Redheads

Redhead patterns are fondly called 'Ultraman' colours in our local waters for obvious reasons. Many salties swear by it, saying it resembles a fish bleeding from the head. Now of course we know that in reality, that would not be possible since a fish that bled enough to cover its entire head would probably already be dead instead of swimming in an enticing manner (and isn't blood supposed to disperse in water? Hmm...)

Whether natural or not, it is indeed a popular colour with anglers all over the world. And on a recent weekend with YH, both of us unknowingly were fishing with Redheads with some measure of success - he with the new Storm Thunderblade lipless lure and yours truly with the old' faithful X-Rap in the new Redhead pattern.

Red tail, Redhead Storm Thunderblade and Red Zillion 50th Anniversary reel - matching ey?

This lipless baby is heavy enough to cast a mile, holds steady on blazing retrieve (cranked flat out on the 50th Anniversary Zillion that boasts a ratio of 7.3:1 without skipping on the surface) and gives tons of vibration. And did I mention the life-like eyes?

The X-Rap Redhead fared well with a juvie Toman as well

And of course, this baby also found the redhead lollipop of an X-Rap too enticing to resist

Peacock Bass Galore

And there's more...

FG got to enjoy the fun and lost a biggie in the process! And did you notice the red, sexy Rapalero rods?

FG admiring KH's clean shaven legs

Time to get serious

Rapala Flat Rap got the finicky fish to bite

This one was close to 50cm

Peacock Bass Galore

Looks like someone's been having fun.... :)

Photos courtesy of fellow Rapalero, Tan Kian Huat.

MaxRap rulez!

Nothing is too big for Peacock Bass

X-Rap in Clown color. The fish ain't laughing though

Ahh... Storm Flutterstick. An irresistible snack!

X-Rap Tropical Colours!

Look what landed on my doorstep....

4 cute little X-Rap 8cm minnows in the Tropical Colours! Woohoo!

XR08 TYBR (Tropical Yellow Barb)

XR08 TRCN (Tropical Red Channa)

XR08 TGCL (Tropical Green Cichla)

XR08 TBRB (Tropical Blue Rasbora)

Folks who attended the Rapala Seminar in Kuala Lumpur in May'10 would have seen the creative designs of Ming. J. Liu (affectionately known as Mingmon in local forums), an industrial designer with a big passion for luring.

Ming was the grand prize winner of the Rapala Lure Design contest some time back where his eye-catching designs were selected to be imprinted on some limited number of X-Rap 8cms produced specially for the Asia Pacific region only.

The Ming man himself with a handsome Peacock Bass on XR08 TGCL (Photo source: Facebook)

Ming's designs depicted species of fish commonly found in Malaysian waters (perhaps with the exception of the Peacock Bass, which is an introduced specie) and are limited to sell only in South-east Asia as I understand from the folks at Rapala VMC Asia Pacific.

So for anglers living outside Singapore & Malaysia, if you want one of these, you better make some new buddies here over this side of the world to get them to buy one for you. ;)

Of course, you could also borrow, beg or pinch one if you see them in your mate's tacklebox. Happy fishing!

Archer fish couldn't resist the Yellow Barb