Rapala CrushCity The CEO Review 2026: Worth It?

Urchin baits took over bass fishing in 2026. Every tackle shop sold out. Every tournament recap mentioned a little ball of plastic with legs. Rapala answered the craze with CrushCity The CEO, and the bait walked away with Best of Show Freshwater Soft Lure at ICAST 2026.

I fished The CEO through late summer and early fall. I rigged it four different ways. I lost some on rock. I caught smallmouth, largemouth and one very confused crappie.

This review covers the unboxing, the real specifications, the rigging that works, and the parts Rapala got wrong. No hype. Just what happened on the water.

In a Nutshell:

• The CEO is a weighted urchin bait, not a finesse worm. Rapala builds it from Super TPE with a glass powder core molded inside. The bait sinks straight out of the package. You do not add a nail weight unless you want it faster. That single design choice separates it from most urchin baits released in 2026.
• Two sizes cover two jobs. The 15mm version comes three per pack and handles pressured fish, spotted bass and smallmouth. The 21mm version comes two per pack and pulls bigger largemouth. A 26mm size has shown up in pro hands on the Pro Circuit, so the family looks set to grow.
• The fall is the strike trigger. Tapered legs quiver and twitch as the bait drops. Most of my bites came on a slack line fall near isolated cover. The retrieve matters far less than the drop.
• Hook choice is still unsettled, and that is the weak spot. Rapala sells the bait with a center hole but no hook. Quad hooks, double frog hooks and single wacky hooks all work. You will spend money figuring out your favorite, and that annoys me.
• Price sits at $12.99 to $14.99 per pack. That works out to roughly five dollars per bait on the 21mm. Durability is decent for TPE, but a two pack disappears fast when pike and rock get involved.
• Verdict: buy it at retail, skip the resellers. The CEO performs. It does not perform at triple the sticker price from a flipper, and no urchin bait does.

Rapala CrushCity The CEO Overview

Last update on 2026-10-22 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Rapala built The CEO with Jacob Wheeler, and the fingerprints show. Wheeler fishes forward facing sonar harder than almost anyone, and this bait rewards that style. It also works blind, which I will cover later.

The bait looks like a sea urchin. A round center body carries a ring of soft tapered legs. Rapala molds it from Super TPE, the same stretchy material the CrushCity line uses across the board. The plastic feels alive in your fingers, almost like warm gelatin with memory.

Inside the body sits a weighted glass powder core. Rapala calls the molding process Smart Injection Technology, which lets the company place that weight precisely without a visible seam. The result is a bait that sinks level and stays balanced on the drop.

Rapala also infuses scent into the plastic. The smell is mild. It is not a Berkley level scent bomb, and I am fine with that.

The Unboxing Experience

The packaging is plain. You get a flat resealable pouch with a hanging tab, a clear window, and the CrushCity logo across the front. No plastic clamshell. No oil puddle. Nothing fancy.

Open the pouch and the smell hits first. It reads faintly salty and sweet, like a bait bag that has been in the sun. The baits sit loose, not molded into a tray, so they arrive with a little compression wrinkle on one side. That wrinkle relaxes in about a minute.

Pick one up and the weight surprises you. A 21mm CEO feels heavier than it looks, like a gumball with a marble inside. Squeeze the center and you feel the core shift slightly inside the plastic.

The legs come out of the pouch tangled. Roll the bait between your palms once and they separate. The resealable strip actually holds, which matters because these baits stick to each other.

Manufacturer Specifications Rewritten in Plain English

Here is what Rapala claims, translated into angler language.

The body material is Super TPE, a thermoplastic elastomer. TPE stretches further than standard soft plastic and resists tearing at the hook hole. It also costs more to produce, which explains the price.

The internal core uses weighted glass powder. This gives the bait a controlled sink rate without a separate insert. A 15mm CEO falls slowly enough to hover near cover. A 21mm CEO falls faster and reaches deeper fish quicker.

The center hole runs through the body. That hole accepts a nail weight for a faster fall, a hook shank, or a locking pin on a dedicated urchin hook.

