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Shad Rap





Cedar Cliff Lake, Tuckasegee NC



Soon after catching my first bass on an artificial bait I spent all my allowance on two lures. One was a jointed Jitterbug and the other was a F9 Rapala Minnow. I was hooked on the minnow right away and the Jitterbug slowly moved to back of my tackle box.

As a boy walking the banks of Cedar Cliff and Bear Creek Lakes I could catch bass on the F9 minnow almost all year. I guess that is what led to almost 40 years of being a bass addict. I thought at the time the F-series were the greatest baits ever made, and they still hold a special place in my heart.

 

Then along came the Shad Rap! I was looking for baits in the tackle section of Macon County Supply or Roses or maybe Sky City and stumbled across a Shad Rap. This was around 1984-85 and I was really getting into fishing more places than just Cedar Lake. I was just starting to fish places like Hiawassee, Bear, Wolf and Glenville Lakes. Rivers were also becoming a bigger part of my fishing. The lower Tuckasegee and Little Tennessee were also getting a lot of my attention.

As I expanded my fishing I found out that the Shad Rap worked wonders on those waters. When I fished other areas the first thing I tied on was a #5 Shad Rap. This was well before I had a subscription to Bassmaster or In-Fisherman or any other magazine and only knew what I figured out about bass fishing. Learning was slow, but what I eventually figured out still works today.



One of the first things I learned was that Shad Raps are not meant for brush or wood cover. The angle of the bill is not set to deflect off wood cover. I figured out after too many times swimming in cold water that I should keep it away from wood. I did learn, however, that fishing very close to wood was the way to go. Bass would dart out and eat that Shad Rap and I kept the laydowns pretty well fished out.

The second thing I learned was the Shad Rap fishes equally well fast as it did slow. I would make a cast and fish the area I thought there should be fish in, get not bite and speed reel it back in to make another cast. Low and behold I would catch a fish or two that way. It took a while to distinguish between dumb fish and causing a reaction bite, but eventually I did. The Shad Rap has such a perfect design that it rarely if ever rolls on the retrieve and that allows you to fish it quite fast.  The Smallmouth in Cedar Cliff really liked it when you cast near a rocky shore and reeled like hell and then stopped it. They would just crush it, especially in the late spring and early fall.

 

Another trick I learned is that a Shad Rap makes a great jerk bait. My good friend Brad Hensley and I were fishing the Broad River near Tignall, GA many years ago. The river wasn’t quite as broad as the name implied, but was slam full of Spotted Bass. We started wading the area around out camp and saw lots of fish, and had several follows. The Spots wouldn’t hit spinner baits or top waters and we didn’t try jigs after the plastic worms drew little interest. Remember this was before drop shots or shaky heads and it would be another year before the Slug go or Jerk Worm found their way into our tackle boxes.

Kentucky Spotted Bass

I picked up a medium light action Shimano with a Bantam reel and tied on a silver and black Shad Rap. It was about to light to cast far, but I could make long pitches.  After ten or twelve attempts to cast I discovered the pitching technique. On a straight retrieve I had a couple follows but then I got it hung a single, thin weed. I jerked the Shad Rap quickly and a two-pound Spot exploded on the bait. After catching that one I tried again with similar results. We spent the rest of the afternoon wading and pitching Shad Raps to every piece of wood or weed we could find. We easily caught 150 fish that day; Spotted Bass, Black and White Crappie and even some Largemouth. The biggest fish was around four pounds and most were two to three pounds. We never changed baits, just retied every few fish. I have duplicated those results here in WNC, the coast of NC, South Carolina, West Virginia, Oklahoma and even the canals of South Florida.

 

The Shad Rap is also revered as cold water bait as well. People all over the country use it when the water temperature is cold and the water is clear. Fished slowly on light line the Shad Rap can be deadly in rocky lakes all over the south. I use it both in the traditional crank bait style and like a jerk bait by adding some Storm Suspend-dots to keep it neutrally buoyant.   

 

Lakes, rivers, ponds and saltwater, the Shad Rap works everywhere on all fish. Fished slow, fast or erratically it catches just as many fish today as it did 30 years ago.

   

If want to fish and need some advice or a guide then contact my good buddy Austin Neary. He is a serious stick on Glenville Lake and all WNC Mountain lakes. Austin fishes the BASS College Series, and after a third place finish at the Eastern Regional at Watts Bar, Tennessee he competed in the National Championship Tournament on Lake Chatuge. Reach him at Dream Catcher Guides  

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