Lipless Cranks?

[Brett Strohl]

How do you guys feel about lipless crank baits?  I think they're an interesting bait to use, but haven't had as much as nibble on one.  I've been wondering if the noisy rattle might possibly be a turn off?  I've noticed if I'm lucky enough to get a bite it's usually off crank baits that don't have a rattle.  

[Nstd]

All my lipless crank baits have rattles in them, and I am hooking fish. It just depends on what they want that day. Some days it's /w the rattles and others without them.

It also depends on how they are feeding. Are they chasing baitfish?Are they suspended? Are they in vegetation? Or are they deep?

Also vary up the retrieve. Sometimes that helps.

 

 

[iceintheveins]

They work for sure, just not all the time (like any bait). My best luck has come with a stop and go type retrieve while changing retrieve speeds and adding a few twitches and jerks. In low light conditions or windy, choppy water, a burning retrieve can be very effective too, especially over shallow vegetation. You just have to experiment and see what the fish want.

[Senko lover]

I love lipless crankbaits, but they aren't something I throw all the time. They rock for prespawn and usually in fall I'll throw them a lot too, but I almost always throw soft plastics before crankbaits. You'll find out if they want a lipless crankbait or not. Believe me. They either will crush it or reject it.  

[Fishes in trees]

Lipless cranks, for me fill a certain niche.   Early spring, stay shallow (less than 4 feet) and keep them moving.  Rest of the year, I want a grass flat - between 3 and 7 feet deep, in a perfect world I'd like a foot and a half of water between the tops of the grass/vegetation and the surface.   I keep the rattle bait moving  at a depth where it very occasionally touches to top of the vegetation..   Clearer water or murky water doesn't seem to matter much.   Long casts do - I get bit farther away from the boat more often than I get bit close to the boat much more often than not.

 

I've experimented with different rigs quite a bit.   I generally throw a half ounce bait.  I have a Falcon Bucco trap caster (one of the few rods I own that I paid full price for, because I wanted it right then),  I use an older Calcutta TEGT filled as full as I can get it with 17 or 20 lb line.   I think I'm currently using Suffix Siege, but any abrasion resistant mono is ok by me.   In the past I've used Stren Dura- Cast,  Berkley Iron Silk - not a big fan of Big Game or any of the P Line varieties.

[WRB]

Most anglers think a lipless crank bait should be burned (retrieved fast) across grass tops because they see pros doing this. The lipless crank is one of the most versital lures you have. Yes it works retrieved fast, it also works retrieved slow, jigged off the bottom like stroking a jig, falling through bait school like a structure spoon, stop & go like a deep diver.

Tom

[smalljaw67]

I see guys put these away once fish get on beds but that is when I really like them. Post spawn fish tend to be spread out and the lipless is a great search bait, and any active fish in an area will be found quickly as they will crush a lipless crank at this time but having confidence is the key. I remember fishing a Sebile Flatt Shad the first time, it has no rattles and I didn't have confidence in lipless cranks without sound and I would have put it down after 5 casts if it wasn't for my buddy getting 3 fish in a row on it and now I use it a lot whenever I'm in clear water. Be patient and remember, when you get one on it, document the time, the temperature of air and water as well as the location and how you were working the bait, by doing that it will give you insight on when and where to use them plus it will give you the most important thing, confidence.

[BASSPATROL247]

Most anglers think a lipless crank bait should be burned (retrieved fast) across grass tops because they see pros doing this. The lipless crank is one of the most versital lures you have. Yes it works retrieved fast, it also works retrieved slow, jigged off the bottom like stroking a jig, falling through bait school like a structure spoon, stop & go like a deep diver.

Tom

 

 

X2!!! they are one of my favorite baits!! people say they only work in certain situations/season but WRB is right, you can fish them so many diferent ways your head spins and I catch fish with them year round in open water and through the ice. ive always got one tied on to a rod when im fishing and would turn around and go back home to get them if I forgot them....