Scent sits inside the plastic rather than on the surface. It lasts through a full day of casting instead of washing off in ten minutes. Rapala rates the bait for bass, but panfish and walleye eat it too.

Top 3 Alternative for Rapala CrushCity The CEO

Last update on 2026-10-22 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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Urchin Baits for Bass Fishing Japanese Style Creature Lures

Why the Fall Triggers Strikes

The CEO does its job in the first four seconds after it lands. That is the honest summary.

Cast past your target. Let the bait fall on a semi slack line. The legs splay outward and quiver as water pushes against them. The weighted core keeps the body upright while the legs do all the moving.

Bass read that motion as something fleeing downward. A crawfish does it. A dying bluegill does it. A real urchin does nothing of the sort, and bass do not care.

Roughly eighty percent of my bites came during that initial drop. The rest came on a single short hop off the bottom.

If you watch a fish follow on forward facing sonar, stop the bait. Then shake the rod tip in tiny quivers without moving the bait forward. That quiver closes the deal more often than a long pull.

Best Rigging Options for The CEO

Rigging is where anglers argue. Here is what worked for me and what the pros run.

A quad hook with a locking pin is the cleanest setup. The pin slides into the center hole, the hook sits flush, and the hookup rate is high. BKK and Gamakatsu both sell urchin specific hooks now.

A double frog hook paired with a small drop shot weight is the tournament proven path. Jacob Christie won on the Pasquotank with a 2/0 double frog hook. That setup clears grass well.

A single big wacky or Neko hook is the fish friendly choice. Hookup percentage drops a little. Fish damage drops a lot.

A treble hook catches the most fish and causes the most trouble. It snags cover and tears gill plates. I stopped using one after two rough releases.

Rod, Reel and Line Setup

Do not treat this like a shaky head. The CEO is not a finesse presentation despite the small size.

I fished mine on a medium power spinning rod with a fast tip, seven feet to seven feet three inches. You need backbone to drive a thick hook into a bass at twenty yards.

Line matters more than rod. I ran straight fluorocarbon in twelve to sixteen pound test. Braid with a long fluorocarbon leader also works, and many pros prefer it for casting distance.

Light leader will cost you fish. These baits draw big bites around hard cover, and eight pound test loses that argument. Several Bass Pro Tour anglers run sixteen pound leader without hesitation.

Keep your drag moderately tight. A slack fall means slack line, and you need to pick up that slack fast on the hookset.

Where The CEO Shines on the Water

The bait excels on solitary fish and isolated cover. A single stump. One dock post. A lone brush pile on an otherwise clean flat. Those are CEO spots.

Postspawn through early summer produced my best days. Water temperature between sixty eight and eighty degrees. Fish sitting off cover rather than buried in it.

Forward facing sonar makes the bait deadly because you can target individual fish. You do not need it though. Pros have caught seventy pound limits blind casting urchin baits around brush.

Depth range of five to twenty feet suits the 21mm size well. The 15mm handles shallower work and clearer water.

Brush, rock and standing timber all produce. Thick matted grass does not. The legs collect vegetation and the bait stops falling correctly.

What The CEO Does Not Do Well

Every review owes you this section, so here it is.

It fouls in heavy grass. The legs grab hydrilla and milfoil strands. Once a leg carries salad, the fall action dies completely.

It does not cast well into wind. The round body has poor aerodynamics. A fifteen mile per hour crosswind cuts my distance by a third.

It is not a search bait. You cannot cover water with it. This bait answers a question your electronics or your eyes already asked.

Cold water kills it. Below fifty five degrees the fall triggered bite dried up for me. A jig outperformed it badly in November.

