I never understood the whole broken bill Rapala DT thing.  I fish the hack out of DTs and haven't broken a bill yet.  I absolutely destroyed Poes and Bagleys in the past, so I know a thing or two about murdering wooded baits. 

 

I actually find the Rapala DTs to be exceptionally durable when compared to other wooden baits.  I don't know how many Bagleys I've had that have the paint chip off or split bills in two.  My Poes would loose all their paint before even getting bit. 

 

I'm starting to believe that the only people breaking bills on DTs are guys that have never fished a wooden bait before.  With any bait, you shouldn't be slapping the water to get weeds off or bouncing the bait off the bank.  These behaviors are unnecessary and destructive to any crank. 

 

I watched 2 people at a club tourney complain of broken bills on the DT series, it was a club event I finished 4th and had lunker  and I got most of my fish on a DT6 but my big fish came on a DT Thug that I was really grinding in chunk rock. The 2 guys that said the bills broke were fishing 50 yards away at a grass flat and after every cast I'd see them wind up and smack the bait down on the water to clear the weeds off, all I thought when I saw that was I hope they aren't balsa Rapalas or someone is going to scream about broken lips and sure enough at weigh in when I was asked what I got my fish on, the 2 guys I saw doing that were talking about the bills breaking on their baits.. Now, I do know that it does happen legitimately, to this day I won't throw a Lucky Craft Pointer or Megabass 110 around rock, I use those in cold water and they both have come back on me with broken bills, 3 times on a pointer and only once on the 110 but I went online and found that I wasn't the only one so I stopped throwing them near rock but it took me a few Pointers before I realized they have a problem on rock. If my Rapala isn't a year old I simply send them back for replacement, and I only had to do this once so I guess I'm lucky but my Rapal baits have held up.

I have never had a lip break on a DT crank and I've been fishing and doing well with them for several years, I must be lucky. The DT6, DT 10 & DT Fat Wake bait are my 3 favorites from that line. 

Well I have 10 new DT4's to fish this summer.

 

We will see how many break...