# Rapala Flat Rap concern



## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

In some of my recent post many have asked "what did you catch it on" and I eagerly told them on the new Rapala Flat Rap. I went on to explain how much I liked how it rolled which gave it a very distinct flash and mimmicked a wounded bait fish perfectly. These are the great characteristics of this new product, now I should warn you of the bad.

The slot they cut to hold the lip is not deep enough and the lip pulls out of the lure very easily. The lip does not break, it come out entirely. I lost 2 of them this week doing a normal retreive when it bounces off a rock. I wrote into customer service and got a stock reply about taking my lure back to where I bought it with a receipt for replacement. I explained that I was not looking for a return I was trying to inform them of a design flaw. So far I have not heard back.

Still a very effective lure, but at $7.50 a pop I can no longer justify purchasing a product that is likely to break after 1 or 2 uses. If I hear anything back from Rapala I will update this post, other wise buyer beware.


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Any chance of superglueing or epoxying?


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

Snakecharmer said:


> Any chance of superglueing or epoxying?


Zero chance, the lip disappears into the depths after pulling out of the lure. Standard flat replacement lips would not fit the slot it pulled out of and cutting a new slot to accommodate a replacement lip seems like a lot of work to salvage a $7.50 lure. I will see if I can get a good picture of a broken one and this will make more sense.


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

It is hard to see in the picture but the slot does not go all the way across the body of the lure. It has a very, very shallow V-cut that does not provide enough structure to hold the lip in place. Bounce off a couple of rocks and the lip just disappears. If you click on picture you can see it better.


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

interesting. I searched "flat rap" to read reports about this new lure. I see the title "Flat Rap Concern" and I knew exactly what it was going to be about. The lip breaking. Same with long cast minnow, original floater, xraps, and dives2 series. They are fish catchers, but some rapala lips break too easily.


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## krm (Jul 28, 2007)

Could you lay a small bead of gorilla glue on the back side of the lip before using the lure? As long as it's a small even bead on the BACK side, it shouldn't effect the action, but should drastically strengthen it up.


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## 2percent (Jun 27, 2009)

had this happen a few times lately. Rapala used to make quality I hope this is just an accident and not the way of the future.


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

krm said:


> Could you lay a small bead of gorilla glue on the back side of the lip before using the lure? As long as it's a small even bead on the BACK side, it shouldn't effect the action, but should drastically strengthen it up.


The gorilla glue might help, but I just think Rapala needs to redesign how lip attaches to the lure. I tried to provide this input to them through customer service but they were way too busy explaining how I must have abused the lure to listen to what I was saying I came to the conclusion that they do not care about customer concerns, or at least not this customer. Oh well, they are a big company so they probably did not need my business.


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## Tokugawa (Apr 29, 2008)

That's sad. You won't have that problem with Lucky Crafts.


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

I lost the lip to a long cast minnow on the first cast. It didn't hit any rocks, stumps or anything. I just noticed that after I retrieved it, the lip was missing. Maybe that's why they discontinued them? The floater lips are also glued in very shallow. One good bite in the wrong place and they're history. I've got a collection of rapalas I need to replace the lips on. $20 says that the flat rap is not hand-tuned like they advertise. You could tell that the older rapalas (pre Estonia) were actually hand tuned bc the lip would be filed.


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

Tokugawa said:


> That's sad. You won't have that problem with Lucky Crafts.


If it's a live pointer 95 you will. Again. And again.


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## thelatrobe33 (May 19, 2008)

JamesT said:


> If it's a live pointer 95 you will. Again. And again.


Live pointers are garbage... The standard ones are where it's at! Sad to hear about these Rapalas because I love that lure. The larger version in purplescent is killer at Portage.


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## Tokugawa (Apr 29, 2008)

thelatrobe33 said:


> Live pointers are garbage... The standard ones are where it's at! Sad to hear about these Rapalas because I love that lure. The larger version in purplescent is killer at Portage.


Yeah - I don't use Live Pointers either...


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

Yes the live pointer is junk. Regular pointers are great and so is the flashminnow 110 and the...and the....and the ...and the...(I've got a large box of LCs, include numerous B'Freezes, CV Customs, etc). Though I rarely fish manufactured lures. I was just curious about the flat rap since I've been fishing my homemade versions for 2 years now. They have the following feature. "They catch at least as many fish (and at least as big)as Rapala's Flat Rap and the lips don't break."


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Got some flat raps today. First thing I did was take a small razor blade around the edges of the lip and pry it out (it was relatively easy...go figure). Anywho I applied a small amouth of heavy duty super glue to both the mouth of the bait and the lip, then put it back togeather. Only time will tell but im guessing that lip wont be coming out anytime soon


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

Yeah love the catches this lure had produced for me this year but, I have one sitting in my tackle box right now with no lip . 

I love tinkering with my tackle in the winter when fishing is harder to come bye. I may just replace my broken one this winter and doctor it up  and see what happens.


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