Scatter Rappin Down The James

[yaknar]

Kayaked down the James Friday, great day to be on the river. I didn't have any luck with topwater early in the morning and my swimbaits were catching goggle-eyes. They wanted something crunchy so I started throwing crankbaits. My first catch of the day was a catfish, which was a good way to start off. Caught a lot of goggle-eyes and small bass. On one of the lures that was working for me, I broke off one of the hooks, but since I was catching fish with it, I keep using it and keep catching fish. I lost 4 fish by them jumping out of the water and throwing the lure. I had bought a Scatter Rap at BP so I thought I would try it out. One of the larger fish of the day was caught on it, in about 2 ft of water. The Scatter Rap runs 6 to 9 feet deep. So my question: I was using a crankbait the runs 3 ft deep for water 3 ft deep and changing when I got to deeper water, knowing that I wanted it to bounce off of structure. So should I just fish deeper running crankbaits as long as I'm not getting hung up on the bottom, no matter how deep the water is? In the James, fish with a crankbait the run 6 to 9 ft deep all the time and if I need it to go shallower fish it slower? Just trying to improve my fishing knowledge. Took pictures of a few and Released them all to fight another day.

[Terrierman]

Nice trip. Thanks for posting.

[moguy1973]

Rapala hook quality sucks. The rear hook on one of my DT6's broke the same way. Removing it from a fish's mouth no less.

[Al Agnew]

To answer your question, if your deep diving crankbait will keep digging and not corkscrew up when it's hitting the bottom as many of them do, I'd keep using it even in shallower water. That banging rocks and stirring up silt often triggers the fish to hit no matter how shallow they are, but they don't seem to like it when the lure flops up and over when it hits the bottom too long.

[Guest Brian B.]

For what it is worth- the smallmouth power plant lake near me here, Baldwin. Lake... It is essentially a big flooded field, the median depth is only 8', it gets down right hairy in the wind.

The bottom is clean as you describe. We stumbled onto a crankbait patten there- that if I'm honest really kindof shocked me the first season. "Norman, Deep Little-N" crankbaits, I would suggest spending the extra $1 for the "Pro" model, or series- whatever terminology they. Use, there are two models- get the one that. Costs $1 more, it has the hooks that are very rust-resistive. (And it. Is balanced out of the box, no tuning)

Anyway- we started really catching nice smallmouth on these guys, any shad pattern is fine, I would not get. The suspending model, not as good of action IMO.

For whatever reason, that particular lure, it just really performs well in a variety of conditions, you name it.. It will dig/ grind when you fish shallower than you should without rolling over, and in deep water you can coax it deeper than you would think possible.

We caught- (still do, other species) smallmouth that didn't look big enough to take the lure, and the big ones on the "what's your biggest smallmouth" thread- all the 14 big fish we caught that day were on Norman Deep Little N's.

The lure looks quite large in comparison to the smallmouth lures you may typically think of throwing, but I'm just telling you- they perform.

(Now you said "clean bottom" if I recall- if there is grass you have to crank/ pause)

The Deep Little N has replaced almost all. By "billed" crankbaits- but it is likely only going to work for you. From a boat vs bank, digs down too quickly to bank fish it.

I don't know why- they shouldn't, but the smallies take those big DLN's.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Like others have said digging a lure can be very effective when done right with the proper lure. I always found that something with a wide bill worked best and in dark colors. I think the trick is in concentration and feel. If you hesitate for a nano second when you feel the lure hit bottom they will generally keep good contact without making too much of a racket. I think the idea might be to create a tick rather than a riot.

[Quillback]

Well this is one of the few reports I've read where the Scatterrap has worked for someone. Nice bunch of fish.

[yaknar]

moguy1997, that's how mine broke, removing it from the fish. The broken hook just happened to fall off in my kayak. Thanks for all the response to my question. And the Scatter Rap only caught 3 fish for me. It was not the "lure of the day", but I will fish it again.

[rps]

I recently bought some jigging spoons from Cabelas. The hooks were sharp ... but broke while I was jiggling them from a hang. More and more often I find I should replace the "comes with" hooks before I ever fish the bait. Daiichi Death Traps on everything!

[RSBreth]

All of my Rapala lures are about a year old or older except for a couple of Scatter Raps and Flat Rap - but I haven't had any issue with the stock VMC hooks - something to watch for.

I do like to bang cranks off of either the bottom or cover - but whatever the fish want, the fish want. Gotta experiment every time on the water and see what's working. My past half a dozen or so trips on the James have had very little success with cranks - maybe I'm fishing behind you!