The last of winter’s icy grip is releasing her hold on bodies of water throughout the upper Midwest, so now’s the time to stock your tackle box and get rigged and ready for open water fishing on a lake near you! Whether you’re after crappies and bluegills in the shallows, or targeting the best early season bites for walleyes, largemouth and smallmouth bass, or chasing toothy critters like northern pike and muskie, if you tie on a Rapala® Brands product, you’re sure to catch more fish.
You’ll want to grab a notepad while you watch this video! It’s filled with FUN fish-catching moments, so jot down the names of the hot lures and colors featured that delivered results for these MidWest Outdoors TV contributors. It’s time to get ready for “open water,” think SPRING, gear up for fishing season Openers throughout the region, plus it’s never too early to start planning for summer fishing fun as well!
Tony Roach and Justin Baldwin are trolling the #7 Scatter Rap® Glass Shad (Green Tiger UV, Pink Clown, and Yellow Perch colors) and the #7 Blue Chrome Shad Rap®, as well as the #5 Shad Dancer® (Shad, Purple Chrome, and Pink Tiger UV) to catch big walleyes on the main basin of Minnesota’s Lake Mille Lacs. They spooled their line counter reels with 18# Sufix® 832® braid knotted to a 10# Sufix® Advance™ monofilament leader.
Scatter Rap® Glass Shad
Shad Rap®
Shad Dancer®
Roger Cormier fishes with the kids on Crane Lake, catching walleyes on Shadow Rap® Shad Deep jerkbaits (Halloween and Gone colors) as well as topwater smallmouth bass on the #7 Rapala Skitter Pop®. The tail-weighted Storm® Arashi® Cover Pop (Pearl Ayu) casts a long distance and also proves deadly for provoking smallies into a topwater strike.
Shadow Rap® Shad Deep
Skitter Pop®
Arashi® Cover Pop
If you love catching big northern pike, tie on a #13 Storm® Arashi® Top Walker and hang on tight! You’ll see an explosive strike on the Ghost Hitch color pattern in the video, and good pike crankbaits to add to your pike arsenal include the X-Rap® Jointed Shad Rap® and Super Shad Rap®. Also be sure to try the 5.5” Storm® 360GT Searchbait™, a soft plastic presentation that’s proving to be a go-to option for fishing toothy critters in shallow cover. It’s durable and comes in a variety of fish-catching colors. Now available with Swimmer Jig and Weedless Jig Head option, anglers now have choices when fishing any pike fishing habitat they encounter on the water. You’ll also hear the Storm® Arashi® Wake Crank mentioned; although it’s known traditionally as a bass topwater lure, the hard rolling action and pronounced tail kick creates a large wake during the retrieve that’s impossible for shallow water pike to resist.
Arashi® Top Walker
X-Rap® Jointed Shad Rap®
Super Shad Rap®
360GT Searchbait™
Arashi® Wake Crank
Tony Roach shows us a super-fun way to catch slab crappies and bluegills using the #3 and #4 Ultra Light Rippin’ Rap® (he features the Pink Tiger UV color pattern) while casting the lure along deeper edges of cabbage beds. These are a great choice for anglers when casting along weedlines for panfish, with the added bonus that they catch other predator species too. Along with the popular Slab Rap®, this Ultra Light presentation catches the biggest fish in the school while also keeping the smaller panfish from biting the offering, plus it’s a more fun way to catch panfish versus the old-school “live bait under a bobber” option.
Ultra Light Rippin’ Rap®
Slab Rap®
Explosive topwater strikes while bass fishing brings out the kid in all of us. Tony Roach features some lures that you’ll want to add to your tackle box this fishing season: the Rapala X-Rap® Pop (colors featured: Clown and Moss Back Shiner) and Storm® Arashi® Cover Pop (Bluegill) are among the choices to consider.
X-Rap® Pop
With the open water season upon us, it’s time to get on the water and enjoy a safe and productive fishing season! Summer’s coming, so let’s go fishing!