Rapala Lures: 7 Classic Models Compared, Which to Buy

A framed Rapala dealer display board holding about thirty hard lures: floating minnows on the left, long-lipped Dives-To crankbaits at top right, Tail Dancers, Skitter Walk topwaters and Long Cast Minnows below — Photo: Fanny Schertzer, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Our picks at a glance

The originalRapala Original Floater F09
Lauri Rapala's 1936 design, still balsa: 3.5 in (9 cm), 3/16 oz (5 g), two No. 8 trebles, running 3–5 ft. The maker's number one go-to lure; reel it slowly or twitch it on top. Rapala list price $10.99–11.99 by color (October 2026).
Best for walleye trollingRapala Shad Rap SR07
The 1982 balsa crankbait: 2 3/4 in, 5/16 oz, 5–11 ft by the maker's rating, with the SR08 and SR09 reaching 8–15 ft. A tight wobble for trolling walleye and casting to bass. Rapala list price $11.99 (October 2026).
Best for counting downRapala CountDown CD07
Weighted balsa that sinks one foot per second, so a ten-count puts it about 10 ft down: 2 3/4 in, 1/4 oz, two No. 7 hooks. The pick for deep trout pools and suspended walleye. Rapala list price $11.99 (October 2026).
Best value jerkbaitRapala Husky Jerk HJ10
A plastic suspending jerkbait with a rattle chamber: 4 in, 3/8 oz, 4–8 ft. Neutrally buoyant, so it hangs still on the pause, the cold-water trick for bass and walleye; on the market since 1996. Rapala list price $9.99 (October 2026).
Best for casting distanceRapala X-Rap XR10
Launched in 2004: 4 in, 7/16 oz, 4–6 ft, with an internal long-cast system and a feathered teaser tail. It suspends on the pause and slashes side to side on a hard twitch, for bass and pike. Rapala list price $14.99 (October 2026).
Best balsa deep diverRapala DT16
2 3/4 in, 3/4 oz balsa rated to 16 ft, two No. 3 hooks. Balsa floats up fast when you stop over rock or wood, so it backs off snags; the DT Metal 20 goes on to 20 ft. Rapala list price $11.99 (October 2026).

Rapala lures are Finnish hard baits, and the range still starts with the minnow Lauri Rapala carved in 1936. Today it runs from a 1 in sinking minnow to a cast crankbait rated to 20 ft; the X-Rap Magnum, a trolling bait, is rated to 40 ft. For most anglers the choice comes down to balsa or plastic, then a size for the fish: a CountDown for trout pools, a Shad Rap for walleye, a Husky Jerk for cold bass. Every size, weight and depth on this page comes from Rapala’s own spec sheets.

In its issue of August 17, 1962, the one that reported Marilyn Monroe’s death, Life ran a story on a Finnish wooden lure. Rapala’s American distributors got about three million requests and could fill only a fraction of them.

Which Rapala for which fish?

Fishing	Rapala	Why
Stream and lake trout	Original Floater F05–F07, CountDown CD03–CD05	Small, slow wobble; the CountDown for pools
Walleye	Shad Rap SR05–SR09, CountDown CD07–CD11, Husky Jerk HJ10	Trolling depth, a counted fall, the cold-water pause
Bass, shallow cover	Original Floater F09–F11, DT04–DT06	Balsa rises off wood
Bass, cold water	Husky Jerk HJ10–HJ12, X-Rap XR10	Suspends on the pause
Bass, deep structure	DT10–DT16, DT Metal 20	Rated depths to 20 ft
Pike	X-Rap XR12, Husky Jerk HJ14, Original Floater F13–F18	Bigger bodies; three trebles on the HJ12 and up

For more trout options see trout lures; for pike, the best pike lures; for where walleye sit as the water warms and cools, the walleye water temperature page.

Balsa or plastic: the one choice that matters

Most of the classic range is a balsa bait: the Original Floater, the CountDown, the Shad Rap and the DT series. Rapala says the DTs are made from the top seven percent of balsa wood. Balsa is so buoyant that it rises fast when you stop reeling. That lifts the bait up and over a log or a rock it would otherwise hang on. It also swims at a crawl; the maker rates the Shad Rap from “ultra-slow presentations to super fast.”

