Fishing Forum

I recently got into a comversation and one of the guys said why I dont catch big fish on them is I use to small of ones. He said use cd 11 or f13. Whats your thoughts ?
I use leaded line most of the time will it still get the floating rapala down 5 ft per color?
Ive been told black gold, hot steel, and vampire is good ? Mainly thinking about using this tactic for minidoka and american falls, one more question how fast should they be trolled
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purple dissent and hot steel in cdl 9 are my go to rapalas for trout. i have thrown some 7 and done descent. im not sure about the lead line as we use down riggers.
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I've always had good luck and have caught big fish with #7 floating rapalas in rainbow and perch patterns.
Yes the floating ones will go down with leaded line.
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I like the floating raps. They will go down to line level but float back up when you stop. I lose less and it gives them a natural look in the water!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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thanks everyone the biggest ones i have now are about 3 inches so maybe its time for an upgrade
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I have caugth them on all sizes but the biggest fish I have caught were on size 11 and 9.
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well time will tell went and met the wife for lunch and stopped in to sportsman warehouse picked up
2 cd9 in perch and black and gold
2 cd11 in brown trout and rainbow
3 f13 purpledecent hot steel and vampire
and in the bargain ben there was some f18 in purple decent and vampire marked down to 7 bucks so i couldn't resist if they never catch anything at least i can put them on when coming back to the docks to give people something to talk about lol [:p]

thanks again for the advise
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In my observation size of the crank really doesnt make any differnce on size of fish ive caught very large fish on small cranks and very small fish on large cranks.. fish are opportunist especially when they get large in size. They will take what ever is easy doesnt matter size they try to expell as little energy as possible to get there food.. this is just my studys. Just because its a large bait doeant mean large fish infact means smaller unexperianced fish on the other end more.. not trying to be a mood killer but this is how it is..
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I totally understand what your saying but on the flip side of the coin very large fish must eat a lot or constantly feed and we all know they dont feed all of the day or everyday. I too have caught large fish on tiny flys. just wanted to experiment with what i have heard and try something that i wouldn't have I guess what im trying to say is i want to provide them the image of a large easy meal something like this


