Reef Runner

[Bud]

What colors of a reef runner are most used for walleye. Seems like Reef Runners have a little different color scheme than other baits.

[PerchJerker]

I use a bunch of Reef Runner colors. I fish Lake Erie once each year and the colors there vary widely depending on the day and the water conditions. For Minnesota fishing I use Reef Runners but not as many colors -- and colors that resemble "typical" colors for around here like firetiger, chartruese, natural, etc. -- some of the colors I've done well on around here are red hot tiger, blue hot tiger, cheap sunglasses, blue chrome, and pink lemonade.

[EJ]

Perchjerker,

I also use a lot of RR's. Have you ever used the Cabela's ones? They have a pretty good package deal I have been considering.

EJ

[Northlander]

EJ I have also ben thinking about those. Heck I have waisted money on worse.

[PerchJerker]

I haven't used any Cabelas knock-off crankbaits but some guys in our group have them. I have heard that sometimes they work as well as the originals, sometimes the originals work better. Not sure if that's any help or not

[Quickstrike]

I got a good look at some of the new cabelas reef runners this past weekend and some the colors look really good. I can't wait to use a few to put a hurtin on the walleyes and Northlanders chances of winning the grand slam this spring!

[Northlander]

You can pull those all ya want in the Grand Slam. I know what boat you will be in and as usual you will be following the old Ranger. Really though invest in some jigs, bouncers and crawler harnesses and you will do better than puling sticks etc. that time of year.

Wait a minute! Why am I helping out the competition here? Maybe its because Im not worried?

[Quickstrike]

Unless we head to the big lake we will most likely stick with harnesses and jigs, (sorry to take this thread off topic) but you know me, I need every opportunitty to talk some trash with the GS coming up.

[Northlander]

Was looking in Cabelas and they have a great deal on a big batch of Bombers. You dont get to pick what ya get but its less than $2 a piece. Heck if half of them were what ya wanted you could keep them and sell the rest on HSOList and make some cash.

[vermilionfox]

Northlander,

Was that on-line or in the store?

No Cabela's here yet, they're supposed to be in place this fall.

[Northlander]

Im sorry it was in their Spring Catalog. Check on line they may have it listed there as well.

[croixeyes]

A brief word about the walleye runners from Cabelas.I bought a ton of them last year when they came out.Everyone I tried ran true out of the packaging,also ran about a foot deeper than the deep little ripper.I have both in multiple colors .You never know what colors gonna be hot,Gotta have choices

[Mr. Pike1]

Running true right out of the box is a problem I has had with Reef Runners. I had three brand new ones when at Vermillion last year. They were the deep diving ones and 2 or the 3 and I had screw around and try to get run true. Generally never have this problem with a Rapala. I was a bit surprised and dis-mayed by this. Lead to me putting on a Rapala tail dancer deep diver in kind of a neon perch. Good thing I did as it produced. I do continue to use the reef runners but I strongly suggest you test them right of the box to see if they run right or left..

[croixeyes]

You want a tough time tuning a bait try the smaller rip shads.The eye is set in and its difficult to get to.The 400 series are much better.Reef runners are a little tough to tune but I still love em.They will always have a spot in my tackle boxes..

[Jim Hudson]

Glad some one mentioned the problem with tuning the deep model Reef Runners.... I encountered this problem as well, mostly with the 800 series, but when my trolling speed would reach about 2.5MPH or higher...

When tuning, I would have to make very small corrections to the eye. And I mean very small, just a slight move of the eye to make the baits run true at higher speeds.. Dang baits would run good at lower speed though...

And some I found had stuck internal rattles... Gave em a good smack, and they started to run true...

Also, be sure to run them with just a snap.. and not a snap swivel!!!

[iffwalleyes]

I picked up about 7 of Cabela's reef runner type baits in at the east grand forks store last week. They were on the sale that northlander mentioned $1.99 for the smaller size 18-24' water model which is what I got but then the deeper diving baits were $2.99. Pretty hard to beat. The salesman said often that the Cabela's ones run truer out of the box than the Reef Runner do. Might have just been salesmans talk though.

[Nodak7mm]

My go to colors with deep diver reef runners are: Purple Demon, Texas Red, Blue Chrome & Cheap Sunglasses. (selection depends on ambient light). Purple demon being my #1..

Primary area of use: Sakakawea

All cranks need to be checked for tune, some take more tweaking than others. No real problems experienced tuning R/Runners vs others.. Probably had more frustrations with Deep bombers than anything else..

Rod