Rapala DT6

[Loomis13]

Does anybody have opinions, good or bad, on these cranks? Or something you like better for this depth? Am looking at picking some up but don't really want to spend that much on a crank if there is a better option.

Thanks

[Bluebasser86]

I've never had a bait fall apart as frequently as a DT6. I sold all of the ones I had left that hadn't pulled apart while fighting a fish, casting, whatever. They're great fish catchers if you can find one that stays together. I'm fishin the Berkley Digger crank in it's place now and like them very well. I actually picked up several of the Berkley on sale at Academy today for less than $4 each.

[jr231]

I love rapala. All of their lures, they are my favorite company.  The DT series are way nice. Been using them for years . I've caught many fish on them and never had one pull apart, ever. I've seen people break them because they slap them on the water to get weeds off and bang them deliberately on docks. Its BALSA . They are beautiful cranks. And the action is a proven fish catcher. 

And at 6-8 dollars they are hard to beat. When lucky craft and megabass want 15-20 dollars a crank. You can get a DT for three different depths. 

Do you own any other rapala ? Pick up just one DT. In your favorite and most successful color. nd I think you'll end up buying another one. I know I did. 

[Loomis13]

22 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

I love rapala. All of their lures, they are my favorite company.  The DT series are way nice. Been using them for years . I've caught many fish on them and never had one pull apart, ever. I've seen people break them because they slap them on the water to get weeds off and bang them deliberately on docks. Its BALSA . They are beautiful cranks. And the action is a proven fish catcher. 

And at 6-8 dollars they are hard to beat. When lucky craft and megabass want 15-20 dollars a crank. You can get a DT for three different depths. 

Do you own any other rapala ? Pick up just one DT. In your favorite and most successful color. nd I think you'll end up buying another one. I know I did. 

Haha yeah, I own a ton of Rapala! Like them but do think they are out done in certain areas. I use a lot shad raps and JSR's for walleye.

[A-Jay]

I had a bunch

They didn't produce.

Sold them all.

A-Jay

[Loomis13]

12 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I had a bunch

They didn't produce.

Sold them all.

A-Jay

So what are you using for this depth? 

[A-Jay]

15 minutes ago, Loomis13 said:

So what are you using for this depth? 

Routinely using Strike King and 6th Sense baits.  

The  SK 1.5 & 2.5 Squarebills are solid 6 foot runners, as is the The Strike King Series 4 Crankbait.   It has a medium-sized body with a wider wobble & an oversized bill to deflect off cover. Great for Mid-depth, heavy cover applications and dirty water. Both baits are usually less than 6 bucks - I do change out the stock hooks however -

The 6th Sense Crush Mini 25MD Crankbait is a real sleeper too.  The Mini 25MD features a unique design that allows it to hunt erratically and generate strikes from finicky fish. It also dives down quickly to the 4-7ft depth range, and features a faint rattle system that doesn’t over power pressured fishing situations. Top-of-the-line paint schemes offer incredible lifelike appeal, and super sharp black nickel hooks seal the deal.

The 6th Sense Crush Flat 75X Crankbait was my top producing shallow Crankbait for two straight seasons.

Both the 6th Sense baits cost a few bucks more but the Paint scheme alone is certainly worth it - at least in my eyes.

A-Jay

[scaleface]

For that depth the Rapala Fat Rap is  a steady producer .

[Raul]

8 minutes ago, scaleface said:

For that depth the Rapala Fat Rap is  a steady producer .

Unfortunately the Fat Rap is no more.

[Turkey sandwich]

The Fat Rap is one of my favorite Crankbaits and luckily I still have a few.  I have DT6s that have produced reasonably well, also.  I also have quite a few of the older Fat Free Shad/fry/fingerling line that still produce well for me.  

[Bluebasser86]

3 hours ago, Yeajray231 said:

I love rapala. All of their lures, they are my favorite company.  The DT series are way nice. Been using them for years . I've caught many fish on them and never had one pull apart, ever. I've seen people break them because they slap them on the water to get weeds off and bang them deliberately on docks. Its BALSA . They are beautiful cranks. And the action is a proven fish catcher. 

And at 6-8 dollars they are hard to beat. When lucky craft and megabass want 15-20 dollars a crank. You can get a DT for three different depths. 

Do you own any other rapala ? Pick up just one DT. In your favorite and most successful color. nd I think you'll end up buying another one. I know I did. 

I own lots of wood baits, very well aware of the fact they have to be handled with care. The DT6s and a few of the 4s were just falling apart. I had baits pull apart while fighting fish, I had bills fall out while bumping through rocks, and I had one I thought my knot broke when I cast, but it turned out I cast the body of the bait off and still had the bill. 

I caught plenty of fish with them, some big ones too, but I'm not dealing with a bait that falls apart on a regular basis for me. Maybe they've fixed that problem in the last few years, but I won't be finding out.

FWIW, Lucky Craft greatly reduced the price of a lot of their baits recently. You can buy one for close to and even less than a DT6 if you know where to look.

2 hours ago, Raul said:

Unfortunately the Fat Rap is no more.

It's still made, and still a good crank.

http://www.rapala.com/rapala/lures/all-other-lures/fat-rapandreg/Fat+Rap.html?q=Fat Rap&start=1&id=1

I wish they'd bring back the Risto Rap. 

[smalljaw67]

I'm a DT-6 fan and it is just because it has what I consider to be the perfect action. It has a nice wobble but not too much so it produces over a wide range of conditions. It is one of the few cranks that I've caught bass in water that was in the low 50s up to water in the 80 degrees range. Lately the Bagley Sunny B deep, which runs the same depth as the DT-6, has been a major player for me, it has a fast shimmy, a little tighter than the DT and at slower speeds it is more subtle but the DT-6 is still a favorite of mine.