The cost is weight. Old balsa baits were light and sailed in a crosswind. Crankbait angler Dustin Wilks notes the current ones are heavier, and his advice in a strong wind is to cast downwind. Wilks reaches for balsa when fish are finicky and for plastic when they are aggressive.

The plastic Rapalas trade that liveliness for features balsa cannot carry. The Husky Jerk is suspending, neutrally buoyant, with a rattle chamber. It hangs still at the end of a jerk, which is what cold bass and walleye want. The X-Rap adds an internal long-cast system (every size but the smallest, the XR04) and also suspends on the pause.

How do the models compare?

The balsa models, from the maker’s spec tables. On the minnows and the Shad Rap the number in the name is the body length in centimeters. On a DT it is the running depth in feet, the depth classes the crankbaits hub explains.

Model	Sizes	Weight	Runs at	For
Original Floater	F03–F18, 1.2–7.1 in (3–18 cm)	1/16–11/16 oz (2–21 g)	2–11 ft (0.6–3.3 m); F05–F09 3–5 ft	Trout, walleye, bass, pike
CountDown	CD01–CD11, 1–4 3/8 in (2.5–11 cm)	1/16–9/16 oz (2–16 g)	1–13 ft (0.3–4 m); sinks 1 ft per second	Trout pools, walleye
Shad Rap	SR04–SR09, 1 1/2–3 1/2 in (4–9 cm)	1/8–9/16 oz (4–16 g)	4–15 ft (1.2–4.6 m)	Walleye trolling, bass
DT series	DT04–DT16, 2–2 3/4 in (5–7 cm)	5/16–3/4 oz (9–21 g)	4–16 ft (1.2–4.9 m), as named	Bass on cover and ledges
DT Metal 20	2 3/4 in (7 cm)	7/8 oz (25 g)	20 ft (6.1 m)	Bass on deep ledges

The plastic models:

Model	Sizes	Weight	Runs at	Action
Husky Jerk	HJ06–HJ14, 2 1/2–5 1/2 in (6–14 cm)	1/8–5/8 oz (4–18 g)	4–8 ft (1.2–2.4 m)	Suspends, loud rattle
X-Rap	XR04–XR12, 1 1/2–4 3/4 in (4–12 cm)	1/16–3/4 oz (2–21 g)	2–8 ft (0.6–2.4 m)	Suspends, darts, long cast

Two numbers stand out. The Shad Rap’s big sizes, the SR08 and SR09, run 8–15 ft, about twice the depth of the smallest. That makes them trolling baits as much as casting baits. And the DT Metal 20 keeps a balsa body but sets a small metal disc into a thin polycarbonate lip to reach 20 ft.

Which Rapala is best for each job?

Original Floater F09

The 9 cm (3 1/2 in) size weighs 3/16 oz (5 g), carries two No. 8 trebles and runs 3–5 ft (0.9–1.5 m). Retrieve it slowly for a wobble just under the surface, or twitch it on top and let it float up between twitches. It suits trout, walleye, smallmouth and pike. Skip it in a strong wind or when you need distance: 3/16 oz of balsa does not go far on anything but light line. The types of fishing lures page places the floating minnow among the other lure families.

Shad Rap SR07

The SR07 is 2 3/4 in and 5/16 oz on two No. 6 hooks, rated 5–11 ft. Troll it for walleye or cast it to bass on rocky banks. Pick the SR08 or SR09, on two No. 3 hooks, when you need 8–15 ft behind a boat.

CountDown CD07

The CountDown is weighted balsa that sinks at a steady foot per second. That turns the countdown method into a depth gauge: count ten, and the lure is about 10 ft down. The CD07 is 2 3/4 in and 1/4 oz on two No. 7 hooks; the CD05 suits stream trout, the CD09 and CD11 deeper walleye.

Husky Jerk HJ10

The HJ10 is 4 in, 3/8 oz, on two No. 6 hooks, and runs 4–8 ft. Jerk it down, then pause: it suspends instead of floating up. That pause is how jerkbaits catch cold bass, and the jerkbaits page covers the cadence. The HJ12 and HJ14 carry three trebles, the sizes for pike.

