question on lipless cranks

[robster80]

last year was first time i really started to throw lipless cranks.  now early spring theyre becoming a favorite technique. question is is there a certain time bass prefer a one knocker vs a rattling crank (such as xr50 vs xrk50). do guys usually have more success with the one knockers?  

[Drew03cmc]

Honestly, try them both. The fish will tell you.

 

 

[ww2farmer]

I like to keep my lipless bait selection simple, SK Red Eye Shads are hard to beat as far as traditional rattling baits go, but I keep a couple one knockers in the rotation. It used to be the Xcaliber ones, but my last few went to the pike last year, so it'll probably be the booyah version this year.

I usually start with a Red Eye Shad , if they are not biting that.............chances are the lipless crank bite is not on at that time, and switching to a one knocker is not the answer...........however............If I have been catching them with a Red Eye Shad, and the bite gets real slow, or just stops without warning in an area ...I will toss a one knocker out for a bit and see if I can't pick up a few that were not impressed with  the initial offering before I leave and try other water. About 50% of the time it picks up an extra bite or two.......but I wait until the Red Eye Shad bite has totally ran out of gas.

Another time I reach for the one knocker first is after many many days of killing them with a Red Eye Shad, and I want to change it up, or when a bunch of buddies I have who fish lipless baits in the spring have already been all over the places I want to fish with a Red Eye Shad, I'll try the one knocker behind them, as I know they are not throwing them.................how do I know that you may ask? Because I do. LOL. 

 

[A-Jay]

Regular Rattlers, One Knockers, Two Taps, Faint Rattlers & even silent lipless baits all catch fish.

Some times one may be preferred, other times it may not matter and they all catch.

If you really want to wake the bass up . . .  rig up 4 or 5 Rat-L-Traps on an A-Rig . . .(kidding)

A-Jay

[alzun664]

If there is a time that bass prefer one sound over the other I have yet to see it. I typically have less success with one-knocker types vs traditional rattles or silent lures. I think a lot of it is just marketing to sell more lures.

From my experience If the fish are eating a lipless they're eating it regardless of what kind of noise it does or doesn't make.

[tbone1993]

I don't use silent lipless baits. It just seems to defeat the purpose of the bait. I understand that you get a yo-yo action and can rip it free from the grass but I just don't put them into my lineup.   If they're biting a rat-l-trap it doesn't matter if its a SK , BL, Booyah, EXcalibur, pradco knockoff etc etc. If the fish want that noise they're going to bite whatever comes close. That being said @ww2farmer has a good point. Throwing something new can really stir the pot up. Hence why I just picked up some of the SK tungsten 2 taps or whatever they're called. 

[A-Jay]

4 hours ago, tbone1993 said:

I don't use silent lipless baits. It just seems to defeat the purpose of the bait. I understand that you get a yo-yo action and can rip it free from the grass but I just don't put them into my lineup.  

The purpose of every bait is to get bit and this silent bait does - quite regularly. 

It's all in how & where it's presented.

A-Jay

[smalljaw67]

4 hours ago, alzun664 said:

If there is a time that bass prefer one sound over the other I have yet to see it. I typically have less success with one-knocker types vs traditional rattles or silent lures. I think a lot of it is just marketing to sell more lures.

From my experience If the fish are eating a lipless they're eating it regardless of what kind of noise it does or doesn't make.

If you never encountered when one sound is better then you haven't used them long enough or fished with enough different anglers. I have a variety and with good cause, because there are times, for whatever reason, that one type will out produce others. Last fall, middle October we would get bit on regular rattle traps, chrome blue back and chrome black back, but we wouldn't get them hooked up as the first jump the fish was gone. We got 10 or 12 fish in as many cast but they really weren't hitting it good, so my buddy pulls out a chrome blue back knock-n-trap, rattle trap with a one knocker, he began catch the fish that were hitting the rattling bait with closed mouths, at least that is what we think was happening. Yep, the only difference in those baits is the sound and my buddy didn't lose a single fish that hit the one knocker and it was even the same color, so I'm guessing the sound had something to do with it. For myself, if I get on a lipless crank bite, and it is a rattling bait, I find that if I'm getting smaller fish, switching to a one knocker will sometimes get the larger fish to hit, sometimes it stays the same and sometimes you don't get bit. It is experimental and I find that I catch more fish on rattling baits but the larger ones are caught on one knockers, if it is the sound or just luck I'm not sure but I've had many a day in which traps wouldn't draw a strike but a Cordell super spot would get slammed and vise versa, and when I judge these things I take into account the color, if the color is different I don't include it because the pattern may have had something to do with triggering the strike, who knows. So all I can say is experiment and see what happens and keep a log of what type of bait worked and didn't work, you'll be surprised at what you may find out.