[Ginosocalbass]

The vibration to 90% of the lipless cranks is relatively the same.  the determining factor for lipless cranks is in the rattle and color. 

 

Lipless cranks ripping through the tops of grass in summer is a killer way to catch fish.  Also try a bait will a chrome or gold finish and loud rattles for when the water is muddy after summer rain. You'll be surprised how strong a bait they are in summer. you can fish them just a bit faster than a squarebill or chatterbait, and cover a ton of water. varrying your retrieve adding pauses, and rips into the bait will pull 90% of your strikes. 

[Catt]

Y'all be forgetting why the Trap was in created!

Bill Lewis invented the Rat-L-Trap for fishing flooded timber.

Ricochet that puppy off every tree/stump ya can find @ any depth & any time off year!

[scaleface]

I use to catch a lot of fish on the rattleless Pico Perch and Bayou Boogies . I havent used them for many years but they caught a lot of fish . I still have a few . .

 

I usually fish lipless baits on deep points. I guess one of  the technique I use is called stroking " I didnt know there was a name for the technique "  , but anyways when  fishing them  from a john boat, hits can actually be heard .  Rattletraps have worked the best for me when lifting and dropping on points .

[smalljaw67]

The vibration to 90% of the lipless cranks is relatively the same.  the determining factor for lipless cranks is in the rattle and color. 

 

Lipless cranks ripping through the tops of grass in summer is a killer way to catch fish.  Also try a bait will a chrome or gold finish and loud rattles for when the water is muddy after summer rain. You'll be surprised how strong a bait they are in summer. you can fish them just a bit faster than a squarebill or chatterbait, and cover a ton of water. varrying your retrieve adding pauses, and rips into the bait will pull 90% of your strikes. 

 

You  have rattle and color but you left out speed, the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap and Cotton Cordell Super Spot both have chrome black back and chrome blue back and both have a similar sound but the super spot will vibrate and produce noise at a much slower pace than the trap, in fact I have found a lipless crank that works as good as a spot does as slow speeds. But I agree that vibration is the one thing that I don't take under consideration when I select a lipless crank, it is sound, then speed and my color selections are between painted and chrome.

[primetime]

I love lipless cranks, Floating Rattle Traps, Suspending versions, silent or flat, one knockers, loud hi pitch , low pitch, and I burn them sometimes in cold water, slow roll, hop on bottom like a jig, rip like a spoon, and to be honest....

 

I carry about 200 on every trip and I divide them into categories..Sound, Size, color, but most important, Nose down, Good in weeds for ripping (many are modified but I do my best ripping traps through Hydrilla and milfoil) but it is important to know how a bait falls...A Red Eye Shad has a perfect shimmy when you kill it and let it sink....If you try that with the Diamond Shad by Strike king, you will probably not get bit letting it fall as much, it falls like a rock and spirals all over the place, but that little bait deflects really nice and is good for certain applications like burning in open water, but some glide, some fall like a rock, and some like the Rippin Rap are designed to be heavy and yo-yo'd....My advice is to carry lots of treble hooks so you can up the size on some and also up the size of split rings...More fish are lost on lipless cranks for me than any other lure, if possible I would always rish cranks on either fluoro or mono for stretch, but if ripping grass, braid makes it much more effective for me, so I use a soft rod and super sharp hooks and still I expect 30% of fish to throw them after hook up...If you throw lipless cranks on a fast action rod with braid you can expect to land very few fish that day....I have learned the hard way, I am so glad they label rods "Crankin" rods these days as it helped me and I had been fishing for years, I never realized just how soft a cranking rod really needs to be to maximize landing percentage....I used to buy cheaper cranking rods but now I go cheaper on the flipping stick and spend the money on a good heavy action cranking rod that can handle braid and still have a fast enough tip that I can rip them out of weeds without losing them.....Read articles on this or pick up the rods that other's use since lipless cranks are often the best way to catch fish on many days and probably the best "Search lure" on the market for me.