Let's Talk Lipless Crankbaits

[Captain Phil]

Over the years, lipless crankbaits have played a big part in my personal bass fishing success.   I believe the first of these lures was the Heddon Sonic.  I didn't start using these lures until I heard about the Cordell Spot.  When the Rattle Trap was introduced, I became a convert.  I still remember the first day I caught a dozen consecutive bass while fishing this lure anchored in the Miami Canal.  When I moved to Central Florida, I joined the local B.A.S.S. Federation club.  At the time, that club had some of the best bass fishermen in Florida if not the country.  A good friend I met in that club was a great Rattle Trap fisherman and I learned a lot from him.  When nothing else works, a Rattle Trap always comes through for me.

 

That brings me to today when there are dozens of these baits. Some look better than the plain Rattle Traps I am using.  I wonder if I am behind the times or am missing something?   Let's talk about what works for you and why you believe it's better.   Have you learned anything about these baits that may be helpful to others?   

[scaleface]

The first lipless I used were the Pico Perches . Then the Hot spots came along and they were an improvement . I usually preferred the quieter baits .Now I rely mainly on   the Red Eye Shad  Silents and Tungsten Two Taps . They shimmy on the fall  and have become a premiere deep water lure . 

[Mobasser]

I first used Heddon Bayou Boogie. I've mostly just stayed with standard Rattletrap 1/2 oz since. I always sharpen the hooks good. I like to cast them on days when there's a chop on the water. I plan on trying the Red Eye Shads this season. And, I still like the Bayou Boogie.

[scaleface]

4 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I still like the Bayou Boogie

The Bayou Boogies I like  better than the Pico Perches . They are heavier and have  a better action . The Picos worked best for me in the tops of standing timber .

[Captain Phil]

I have used the Yo-Zuri lipless crankbait with some success. It looks somewhat more realistic. Also, the Strike King Red Eye Shad.  Most of my lipless crankbait fishing is done in less than 5 feet of water around cover.  I use 20 pound braid or mono and fish them relatively fast with frequent jerks.  I always change the hooks on Rattle Traps. Some of the new baits look interesting.

[Deleted account]

Besides size, I group Lipless baits by ROF and decibels. Other than those 2 things, I don't find much difference between them. 

[A-Jay]

 I'm a Lipless bait  fan ~ really like the baits versatility.

My personal preference is a bit scattered, but I do have my favorites.

~  ½ oz RES and the RES 2-Tap both see heavy action.  

And when I’m short hopping a Rattle bait off the bottom like a blade bait

– the Duo Realis G-Fix Vibration Tungsten Lipless Crankbait is almost like a secret weapon. 

It has a small thin profile but is ¾ oz. 

Casts like a bullet and sinks just as fast. 

Don’t buy any.   

A-Jay

[cyclops2]

I am a specialist of lips.  I tear them off.   The lures thank me .

[Catt]

Caught a bass or two on Traps 

 

I'm a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap guy, yes I throw em all but the majority of the time its Traps.

 

First thing I do is change the hooks to Gamakatsu Aaron Martens TGW G-Finesse. On a 1/2 oz Trap I put a #4 in the front & a #3 in the back. A lot of time bass will slap at a Trap, get foul hooked, & pull off...not with these hooks. The Trap will run more nose down & doesn't plow into the grass as bad.

 

Second will surprise y'all!

 

I throw Traps on a 7' 6" flipping stick, most Trap guys down here do the same. When ripping Traps out of grass it's much easier with a stout rod. 

 

Line choice is 15# Fluorocarbon or 20# monofilament giving us the shock absorption.

 

FYI: Color matters

Edited February 26, 2022 by Catt
Operator Error

[DitchPanda]

My two favorites are:1\4oz red eye shad and a 1\2oz Cordell spot. I fish the spot on a straight retrieve..there's something about the weight or buoyancy of them that allows them to be retrieved a little slower in shallow water. I fish the red eye with a yo yo retrieve...they have an excellent shimmy on the fall.

