Power Fishing Walleye With Jigging Raps

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Hall of fame angler Al Lindner put the Rapala Jigging Rap on the map as the best (situationally) open water walleye bait in the history of the sport. Other avid anglers were quick to adopt and add unique twists to the system, converting otherwise lethargic walleye into feeding machines. Wired2Fish’s Kyle Peterson demonstrates this, and how he fishes the Jigging Rap in conjunction with a tiller outboard engine to quickly graph and catch fish.

Although initially designed as a vertical ice fishing bait, it’s rarely fished in this manner in open water. Kyle walks us through his process of marking walleye than immediately pitching the bait beyond the fish. Using the big engine as his trolling motor, he draws the boat to a standstill as he works the bait through the school with a horizontal hop across the bottom. This mark, cast, catch process is duplicated on similar spots throughout the lake.

Being a heavy trebled bait means lost fish are the norm. Peterson combats this with some insightful rod, reel and line guidance that spans spinning and baitcasting gear. Interestingly, he’s come to prefer fishing the heavy #9 Jigging Rap using casting gear paired with straight fluorocarbon – he feels he can fish the bait and handle big fish more assertively than with spinning combos.