One of my more effective early season, shallow water evening and night fishing baits has been a #9 shallow diving shad rap. Does anyone else use these? I don't remember reading about anyone using them. Mine dives a little deeper than a #9 jointed rap and has a different action. It is one of the baits that seems to make it on every trip.

I’ve been eyeing those up! Think I might have one in my tackle box. They have a shallower L shaped lip? Haven’t used it yet. Thought they would be effective early season. I’ll be eagerly waiting some answers to this post.

Solid bait...I had a #9 in the old black & gold pattern that was a good walleye pattern for smallies. The lip cracked off and I can't find a replacement.

Tuna

I have a walleye colored one that has been one of my go-tos for years. I also have several of the the super shad raps, which have the same body and lip shape, but scaled up to about 6"

I just looked in my arsenal and found a black and silver and a blue and silver. I need to try these out this year.

HotDog: "I have a walleye colored one that has been one of my go-tos for years. I also have several of the the super shad raps, which have the same body and lip shape, but scaled up to about 6""

The super shad raps are a super lure. Big fan of the perch color and a simple cast and retrieve will get it down to 8'. Deeper on a troll.

To many guys (and angerlettes :-) fish stuff which is simply to small. The fish in the north country are savage and size matters. I consider the Super Shad rap just as much a walleye lure as a pike lure.

i like to use shallow shad raps a lot. silver is favorite color for size #9. for the super shad rap i like the perch pattern.

I have probably 50 or 60 SSR's...all the way from 4's to 9's. I bring a few of the big ones on my canoe trips, but most stay home because I find other lures to be more versatile, meaning with less line out I can get "deep divers" to run shallower but I can't make the shallow runners run deep.

Still, I'd put the SSR in my top 5 favorite cranks. One super-secret use for them is to fish them as topwaters...they float, of course, so you can fish them a little like a popper. Another super-secret thing I do is grind the bill down so they become something like a wake bait. If you want to catch smallmouth, try that.

I like the wake bait idea Carmike. Sounds good for fishing on the flats for redfish. I might ditch the trebles and put a single in line.

Hmm..
Why? MasterTangler.
Your attention to detail regarding presentation is always good to learn from. Are you talking about losing the lower trebles and placing a single in line hook in the back to make it more "sleek"..less noise? Did I not understand the "wake" lure right. A lure that basically runs at 1-5 inches and less action from the lip?

LightFish: "Hmm..
Why? MasterTangler.
Your attention to detail regarding presentation is always good to learn from. Are you talking about losing the lower trebles and placing a single in line hook in the back to make it more "sleek"..less noise? Did I not understand the "wake" lure right. A lure that basically runs at 1-5 inches and less action from the lip? "

I was thinking out loud Lightfish and am digressing from canoe country fishing. Rather I liked the concept of a wake bait specifically targeting redfish on the flats. Redfish really like oyster bars (which can literally reach up and grab whatever lure you are throwing). Ditching all the trebles and having a single beefy in line hook riding up in the back might be quite effective on the super hard pulling reds.

Might be a pretty cool option to throw in fresh water after the weeds have topped out. I can picture easing such a bait right through much of that and less problems with pulled hooks once the action starts.

Got it.
Makes me think of using Mikes unweighted tube bait weedless.

Another trick is to rig them on a 3-way rig, 1' dropper with 1/2-1oz lead and a longish 3'-4' leader, and just slowly drag that overtop of shoals/reefs.

The weight dragging on bottom stirs up mud/slime, and a shallow shad rap will just be rolling just above the bottom without hanging up. Absolutely crushes deepwater smallmouth and pickeral. Something about the weight dragging on bottom triggers otherwise neutral fish.

My first Wisconsin Muskie came on a Super Shad Rap, right infront of the state capitol building. Shad Raps really are just a winning lure and always have a place in my box.

Dilligaf0220: "Another trick is to rig them on a 3-way rig, 1' dropper with 1/2-1oz lead and a longish 3'-4' leader, and just slowly drag that overtop of shoals/reefs.


The weight dragging on bottom stirs up mud/slime, and a shallow shad rap will just be rolling just above the bottom without hanging up. Absolutely crushes deepwater smallmouth and pickeral. Something about the weight dragging on bottom triggers otherwise neutral fish.


My first Wisconsin Muskie came on a Super Shad Rap, right infront of the state capitol building. Shad Raps really are just a winning lure and always have a place in my box."

I like your thinking but dragging most anything along the rocky bottom of most canoe country bottom which has fish wouldn't last very long. I suppose an angler could give it a whirl though.........probably stick weights rigged on a lighter line than the main running lines would help in getting most of your stuff back.

Digging bottom is not to be discounted. We fished the Bass Islands in Lake Erie and had planned to sleep on the boat. After dark we decided to pull into a shallow bay to anchor up for the night. As per my custom I had a lure back. My beloved large Fat Rap was digging hard in the bottom and right in the prop wash directly below the boat. I put 3 huge smalles in the air and didn't land a single one. They jumped so close and so high it was as though I could reach out and touch them.

mastertangler: "

Dilligaf0220: "Another trick is to rig them on a 3-way rig, 1' dropper with 1/2-1oz lead and a longish 3'-4' leader, and just slowly drag that overtop of shoals/reefs.



The weight dragging on bottom stirs up mud/slime, and a shallow shad rap will just be rolling just above the bottom without hanging up. Absolutely crushes deepwater smallmouth and pickeral. Something about the weight dragging on bottom triggers otherwise neutral fish.



My first Wisconsin Muskie came on a Super Shad Rap, right infront of the state capitol building. Shad Raps really are just a winning lure and always have a place in my box."

I like your thinking but dragging most anything along the rocky bottom of most canoe country bottom which has fish wouldn't last very long. I suppose an angler could give it a whirl though.........probably stick weights rigged on a lighter line than the main running lines would help in getting most of your stuff back. "

You need to find to find the sweet spot between touching bottom or bludgeoning bottom. That's the key to not getting snagged up, and yeah you can do it on rocky Shield lakes and not lose your kit.

And BTW the most snag infested body of water is the Niagara River. Ofcourse there are tricks, my fav is taking a 4" length of paracord, pulling the core out of it, using a solder iron or torch & butter knife to melt one end, fill with lead bird shot, melt the top end. I refer to it as a Slinky, pretty snag resistant and the only way to bottom bounce Niagara without hanging up every other drift.

That's brilliant!

I just got back from a seven day trip with my daughter. After she lost my husky jerk the first day, I gave her my #8 firetiger shallow fat rap and she did not take it off until day 6 when she broke off the lip bouncing it off a rock. She even caught a few SB with her new surface bait. I would guess that she caught 50 walleye and bass in her five days of using it. The best $8.00 I ever spent.

SinglePortage: "I just got back from a seven day trip with my daughter. After she lost my husky jerk the first day, I gave her my #8 firetiger shallow fat rap and she did not take it off until day 6 when she broke off the lip bouncing it off a rock. She even caught a few SB with her new surface bait. I would guess that she caught 50 walleye and bass in her five days of using it. The best $8.00 I ever spent."

Fat Rap? An oldy but goody. I loved those lures and was ticked when they went out of production. If I had known I would of bought a pile of them.