[roadwarrior]

RES has completely replaced  the Rat-L-Trap for me.

[PhishLI]

15 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

I wonder if I am behind the times or am missing something?   Let's talk about what works for you and why you believe it's better. 

I have a pretty good selection of standard traps you've heard of, but I have short window to use them. Aside from a few of our deeper east end lakes that have eel grass exclusively, the rest of my available waters are shallow and choked with milfoil and coontail. While the weeds are low, like right now until the end of June, I'm able to throw whatever I have for the most part.

 

If the weatherman is right I'll be out next weekend throwing a Berkley Warpig, Yozuri rattling vibes and silent versions, Cordell spots, etc. However, the X-Factor lipless will be the IMA Suspending Vibe. When we're at full bloom here this bait makes the most sense. It really doesn't suspend as you might expect. It does sink, but the delay it offers gives me just a bit more time before it buries itself in a mess. It also works well running along the edges of pad lines on hot days when bass are using them for shade. Unlike most lipped cranks which rise on the pause, you can stall the IMA and it'll sit still. They usually will hit it on the next jerk.

 

More importantly, it's a really good cold water lipless. Right now our lakes are stuck between 36-38 degrees. A lipless than can be paused briefly then sink slowly with a shimmy is good option for fish not ready to chase.

 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Ima_Suspending_Vibration_Lipless_Crankbait/descpage-ISV.html#customer_reviews

[MN Fisher]

I got a couple Rat-L-Traps and a few 1/2oz RES. Rest of my lipless are all Rattlin Raps.

 

The RES haven't had a workout yet - just picked them up this past fall. We'll see how they do this coming season.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

The lakes in my area are weedy and shallow which makes it tough to fish traps.  95% of the time I use them I'm yo yoing them in late winter early spring.  

Since I dont use them very often my experience with multiple brands is limited.  My favorite is the TN60, they just seem to produce consistently.  Excalibur made a trap that has a great shimmy.  Unfortunately I dont think you can get them anymore.  I really like Duos Apex Vibes as well.  They're really thin almost like a blade bait and have a subtle sound.

[Aaron_H]

I throw a lipless on nearly every trip, and they are responsible for almost half of my catches last year and multiple personal bests over the last few years. For me, sound is king followed closely by color. I throw a few different ones that all sound different in the water, from silent to loud, deep to high pitched, rattling to one knocking. Red Eyed Shads, Rattlin' Rapalas, and One Knockers are the ones I find I throw the most often, but there are a handful I throw depending on conditions. The others are the Thunderhawk Sergeant (rattling and silent), Rat-L-Trap, and Berkley Warpig (much lower pitched than other rattling baits I throw). Colors are primarily bluegill and shad patterns, with some chromes and golds thrown in, and a few reds.

 

One thing I have found I prefer in a lipless is the rear hook placement. Many of them place the rear hook underneath the bait (like the Rat-L-Trap). I prefer the rear hook to come straight off the rear point of the lure. This is most likely just a confidence thing, but I feel I hook up more often on fish that short strike with this design.

This:

Versus this:

 

As for setup, I went the other side of the same coin as @Catt. I want to rip the bait but wanted the feel of braid so I throw them on a MH/MF (Dobyns 705CB so closer to a moderate than a MF IMO) to have some give in the system for keeping the bait pinned.

[roadwarrior]

18 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Unlike most lipped cranks which rise on the pause...

I own many brands and don't have a single one that rises on the pause. The feature I like best

about the RES is the forward flutter on the fall after a pause.

 

[Big Rick]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

And when I’m short hopping a Rattle bait off the bottom like a blade bait

– the Duo Realis G-Fix Vibration Tungsten Lipless Crankbait is almost like a secret weapon. 

I enjoy this style of fishing and didn't know about this option. Thanks, A-Jay, another Benjamin up in smoke......

4 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

I own many brands and don't have a single one that rises on the pause. The feature I like best

about the RES is the forward flutter on the fall after a pause.

 

I'm afraid you missed the LIPPED part of his statement. Nearly ALL of my lipped cranks rise on the pause. 

