Lipless Crankbaits

Lipless Crankbaits
by gunner

I have a whole box of these little versatile lures. And over the years I have come to find other ways then the normal throwing and ripping them as fast as you can type retrieves. These things are so much more, but strangely enough, most fishermen I have talked to only use them for the one style of fishing.

These baits are great search baits and like other crankbaits can cover a lot of water in a fast amount of time. They are great for deep water fishing, you can rig a split shot weight up about 18 to 24 inches from the bait and let it sink faster and stay deeper as you reel in. The “crank & yank” method of retrieve is always good when fishing like this.

Another is letting the bait drop to where it will just skim the tops of underwater vegetation hitting every so often stirring up the bass hidden inside. Also I have found out through the years if you take the rear hook off it will do two things, make the action tighter and also help make it a little bit weedless.

Another overlooked method of fishing these is a vertical jigging type of action. Get overtop of a submerged stump and place it around the base and work it like a jigging spoon. Sometimes this is deadly to bass and they can’t resist hitting it. I work it from a 7 o’clock to a 10 o’clock rod positions. Also at least 17 pound test line in some cases 25 pound test.

One more thing that helps these baits is the replacement of their front hooks with red colored ones. I have changed all the hooks on my lipless baits that have red under the front or on the entire belly of the lure. It can give the illusion of bleeding or a blood trail in the water.

There are some people out there that drill and fill the front of the Rapala models due to the two separate rattle chambers. They do this to get the nose to drop faster which would work better in the vertical fishing method.

My point is this, you would be surprised of the people that have a few of these lures but have never really given them a chance. My fishing partner Dave has used these for years and has had great catches with them. I was always the traditional crankbait type but have in the past few years, blew the dust of the lipless and experimented with different ways to work them. All with good results.

So next time you are looking though your tacklebox searching for “the” search bait… give the lipless a try, you might be surprised!

See you on the water…..
gunner