The hook is not included. You buy a fourteen dollar pack and still need an eleven dollar hook pack. That total stings for two baits.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Sinks correctly straight from the package with no nail weight required
• Super TPE holds a hook hole better than standard soft plastic
• Two sizes cover finesse fish and trophy largemouth
• Internal scent lasts a full day of fishing
• Tapered legs produce genuine quiver on a slack line fall
• Won Best of Show Freshwater Soft Lure at ICAST 2026 against strong competition
• Works with or without forward facing sonar

Cons

• No hook included, which raises the real cost significantly
• Two baits per pack on the 21mm size feels stingy
• Fouls badly in matted vegetation
• Poor casting distance in wind
• Weak performance in cold water
• Hook compatibility remains confusing for new buyers
• Availability has been inconsistent at some dealers

Durability and Value for Money

TPE handles abuse better than injection molded plastic, and The CEO proves it. I landed nine bass on one 21mm bait before a leg tore.

Pike and pickerel end that run instantly. One bite shreds the legs. That is physics, not a design flaw.

The bigger durability concern is the center hole. Repeated hook pin insertion widens it over time. After maybe a dozen rig changes the pin starts slipping.

Value depends on your fishing. At five dollars per bait, The CEO is expensive by soft plastic standards and cheap by swimbait standards. If you fish isolated cover for quality bites, the math works. If you want a bulk bag for all day casting, look elsewhere.

Buy from an authorized dealer. Resellers marked urchin baits up brutally in 2026, and no plastic is worth triple.

Color Choices That Matter

Rapala keeps the palette simple, which I appreciate. You do not need fifteen colors.

Black is the original and still the best all around choice. It silhouettes clearly in stained water and looks natural in clear water. Start here.

Green pumpkin variants cover crawfish imitation. Use them around rock and gravel.

Natural shad and translucent patterns suit clear water smallmouth. On Great Lakes smallmouth, the lighter colors outfished black for me by a noticeable margin.

Do not overthink it. Fish eat this bait because of how it falls, not because of a flake pattern. Carry one dark color and one natural color and you have covered every lake in the country.

Who Should Buy The CEO

Buy it if you fish isolated cover for quality bass. Buy it if you own forward facing sonar and want a bait that converts follows into bites. Buy it if you fish pressured lakes where fish ignore worms and jigs.

Skip it if you fish mostly matted grass. Skip it if you fish cold water all season. Skip it if you need volume over quality.

Tournament anglers should own both sizes. Weekend anglers can start with the 15mm three pack and learn the fall.

Beginners should pair it with a quad hook and nothing else at first. Learn one rig well before experimenting.

Final Verdict

Rapala built the most complete urchin bait of 2026. The internal weighting removes a step. The TPE lasts. The fall triggers fish.

It is also expensive, hook dependent and situational. Those are real limits, not nitpicks.

I give The CEO a strong recommendation with a clear condition. Know when to throw it. This bait solves a specific problem brilliantly and solves nothing else.

The ICAST award was earned. The craze will cool, as crazes do. The CEO will still be in my boat next spring, because the design outlasts the hype.

Frequently Asked Questions

What sizes does Rapala CrushCity The CEO come in?

The CEO comes in 15mm with three baits per pack and 21mm with two baits per pack. A larger 26mm size has appeared in tournament coverage. The 15mm suits pressured fish and smallmouth. The 21mm targets bigger largemouth and deeper water.

Does The CEO need a nail weight?

No. Rapala molds a weighted glass powder core inside the body, so the bait sinks on its own. Add a nail weight in the center hole only if you want a faster fall in deep water or current.

What hook works best with The CEO?

A quad hook with a locking pin gives the cleanest presentation and high hookup rates. A 2/0 double frog hook paired with a drop shot weight is the tournament proven option. Single wacky hooks release fish more safely.

How much does The CEO cost?

Expect $12.99 to $14.99 per pack at authorized dealers. Avoid resellers charging far above that. Authorized shops pay the same wholesale price, so inflated listings offer no added value.

Do you need forward facing sonar to fish it?

No. Sonar helps you target single fish, but anglers have won events blind casting urchin baits around brush and stumps. Fan cast isolated cover and let the bait fall on slack line.

Is The CEO good for beginners?

Yes, with one caveat. The retrieve is simple because the fall does the work. The hook selection confuses new buyers, so start with a dedicated urchin hook and one dark color.