From Rapala:

New Rapala BX Waking Minnow

The new Rapala BX (Balsa Xtreme) Waking Minnow is a surface-waking bait that swims with incredible, strike-inducing performance.

The BX Waking Minnow casts a mile. Rapala and Bassmaster Elite Series pro Bernie Schultz suggests casting the 3/4-oz bait as far as possible, then retrieving it slowly and erratically along fish-holding cover like brush, laydowns, weedlines, docks and the edges of lily pads.

“With its dynamic flashing, rolling action, it will pull fish out of the cover,” Schultz says. “It’s a great search bait. And not just for Bass — it’s a great multi-species bait, too.”

Like other BX Series baits, the BX Waking Minnow has a balsa core encased in a durable copolymer shell for unrivaled toughness. “The balsa cores gives you the buoyancy you expect in a Rapala bait, and the shell gives it the durability to get hammered all day long,” Schultz says.

“Like topwater fishing, throwing sub-surface baits like the BX Waking Minnow delivers some of the biggest thrills on the water,” Schultz says. “When big bass key on its unique, broad waking action, they’ll chase it down and you’ll often see them coming, waking right behind it. And when they hit it, hold on!”

The 5-1/4″ long BX Waking Minnow features lifelike 3D eyes, finite scales and gill detail paired with an internal holographic foil for ultimate attraction. It comes equipped with three tough No. 5 VMC^® Black Nickel Round-bend Treble Hooks that hold true and tight. It’s available in six color patterns: Blue Back Herring, Firetiger, Gold Shiner, Shadow, Smelt and Yellow Perch.

Rapala introduced the BX Jointed Minnow and BX Jointed Shad last summer after releasing the BX Minnow and BX Swimmer earlier in the year.

 

Ike’s Custom Ink Colors

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Mike “Ike” Iaconell’s Ike’s Custom Ink crankbait colors for Rapala are some of the most effective colors ever put on a hard bait. Here’s what’s new for 2014-15.

DT Series in 4 new Ike’s Custom Ink colors!

Designed personally by Michael “Ike” Iaconelli, the Ike’s Custom Ink colors use some of Ike’s bait-coloring secrets to catch more fish. Here are the four new Ike’s Custom Ink colors:

Girlfriend

The new Girlfriend color pattern resembles a muted take on the Firetiger pattern, with the addition of a pink-orange throat flash. “That little bit of flash on the underside — that little naturalistic accent — can often mean the difference between not getting bit and getting bombarded,” Ike says.

Mule

The new Mule color pattern is, essentially, a cross between a classic “bone” tone and a naturalistic craw color. “There’s no better way to accent bone than to make it a crayfish pattern,” Ike says.

Rasta

A new take on an old favorite, the Rasta color pattern’s green back, chartreuse body and orange belly stripe will look familiar to many anglers — it resembles  the Homer color popular in the Southeast and the Firetiger color that’s a mainstay in the upper Midwest.

“With Rasta, our take on that classic green-chartreuse combo is more toned down and muted, and there are no tiger stripes,” Ike explains. “But we kept the full orange belly, which can be essential for bites, especially in dirty, stained water.”

Compared to traditional Homer and Firetiger patterns, however, Rasta’s color palette also isn’t nearly as bright.

“Bright isn’t always the best,” Ike says. “Sometimes it seems to me that fishing lures — crankbaits, especially — are made to catch anglers rather than fish. They take on a gaudy look that’s pretty cool in the tackle shop but might not be so cool in the water.”

Bruise

When it comes to jigs and trailers, “Throwing black-and-blue — especially in colder water — is automatic,” Ike says. “But you rarely, if ever, saw that color combo in crankbaits.” Until now.

Ike’s new Bruise color pattern looks just like it sounds it would — blue and black and tender. Just like a molting crawdad.

“Most crayfish, when they molt — when they come out of their shell — they’re bluish-black,” Ike explains. “That’s when they’re most vulnerable. And fish know this instinctively. They know it’s an easy snack.”

 

Shad Rap and Shallow Shad Rap: 4 New Colors

The Shad Rap and Shallow Shad Rap are now available in four Ike’s Custom Ink colors:

Blue Back Herring – Designed to match its namesake baitfish (and other similar-looking forage), the Blue Back Herring color pattern features a dark blue-green back stripe fading into muted blue-green side panels with a silver scale pattern and a silvery-white body and belly with a yellow throat flash.

Caribbean Shad – The Caribbean Shad color pattern features a blue-green back stripe and side panels with a silver scale pattern, a silvery chartreuse body and belly with an orange throat flash.

Demon – The Demon color pattern features a black back stripe fading into dark red-orange sides and a belly with a craw-shell pattern on the sides.

Mardi Gras – Also carrying a craw-shell pattern on its sides, the Mardi Gras model features a black back stripe fading into dark olive-green sides and a slightly lighter olive-green belly with an orange throat flash.

Rapala’s Ike’s Custom Ink line is the brainchild of 2003 Bassmaster Classic Champion Michael “Ike” Iaconelli, a Rapala pro who for years altered the colors of off-the-shelf baits with out-of-the-box tweaks, like baking them in the sun for weeks, dousing them in pearlescent nail polish and dusting them with glitter.

The Shad Rap closely resembles baitfish found the world over, and is constructed of premium balsa. The Shallow Shad Rap, also built of premium balsa, is ideal for fishing skinny water.

Both the Shad Rap and Shallow Rap are hand-tuned and tank-tested for perfection right out of the box, and come equipped with super-sharp VMC^® Black Nickel Treble Hooks.

 

X-Rap gets Custom Ink

Two sizes of the Rapala X-Rap — 8 and 10 — are now available in four brand-new Ike’s Custom Ink color patterns created by Michael “Ike” Iaconelli, a Rapala pro and Bassmaster Elite Series angler:

Marilyn – The new Marilyn color pattern features a gold back stripe and cheeks that fade into a platinum-gold body.

River Perch – The River Perch pattern features muted vertical perch stripes over a slightly metallic gold-green-and-orange body with a black back stripe.

Scoop – The Scoop color pattern features a dark bluish-gray back stripe fading into a bluish-pink pearlescent body with a pink cheek plate and orange belly.

Slick – The Slick color pattern features a bright, sky-blue back stripe that fades into a bluish-silver body with a white belly and yellow-orange flash extending back behind the cheeks.

Productive when fished with an aggressive “Slashbait” technique or with a classic Rapala wobble, the X-Rap gives the angler control of the cadence for maximum effectiveness.

All baits in the X-Rap line are loaded with features from tip to tail, including a textured, translucent body, internal holographic foil, internal long cast system (XR04 excluded), 3D holographic eyes, and flash foil teaser tails. Each is hand-tuned and tank-tested to ensure top-performing action from the start.

The X-Rap 08 dives 3-to-5 feet, measures 3-1/8 inches long, weighs 1/4th of an ounce and comes equipped with two No. 6 VMC^® Treble Hooks.

The X-Rap 10 dives 4-to-6 feet, measures 4 inches, weighs 7/16th of an ounce and comes equipped with a No. 4 and No. 5 VMC treble hook.