Scatter Rap CountDown

 

Years ago, before the advent of the suspending jerkbait, Stacey King of Reed Springs, Missouri, inveigled untold numbers of suspended largemouth and spotted bass at Table Rock Lake and other Ozarks reservoirs by twitching the old-fashioned Rapala CountDown. It was such an effective tactic that he called it "a whale of a little bait," and to this day, King has scores of fond memories of those CountDown outings.

This year  Rapala unveiled the Scatter Rap CountDown. Like its vintage sibling that King employed, the new one is endowed with a weighted balsa body, which allows anglers to fish for suspended largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass at any depth.

This new one, however, is somewhat different than the one that King raved about. It sports an uniquely designed lip, which is fabricated from a circuit board.

According to Dan Quinn, who is from Hudson, Wisconsin, and is the Field Promotions Coordinator for Rapala, the Scatter Rap CountDown's curved lip, which is called a "scatter lip," allows it to swim with an evasive swimming action, mimicking a spooked and panicked baitfish. Rapala's field testers, such as Bernie Schultz of Gainesville, Florida, say it possesses an erratic and aggressive sweeping action.  Thus, as anglers vary the speed of their retrieves, the Scatter Rap CountDown will "scatter out to the side like a real baitfish being chased."

Schultz says anglers can count this bait down to the precise depth that their quarry is inhabiting, and its "madly erratic, evasive action" will allure a significant number of them.

The Scatter Rap CountDown is 2 3/4 inches long and weighs a quarter of an ounce. It sinks at a rate of one foot per second. It is devoid of rattles, sports two VMC black nickel treble hooks, and is available in 16 colors, such as fire minnow, bleak, and AYU. The suggested retail price is $8.99.

Endnotes:

Endnotes:

(1) Here's a link to a blog about Rapala's Scatter Rap Minnow.

(2) Here's a link to a blog about Rapala's Scatter Rap Crank.

---