Who loves some summer fishing? Once the hotter months start really warming the water, it’s the perfect time to start fishing a winter walleye lure to land some massive bass, according to two of the angling world’s top pros, Jacob Wheeler and Brandon Palaniuk.
Wait, a winter lure for summer fishing?
You read that right! During their tournaments, both Palaniuk and Wheeler have landed huge bags of open-water bass with the Rapala Jigging Rap. Known especially in the Northern states for being an essential ice fishing lure, this Jigging Rap is starting to really make some wakes in the open-water angling world for its unconventional and highly successful uses, despite many anglers in on the secret wanting to keep it hush-hush.
With more and more inventive ways to use this lure, the Rapala Jigging Rap has shown to be awesome for targeting suspended fish.
With a lovely balanced minnow profile, this lure swims in intriguing circles on the fall, imitating the motions of a wounded baitfish. During the winter months when fished through the ice, a vertical pump-and-swim motion best attracts a bite, but for open-water fishing, Wheeler explains one successful move is to perform aggressive rod snaps during a horizontal retrieve. During his top-15 finish in the 2015 Bassmaster Classic on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell four months ago, Wheeler explains, “At times, the fish wouldn’t eat a drop-shot or jigging spoon. That was when the Jigging Rap was key to me getting them to bite.”
Wheeler and Palaniuk reveal more details about their experiences and successes with this ice-fishing lure—you can read them on Rapala’s blog here.
For more information, go to Rapala's website.