[jbw252]

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

The purpose of every bait is to get bit and this silent bait does - quite regularly. 

It's all in how & where it's presented.

A-Jay

Wow A-Jay, bet you that lure has some good mojo.

[A-Jay]

Just now, jbw252 said:

Wow A-Jay, bet you that lure has some good mojo.

It has something ~

I'd have to swim for this one.

I'm talking no pants ~  is that TMI ?

A-Jay

[jbw252]

What happens on Bass Resource, stays on Bass Resource...

[Catt]

I bought my first Smokey Joe trap from the back of Bill's ole Ford (rattletrap) station wagon & now throw them exclusively.

I've drilled a hole to remove BBs, inject glue to nose weight em or tail weight em; I think it's not just the rattles but the tight fast "wiggle" that produces the loud vibration.

I throw everything from 1/8 oz to 1 oz with the 1/2-5/8 oz being the most productive.

I throw em in water 2' deep by simply holding my rod @ 12 o'clock & burning it.

I throw em in 18' of water with the knee-n-reel technique.

I throw em around grass, brush, & standing timber.

I throw em winter, spring, summer, & fall...morning, noon, & night!

I've been down the road with Hot Spots, One Knockers & everything else; none produce year in & year out like Traps...period!

[alzun664]

14 minutes ago, Catt said:

I think it's not just the rattles but the tight fast "wiggle" that produces the loud vibration.

This is why I think the type of rattles don't matter much since even silent lipless cranks will give off that tight vibration. I will definitely have to experiment more with the different types of rattles this year though.

[Flippin4Biggins]

I just buy them and test them all out but the common factor for me is colors!  I love shad, chartreuse, bluegill/crappie, and craw colors mainly.  But I will say some of my favorite lakes are pressured big time and if I see loads of traffic or Simone in my spots I'll follow them up with a silent crankbait and usually kill them.

[Catt]

7 hours ago, alzun664 said:

This is why I think the type of rattles don't matter much since even silent lipless cranks will give off that tight vibration. I will definitely have to experiment more with the different types of rattles this year though.

Rat-L-Trap has done studies with rattles & without; the rattles do produce more vibration.

[Raul]

On 6 de marzo de 2016 at 1:50 AM, tbone1993 said:

I don't use silent lipless baits. It just seems to defeat the purpose of the bait.

WHUT ?!?!?!

On 6 de marzo de 2016 at 6:26 AM, A-Jay said:

The purpose of every bait is to get bit and this silent bait does - quite regularly. 

^^^^^ Pretty much says it all

One of my most fish catchingest ever lipless crank is the Heddon Sonic, which, btw, is silent.

[Airman4754]

I accidentally ordered some one knocker 6th Sense lipless last summer and they were catching just as many smallies as the same size and color that sounded like a coffee can full of buckshot. 

The only thing that I have noticed is our strikes increase and we injure the fish way less by removing the back treble hook and going up a size or two on the front one. The bait flutters a lot harder nose down. We catch hundreds of bass over the three main species in the summers here and a fair amount in the late fall and they never bite the back hook, but it does impale their body and gill plate way too frequently.

[robster80]

do the silent ones work also in stained slightly muddy water ? 

28 minutes ago, Raul said:

WHUT ?!?!?!

^^^^^ Pretty much says it all

One of my most fish catchingest ever lipless crank is the Heddon Sonic, which, btw, is silent.

 

[Bluebasser86]

I seem to do better on the one knocker/silent baits when the fish are heavily pressured with lipless baits, in clear water, or early in the year. 

[robster80]

well. i ended up catching quite a few sunday mainly on the rattling ones. i caught about 6-7 on a 6th sense ****** and hooked a nice one that broke my line and made off with my lure. 

[David Whitaker]

I love to throw the normal rattle first but I like to make it sound different from everybody else throwing hundreds of times past the fish with the same rattle. I'll drill a hole through the bottom into the rattle chamber with a drill bit just large enough to drive through the bottom without being too big and ruining the bait. Shake out 1-2 BB's (if they don't come out, use a file to slowly largen the opening) then reseal the hole with epoxy or some other type of resin. File it down to be flush with the bait. This will make the same bait everybody else might be throwing like a SK Red Eye sound different and more appealing to the bass. For me it's better than any one knocker because no matter what, everybody else will have the same bait and throw it at some point if it's on the market. Give em something they've never heard. It'll also give it a different shimmy on the fall and fall a little slower making it just that more appealing.