[WIGuide]

I had heard a lot of good things about the DT-6 and I'm a fan of the whole DT line of baits. I had never really given the 6's I had a chance though. I decided to throw a new one Sunday so I pulled a new bait out of the box and it didn't even last one cast....no fault to the bait, just a pike came up and ate it right before it got to the boat and cut me off haha. I've got a few more that I'm going to have to try and see if mine have the durability issues mentioned above. 

[jr231]

@Bluebasser86 if I had more than one new crank bait break on me with a fish on it I would be done with that entire company.  So you made it longer than I would. That's crazy to me.. I've been using em for years without this issue. I've seen it brought up many times and for some reason it digs at me. Ha-ha. Because I love this company and they have always produced for me and ive never had these problems. Every model of rapala I've ever tried I've caught fish on. I could name them but you'd get bored with such a long list. 

[fishballer06]

I'm a huge fan of the DT lineup and they're my favorite line of crankbaits. I'm a big cranking guy, so I think this says something for them. I probably own every color in every size and multiples of many of the producing colors, along with a bunch that I've had custom painted. 

I have never had one just "fall apart" on me like many people claim. I had one split in half whenever I first started using them because I was slapping the water to clear weeds, which is a no-no with balsa baits. And then I had another one that I snapped the bill off the body whenever I casted and hit a concrete bridge piling. So again, my fault totally. 

Overall, I highly recommend picking some up. Everybody has their own personal preference for baits, but the DT series is one of those baits that is definitely well respected. You can't go wrong for a $6 bait, whenever some crankbaits are getting up in the $10-15 range. 

[Bluebasser86]

5 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

@Bluebasser86 if I had more than one new crank bait break on me with a fish on it I would be done with that entire company.  So you made it longer than I would. That's crazy to me.. I've been using em for years without this issue. I've seen it brought up many times and for some reason it digs at me. Ha-ha. Because I love this company and they have always produced for me and ive never had these problems. Every model of rapala I've ever tried I've caught fish on. I could name them but you'd get bored with such a long list. 

It's odd to me because I've never had a problem with the DT lineup except for the 6's and a couple 4's (which the 4's I marked down more as the risk of fishing wood baits, sometimes you break one). Never had a 10, 16, or 20 do it to me. The DT Thug is a good and underutilized bait that moves similar to the 6 and I haven't broken one of them yet. I haven't bought many because I'm still gun shy from the 6's, but so far they've been good. 

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, fishballer06 said:

 . And then I had another one that I snapped the bill off the body whenever I casted and hit a concrete bridge piling.  

O 

Were all pretty good casters and have to make that  bridge piling cast as close as we can .LOL

[jr231]

@Bluebasser86 I was going to ask you if you've tried the thug. I like them too. I lost my favorite one to a submerged tree but I'll be getting another one by next season. Any favorite colors ? I like the yellow perch, fire tiger, and original silver. Also they have a "live" river shad that has been killer for me especially with the shad rap. .. someone above mentioned the jointed shad rap.i have a discontinued color that used to be great for me before I retired it. "Hot perch" which is the same pattern as their current perch but has red orange and black with a hint of yellow. I wish they still made it. 

[king fisher]

I have always been a big fan of Rapala.  Have caught everything from Crappie to Blue Marlin with their products.  I have had great success catching fish with DT 6 and DT 7.  One day I fished every crank bait in my box, and the only crank bait to get a bite was a DT 10, and rest assured, the bait monkey has visited my crank bait box.  The down side is, I have had the bills pull out of a half dozen DT baits for no reason.  I didn't slap them on the water, cast them against a rock or bridge, or even catch a big fish on them.  Just seems that some of them will come apart just casting them.  Very frustrating, and expensive.  I would think Rapala would have addressed this issue by now.  Now I only fish them when my more durable baits don't work.

[Loomis13]

LOL mixed bag of opinions. Looks like I will just be forming my own opinions on some new cranks!

[Choporoz]

Can't explain it, but I caught more catfish than bass on DT6,

[Mark888]

I have a couple and i like them, but there are so many other cranks baits in that depth range that also produce. For example the Arishi flat and the berkley digger are also some of my favourites. 

[Spankey]

I'm a Rapala freak. They work well on river smallies. I could not agree more with some of the replies you have gotten. I've never had a lip break. They are thin for sure but in my experience the hold up good. I'm in rock and stone. They stopped installing the sure set hooks on them. They are easy enough to get from Tackle Warehouse. I believe in that sure set hook. I'm sure others have different opinions on these hook. I use the Thugs and can only recommend it also.

I'm not gonna get into the colors too much because everyone will have their on list of favorites. Can say that any color that I bought has caught fish.

I bought a few DT's and Shad Raps in the real image patterns. They are not real productive. Not on my hit parade. Real image Bluegill having been the most productive. But, the original Bluegill (non-image) is a lot better producer. I'm sure on a day that I need to throw something a bit different one of these real image will come through.

Shop around for a decent price. I think BPS prices are high on them, don't buy much from them anymore. Try Tackle Warehouse or Susquehanna Tackle.

[iceintheveins]

I smoke em' on a DT6, and have never had a problem with them falling apart. On 10 pound fluoro you can get them to scratch bottom occasionally in 9 feet of water on a bomb of a cast. It's a really good crank with a fairly flat profile and tight wobble, so it's really good in clear or pressured water. The brighter colors like fire tiger or hot mustard still work well in stained water as well.

[Smelter96]

I've used em, and will continue to do so! One of my most favorite cranks, as are all of the DTs. Like others have said, just don't smack em on the water and you'll be fine