X-Rap XR10

The XR10 is 4 in, 7/16 oz, runs 4–6 ft, and carries a No. 4 and a No. 5 treble, with a feathered teaser tail on the rear hook. Rapala sells it as a slashbait. Worked hard, it darts from side to side; reeled steadily, it swims with the classic Rapala wobble. That makes it the one for covering water.

DT16

The DT16 is 2 3/4 in, 3/4 oz, rated to 16 ft on two No. 3 hooks. It is the balsa answer to the plastic deep divers, set beside the Strike King XDs on the deep diving crankbaits page. Below it, the DT04 to DT14 fill every two feet of depth, down to the DT04 that competes with the squarebill crankbait on shallow cover. Above it sits the DT Metal 20.

A bar chart of how deep each Rapala runs on a scale from 0 to 20 ft: the balsa Original Floater 2–11 ft, CountDown 1–13 ft, Shad Rap 4–15 ft and DT series 4–16 ft as long blue bars, the DT Metal 20 as a single point at 20 ft, and the plastic Husky Jerk 4–8 ft and X-Rap 2–8 ft as short gray bars

What to know before buying

Read the number. On an Original, CountDown, Shad Rap, Husky Jerk or X-Rap the number is the body length in centimeters: an HJ14 is 14 cm (5 1/2 in). On a DT it is the depth in feet.
Tie a loop, not a snug knot. The Rapala brothers recommended the Rapala knot, a loop knot, so their minnows could move freely. A knot cinched tight on the eye pins the lure and flattens the wobble.
Tune it if it runs off to one side. The line tie should sit straight in line with the body; bent right, the lure runs right. Straighten it with needle-nose pliers a millimeter or two at a time, and test it in the water again after each bend.
Expect it to run true out of the box. Rapala hand-tunes and tank-tests every lure before it ships, so tuning is a repair after a snag or a fish, not a setup step.
Mind the hooks. The Husky Jerk and the DT Metal 20 ship with VMC treble hooks; after rock or a pike, sharpen them or replace them with the same size.
Expect $10–15 a lure. On rapala.com in October 2026 the six picks list from $9.99 (Husky Jerk HJ10) to $14.99 (X-Rap XR10), and the DT Metal 20 starts at $14.49. The biggest sizes cost more: an F18 is $16.99.

Where did Rapala come from?

Lauri Rapala (1905–1974) was born in Sysmä, Finland, and fished for a living. Years on the water had shown him that big fish pick off the injured minnow, so he set out to carve a lure with the wobble of a crippled baitfish. A lure also meant no time lost baiting hooks. His sons recalled his claim that he often brought in 270 kg (600 lb) of fish a day; the company calls it legend.

1936: the first successful lure, carved from cork with a shoemaker’s knife and some sandpaper. The outside was tinfoil from chocolate bars, and the coating was melted photographic negatives.
1938: a cooperative store in Kalkkinen starts selling them.
1959–1960: on a Canadian fishing trip in the summer of 1959, Ron Weber’s partner ties on an unfamiliar lure; in early 1960 Weber receives his first order from Finland. The import company he ran with Raymond Ostrom took the name Normark in 1965.
1962: the Life article. A factory opens at Vääksy that year and another at Riihilahti in 1963.
1960s: the CountDown, a sinking version, joins the line.
1974: Lauri dies; his sons take over the company.
1982: the Shad Rap. The ads said “Beg One, Borrow One or Steal One,” and back orders reached a million.
1991: Normark has sold more than 150 million Rapalas in the United States.
1996 and 2004: the plastic, rattling Husky Jerk, then the X-Rap.

That first lure, the Original Floater, is still in the catalog and still balsa. The maker calls it its “number one go-to lure.” In 2019 Field & Stream ranked the Original Floating Minnow third among the best topwater lures ever made. Rapala VMC is now based in Helsinki, had about 1,700 employees in 2021, and sells in 140 countries. It bought Storm in 1999 and the hook maker VMC in 2000, and says it now sells about 20 million lures a year.

To set Rapalas beside the other makers, see the best fishing lures; the lures hub maps the rest.

Rapala Lures: The Classic Models Compared, and Which One for Which Fish

Which Rapala for which fish?

Balsa or plastic: the one choice that matters

How do the models compare?