New Reef Runner Shad baits??

Picked up a couple the other day and thought I would try them out I thought they looked very promising but I couldn’t get them to run straight just wondering if anyone has had any luck using these?

I picked up 10 of them this spring. I have tried to use 6 of them. One ran straight out of the box, 3 had to be tuned
and 2 were UNTUNEABLE! -Later-V

I bought 6 Rip Shads and everyone of them ran so bad that i cant use any of them…”UN-TUNEABLE” !!

Thanks for the ”heads up” on these baits guys. All I need is ”another” got to have crankbait to buy and then they turn out to ”not” run right. Thats another great thing about this site. You not only find out about what hot and been tested and found to work great, but you also find out what not working right so you know what not to spend your money on too. Thanks, Bill

I should have know…That company sells it’s own bait tuner…DOH !!

Makes me feel better knowing someone else feels like they’ve been ripped off on something they bought and it didn’t work.

Do you guys return the crankbaits to the store or company?? With all the bad baits floating around, including the new raps, I hope you guys are at least getting your $$ back.

Dirk,

Good point on returning the cranks to the company. I know we have all discussed doing this in the past, but has anyone had any luck? I have a pile of raps at home that are deemed as untuneable. #5’s all the way up to the #9’s.

If anyone of you get a chance, check out the new crank from Cotton Cordell called the Grappler Shad. Its about the same size as the #7 rap but dives much deeper and runs dead on right out of the box. The lure has about twice the weight of a rap, so casting is a dream. I am so excited to use these cranks on Pool 2 when I get back down there. I think it will be a killer wingdam crank. I recently had my first opportunity to use these up at LOTW about 2 weeks ago and they were awesome. Not only did they run good and catch fish, they can stand up to the beating it recieved from about 40 walleyes and about 25 northerns this lure caught on its first day out and still runs perfect. I was shocked to say the least!

Here is a link to the discussion and a pic that we had over on the Mille Lacs forum.

http://www.in-depthangling.com/forums/lake/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=ftlMille&Number=48928&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

I’m in the process of writing reef runner. Their baits have always been know as tough to tune. I’m not sure what they will say, but it’s worth a few minutes of my time to email them. Here is the email addy for anyone else wanting to send them a note:

[email protected]

I guess my thought is that if anglers don’t demand quality when they chunk down 5-7 for a bait there is no incentive for a company to change their ways. I’ve been hearing more and more stories about about bad baits. And I know this subject has been brought up before. I am going to start raising a fuss if I buy 100$ worth of baits and 25$ of it goes in the garbage can after not being able to tune the baits.

I got a big kick out of the reef runner tuners, you know something is wrong when they make there own repair tools.

But I have been useing alot of rip shad, I dont think any of them ran good out of the box. But when you get them tuned in they were on FIRE!!

We did really well with them in Illinios, South Dakota and in pool4. I will keep tuning them!

how exactly do you “tune” a bait. probably a stupid question but i don’t like to use big baits very often….them big pike will take a bunny hair fly just as easily as they’ll take a huge crank bait….or so it says in my latest issue of outdoor life…which by the way either that or the latest issue of in-fisherman magazine had an add where our own Steve Dezurik (sp?) testified about catching over 90 walleye from late dusk til the wee hours of the morning…..

The little ring on the bill of the lure that you tie your line to. (Some have a O ring but what the O ring is attached to).

You bend the ring a little left or right.

So if you lure runs to the right you bend the ring to the left. If it goes to the left you bend to the right.

Some plainly just do not work! But most the time you can make them run straight.

YEAH… and when he says a little… he means a very little.. often you cant tell you have even bent it!…its best just to exert a bit of pressure in the right direction… then try it and see how you have done… if your heavy handed like me, usually you went too far and have to bend it back again!…

Yep…………saw it fer muhseff once. He hefty handed that critter right into his troller!!!

………….oh wait……………that was me! Nevermind!!!!

I haven’t used the Rip shads but I use the little rippers and big reef runners all the time and they run straight.
as for emailing Reef Runner I hope you had better luck that I did when I tried. I was trying to find out where I could go to have a really good selection of the colors on the big Reef Runners. Sent the email a couple times never heard back a peep.

All of the Reef Runners line of crankbaits seem to have problems running true “out of the box”.Yes they do make a little tool that is easy to use but a needle nose will work also.Reef Runner lures are suppose to track straight for a little and then “kick out” to one side or the other every so often.If you do not have them tuned right they will surface on you.I have noticed that it seems you mess with Reef Runner lures alot more than other brands.But I do like their colors and once you get them to track right they do just fine for me.
Ryan Hale

I couldn’t agree more with Ryan. My experience with the ReefRunners is that they catch fish but the vast majority of the deep and little rippers need some tuning coming out of the box. I’ve not tried the ripshads so I have no personal experience there to share. The ripsticks, the large shallow diving jobbies with the nearly square bills, rarely need to be tuned.

When they run straight they catch fish. But then so do most lures. My guess is the average joe on the water does not take the time to tune their lures properly and are “SOL” from the get-go. Too bad too few manufacturers are able to get them running right out of the box. For $5- $7 a pop it isn’t too much to expect I don’t think.

Once tuned properly the Rip Shad has been an excellent crankbait for me. They dig deep and the walleye seem to really love them. They are worth spending a little time getting them to run straight.

Buckshot –

Try Xtreme Tackle at http://www.xtremetackle.com for the nation’s best selection of reef runners and also custom blades. Xtreme Tackle also carries a tuner that makes tuning Reef Runners and all other crankbaits a breeze. Tell Ed and Kim at Xtreme Tackle that Ted sent you and they will take care of you!

For those that don’t like to tune the baits that’s great – it leaves more fish for me. I cannot count how many thousand walleyes I have taken with Reef Runner lures – they are my #1 ‘go-to’ bait when everything else is tough!

My $.02.

Email me if you have further questions – [email protected].

ted
#858

Thanks for the link Ted…I’ll check them out !!

FYI: Reef Runner did email me back today. I am suppose to send in the baits that I can’t seem to get running straight. It took a while for a response, but at least they responded. I’ll let you know how the process goes once they get my baits back.

I got an e-mail too..I’ll be sending in my 6 cranks to see what they come up with…

Same problem here we bought three of them and not a one could run straight. also tried to hand tune them only one was succesful.They’ve got some neat colors but they might have to have a little more work done.

I was out all after noon and the best lure 4 me was a chartruse Rip Shad 6 out of the 7 fish I caught were on the rip shad.

I had the best luck in 10-13ft and it was very spotty all the fish came within 20 yards of each other in 2 differnt spots.

An update on these baits… I bought up 8 more figuring that they might come in handy up on mille lacs when I’d need to get deeper than a #5 or #7 rap would run and in similar situation on the river. They’re horrible. Not inconvenient… worthless – horrible. I do not have any of the eight that I could tune to run. At all. Avoid these buggers like the plague until they get their act together. Wow what a bad product.

I do feel bad being so hard on the company so I’ll throw them a bone here and say I really like their Reef Runners and Rip Sticks. The Deep Little Rippers can be hot on the river at times.

The Rip Shads on the other hand are DOA.

I was down to 4-Seasons the other day and Eric told me that there is a new body style to the rip shad now…

He had some on the wall of both the new and the old styles, the back of the lure was really thin and now is a little thicker.

I have some of both and I have them all running fine. Rip Shad have been a great catchin bait for me this year, if anyone cant get them to work and want to get rid of them get a hold of me I will take SOME..

Hey Brian, I’ll send you all of mine if you want to refund the purchase price !!

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