’ll let everyone know.