Smallmouth Spectacles with Rapala’s X-Rap
By Andrew Ragas The long and warm dog days of summer morph into the shorter, cooler and crisp days of early fall. Water temperatures on lakes that were once warm at 75 degrees begin to gradually plummet into the cool 60 degree range, triggering a transitional period feeding binge for all species of fish. Summertime recreational boat traffic and fishing pressure subsides, leaving many lakes open to anglers who are after some of the finest action of the season. This time of the year is one of my favorites for loading up on smallmouth bass. My favorite way to take advantage of this period is by fishing with suspending jerkbaits such as the Rapala X-Rap. Nicknamed as the “smallmouth spectacular” by my friends and me, the X-Rap is an extreme action slash bait that was released in 2004. When Rapala introduced the X-Rap, they not only brought a great new lure to fishermen, but they introduced an entirely new fishing system that revolutionized the way anglers fish jerkbaits. The versatility of the X-Rap allows an angler to impart several different motions and actions in a single retrieve, and it triggers strikes when most other baits fall short. Of the dozens of baits and lure c