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Totally. Im always up for new things also you never know tell you try.. i plan on trolling af allot the coming year as well.
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Absolutely worst case if someone asks i can say have had no luck with large rapalas whats that saying sometimes it is impossible to move forward without a few back steps [:p]
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I love rapalas, I'll bet half the fish I catch all year are on raps. I use countdowns almost exclusively, but sometimes it works best to throw a floater. For me, I dont use the size of the rapala for the size of fish, I match the size of rapala to the size of river and depth I'm fishing at. A bigger rapala will be deeper diving and sinking than a smaller one so I throw smaller stuff in shallow water and big stuff in deep water. Just what I do, it seems to work well. Only exception is on spawning browns, then those big deep divers with the big lip scraping the gravel drives them crazy!
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Fish generally do a match the hatch memory input to trigger a strike. Just like the size of the fly matters, the size of the stick bait matters as well. The point it to try to match the size of the most prevalent bait fish so . . . the answer to the size of the lure is it all depends on what is present as a food source in the biomass.
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[cool][#0000ff]"Matching the hatch" is always the best place to start. But, what if the fish are in an inactive or neutral mode? Doesn't matter how closely you match what they are NOT eating.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As most of us learn (some reluctantly) there are times and situations in which you gotta shock the fish into biting...a "reaction bite". This can sometimes be accomplished with larger and/or more colorful lures...or faster or slower presentations. It usually takes some experimentation. When the fish are wacko you sometimes gotta show them something wacko to get their attention. Why else would anybody ever fish largemouths with a bubble gum colored plastic worm?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Then there is the flip side. When water temps, chemistry, weather or heavy water activity has got the fish spooked you can sometimes do better by going smaller, deeper and/or slower. Can't count the times in the past when I have downsized my lures, sent them deeper and run them slower to catch some bigger fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fish go to school to teach fishermen how to fish. But it is amazing how many anglers fish the same spots...the same way...12 months of the year...and expect to catch fish. Like the definition of insanity. Sure they may catch fish in the spring and fall, when the fish are moving through and munching what is being offered at that time. But the rest of the year they are likely to be somewhere else and feeding on other goodies. Ya gotta stay in touch and adapt to current situations.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It is okay to live by certain generalities..."big lures for big fish". But you also have to keep the old angler antenna up for changes that need to be factored in. And once you prove to yourself that you can figure out the fish under a wide range of conditions it really adds to your personal sense of accomplishment. But it really smarts when you still come home smelling skunkish after you have learned so dang much.[/#0000ff]
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Good write up TubeDude! Got to go with what works!
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[cool][#0000ff]Thanks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I really didn't say much about Rapalas but I have been using them...fresh and salt water...for about as long as they have been available in this country. New stuff comes and goes but it is still hard to beat or replace the old reliables from Finland.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Over the years I have used them for just about all species...and in all sizes and colors. I haven't found any that WOULD NOT catch fish...at some time or another. But like most Rapala fans I have narrowed down my faves. Basic dark back over gold or silver is a must for any tackle box. After that comes perch, trout patterns and some of the more exotic stuff. The bright orange with a gold and white belly works surprisingly well for many species.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In talking about "match the hatch" there is one color of Rapala that surprises a lot of trout anglers in how effective it is...even when there are no natural prey that the color duplicates. That is the perch pattern. Amazing how many nice trout from perch-free zones will climb all over the perch pattern Rapalas. Could be the stripes represent parr marks for young trout. Who knows. Just go with it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have done a lot of research on "triggers"...what makes fish target specific lures. It is surprising the number of colors and patterns that can prove to be amazingly effective when all else goes unmunched. A lot of it may simply be something that is most visible under prevailing water clarity, light intensity, depth, temperatures, etc. And that is a biggy. But there is also a lot to be said...at times...for lures with high vis eyes, vertical bars, horizontal lines, spots or a combination of all of the above. Like many anglers I have had days when the fish showed a decided preference for lures with one of the above mentioned triggers...regardless of colors. And then there have been days when they would hit anything with a specific color in it, no matter what the rest of the lure looked like.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I long ago quit trying to figger out either fish or women. More fun and much safer to just let them tell you what they want and then go with the flow.[/#0000ff]
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[quote MMDon]Good write up TubeDude! Got to go with what works! [.img][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/bobwink.gif[/img][/quote]"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...k.gif[/img][/quote][/url]

I concur. lots of information above and in all the posts above and i know i have a lot to learn on the subject. we fished all day today and only managed two fish the largest being around 3 pounds and never could get anything to hit a rapala we tried fast speed slow speed under the fish over the fish and right in front of the fish. after a few hours we switch back to Tomas buoyant and caught the two on those but im going to keep after it and and get them figured out thanks again for all of the information [cool]
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AJ, Never trolled those bad boys but once the fly action on top dies out on the SF we fish them a lot. Up there we have found the size does matter. Also I will 2nd what was said about the perch raps, they are the go too rap for me in rivers followed by the brook, silver, and brown trout colors. I rarely throw rainbow raps but keep them handy to try out when I am cranking through searching for a trigger on slow days. Also something to think about with raps. ( and people might think I am crazy but it was advice from a solid canadian guide) is when fishing these lures some will seem to whack fish much better than the same size and color and it is due to the nose maybe being bent a little different one way or the other. So when you get one that seems to out perform others. Pull it out and match the others to it. Also keep them clean.
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There has been studies done on scents fish emit when scared into the water so if you are handling fish and then touching your raps the scent can get transferred over onto them. Just a little advice on them that I was given and since I used it my catch rate using raps has gone up.
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I watched a video on you tube where they were tuning trophy sticks getting more or less action by bending the nose up or down and thought it might apply a little to a rapala also, thats interesting about them emitting a smell but would make sense as most things in the wild do that whats good to wash lures and hands that wont turn off the fish ? what about some kind of cover sent that also attracts fish ?
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