Rapala Original Floating 18 - Shiner

With the name of your company you will easily understand how we
use the Rapala F18's, especially in Shiner pattern. Cabela's
stopped stocking the shiner pattern although Rapala still lists it
on their web page. The water we fish is tannic and for some reason
the Shiner pattern is more productive day after day than the usual
perch, firetiger etc colors. The walleye feed on perch, the N.
feed on walleye. Each year one in the group will be cranking a
good size walleye in when a N. pike T-Bones it. Occasionally we
land both if the net is handy



Since 2006, a bunch of us from Iowa and Texas (2 groups) have made
annual fly in trips to Birch Lake in NW Ontario, Canada. WE fly
out of Red Lake, to the rustic modern camp site on this Canadian
Shield 24,000 A lake with only one fully active camp on it. Two
other camps may open for a week or 2. Last year our group of 4
caught 1056 walleye N. Pike plus a few other species. The year
before we had 1005 fish for the week. This year there are 6 in
the group. We use numerical hand counters to keep track of the
fish caught, so no "fish tales" just real numbers.



Early in the year (late May first 10 days of June) both the
walleye and N. pike are in 10 ft of water or less. They EAT
rapalas and both the bigger walleye and N. Pike hit on the F 18.
First time I threw the F 18 Shiner I had 3 northern on first 3
casts, then missed one, and got too more within minutes. The
catching is simply outstanding on this lake, especially the last
few years as the down turn in the economy meant the camp was only
40-50% utilized during the year, lower fishing pressure and more
and bigger fish. A 17 in walleye that far N. is 7 years old.
Harvest restrictions and slot or maximum size limits harvest and
protects the breeding fish.



I had 6 F18 Shiner, plus 3 each firetiger and one other pattern in
2013, My box is down to 2 shiners and 2 others, time to restock.
I bought all the F 18 shiners on Ebay. Now you know the rest of
the story (Paul Harvey).