I'm pretty new to bass fishing and had a weird experience with 2 lures breaking today. 

 

Today I caught several smallies while wading a creek on an original floating rapala F7. I then started casting, and realized my Rapala was moving erratically on the surface and not going under at all. I looked at the lure, and there was a crack right beside the line tie.

 

I switched to a new Rapala F7, and somehow hooked a freshwater drum (my first time ever catching one). After releasing the drum, I noticed there was a crack right beside the line tie, and the Rapala would not work the right way. 

 

I'm just wondering if this was bad luck or if I did something wrong. I was fishing with my drag tightened nearly all the way (which is probably too tight?). I think maybe I reeled against the drag too much and had the drag too tight while bringing in the smallies and the drum. Could this cause the lures to crack near the line tie? I did loosen the drag quite a bit while fighting the drum in, but I reeled mostly and didn't let it run like I probably should have.  I was wondering if this could be a reason why 2 different Rapalas would both crack in the same spots? Thank you!!

Over the years I have broken a few Rapalas myself, but not enough to be concerned.  Were they new lures or old?    I have some Rapalas in my box that are more than 25 years old.  Other than changing the hooks, they still work like new.  Rapalas are made of balsa wood and plastic.  You can break the bills easily if you hit them on rocks or boat docks.  I doubt your drag being too tight could cause this.  I throw Rapala Minnows on 8 pound mono and set my drag.    If you are using heavy line to fish Rapala Minnows, you won't get as many bites.  Believe me on this.  If breaking lures becomes a consistent problem, it may be a bad batch in manufacture.

Balsa wood ain’t tough 

If you slap your baits against the water to get weeds off this can happen.

A striper will take the hook right off one. They're kinda dainty.