Rapala recently unveiled the newest addition to the legendary “dives-to” series with the Rapala DT8. This bait bridged the gap between their smaller profile DT6 and the larger profile DT10. The DT8 is a balsa crankbait with a slightly tighter wobble than your traditional rock crawler or medium diving crankbait.
The DT8 is a versatile crankbait because you can fish it so many different ways. The DT8 maintains a smaller profile than the 10 but still has a large bill. This allows you to fish the crankbait on lighter lines, such as 10lb fluorocarbon, and reach close to 10 to 12 feet on a long cast. If you want to maintain bottom contact with this bait, you can keep the bait six to eight feet with 12 to 15lb line with no problem.
This bait excels at a couple of things, but at the top of the list is fishing around rocks. The DT8 performs well when fished through hard cover like rip rap or gravel and deflects off of cover well. The nearly neutral buoyancy of the balsa allows the bait to rise very slowly. The stop-and-go technique leaves the bait in the strike zone for much longer than typical baits.
As far as fishing around wood and grass, it does not deflect as well off wood as a traditional squarebill but is still an option if you are careful to work it through the cover. This bait also works well on grass lines when there is not an overabundance of grass that you are ripping the bait through.
The Rapala DT8 retails for $7.69 and is available at most major retailers.
