Rapala’s X-Rap Magnum
WE chose this venerable and highly effective bluewater trolling lure as this week’s “Online Product of the Week” mainly to Lee Rayner’s success with them on the now annual run of southern bluefin tuna. But there’s more to the Magnums than tuna.
These tough deep runners cover a range of depth capacities – 5, 10, 15 20 and 30 feet to be precise – and a range of colour options. They’re reputed to troll at up to 13 knots without blowing out but in reality work at their best at standard troll speeds of 7-9 knots. This allows the use of a Magnum when trolling a spread of skirts for billfish or tuna.
Many keen bluewater anglers like a deep diver down below the skirts as tuna, especially yellowfin and albacore, like to hang deeper in the water column. A diver is also a good option for wahoo, Spaniards and dollies. And the next marlin to eat a trolled hard-body won’t be the last – although beakies have an annoying habit of throwing treble-armed divers … Luckily the Magnums are available with optional factory fitted VMC singles to enable better hook-ups and also safer release of unwanted fish.
Here at Fisho we like using the 10-foot model in the BBTO and BSRD colours around the washes of Jervis Bay for salmon, bonito, tailor and kings. Offshore, we like the SBM, YFT and PM in the 20 and 30 foot models. Lee rates the SB (silver blue) and the Red Bait as his favourites when targeting bluefin off Victoria and southern NSW.
X-Rap Magnums aren’t particularly “finicky” lures, meaning they’ll handle heavy trace or even the use of bulky snap swivels. The best rigging option we found is to set them them up with a short trace (80cm-1m) of 80-150lb fluoro or hard mono (depending on what you’re targeting) and attach the trace to the snap at the end of your wind-on or double. The lures are easily rigged with wire for the fang gang – either single strand with a Haywire Twist or mult-strand via a snap or ring.
The RH (red head) colour is popular with mackerel devotees. We generally run a 30 in close under the prop wash and a 20 further back. We’ve never had an X-Rap Magnum break and it’s rare that they require a tune-up to swim straight.
See Fishing World video of the Rapala X-Rap Magnum HERE.
A short fluoro or mono trace clipped to your wind-on or double is a good way to rig your Magnums for bluewater trolling. Image: Scott Gray