[Captain Phil]

Color is an interesting topic and it seems to change year to year.  There was a time when fishing a 1/2 oz. chrome Trap with a green scaled back was the big thing here on the Chain. Later, I seemed to do better with the chrome blue back orange belly version.  On dark days, the Trap below was a secret weapon around here for many years.  In Kissimmee, gold was the best. 

 

 

[roadwarrior]

24 minutes ago, Big Rick said:

I'm afraid you missed the LIPPED part of his statement. Nearly ALL of my lipped cranks rise on the pause. 

 Oops!

I misspoke, missed it completely.

 

[PotatoLake]

Traps just don’t produce for me, I’m on a mission to throw “silent” ones this year to see if that makes any difference. 

[ironbjorn]

The Original Rat-L-Trap (in Blue Shiner in particular) is still the best (for me, at least). What I know about Lipless Crankbaits is that, if you've got a true swimmer, you can't fish it too fast (as in there's no speed you can reach that is too fast for the fish to be interested and able) and jigging it is a seriously underutilized tactic.

[padon]

red eye shad. spro aruku shad. i use others but these are my work horses. tic them through the grass in early spring and rip em out when they get stuck.

[fin]

You can’t really go wrong with a lipless. My preferences are different than most, but I’ve caught fish on almost every lipless I’ve fished. I don’t like the way RES swim and get sideways - they are my least favorite, but they have some great colors and I’ve caught lots with them. I’m not crazy about the profile of the Bill Lewis, Cordell, etc., but I’ve caught plenty of fish on them too. I prefer lipless that have more buoyancy, but I also like blade baits, so I can’t say one is better than the other.

 

I don’t see anybody mention the H2O, which is probably my favorite. Booyah makes a nice one too. Even the Walmart Chinese cheapos are okay by me, just cheap hardware and ugly colors.

 

I’m not wealthy enough to spend the big bucks on a lure than sinks like a rock, but if I was, I’d probably try every brand I could get my hands on.

[Cranks4fun]

I own most of the lipless brands, I think (Xcalibur, Booyah, Rat-L-Trap, Yozuri, Red Eye Shads, Cordell Spot, H2O Xpress, Rapala, etc.) I have caught most of my lipless bass on Rat-L-Traps. The truth is, though, I have used them more because they were all I owned at one time. 

  I have also been primarily a mid-spring through summer lipless thrower. I have been more committed to suspending jerkbaits, jigs, and deep lipped crankbaits for winter and late fall fishing. I want to try the lipless baits this week on my pursuit of white bass and hybrids in Oklahoma. Our water temps are still in the mid-40's so I will try several types and colors this week to see how they perform. 

  True Story: I was fishing with two other buddies in Virginia once. Two of us were crappie fishing in mid-lake and the other guy was bass fishing. He (the bass fisherman) hammered the shoreline with soft plastics and topwaters and who knows what else for probably 2 hours and caught nothing. As we came back in with a bunch of crappie, we asked him what he had caught. He said, "Nothing. They don't seem to be biting." I said, "Ah! Bass are easy catch here!" I was really just kidding around with him, of course. I tied on a Rat-L-trap, chunked it near a stump, cranked it about 5 times and WHAM! Bass on! At that point, I acted like I knew what the outcome was going to be but it was really pure luck. It looked good though! Haha! Anyway, I say all that to emphasize that sometimes those lipless baits are exactly what the bass want! Sometimes they seem to be the very best bait to throw. At other times... eh, not so much. I guess that is true for all baits except for wacky-rigged Senkos and Ned rigs. If bass are biting, those 2 lures seem to always catch a few anyway. That day was in mid-spring, by the way.

  I pictured some of my lipless baits below:

 

 

13 minutes ago, fin said:

You can’t really go wrong with a lipless. My preferences are different than most, but I’ve caught fish on almost every lipless I’ve fished. I don’t like the way RES swim and get sideways - they are my least favorite, but they have some great colors and I’ve caught lots with them. I’m not crazy about the profile of the Bill Lewis, Cordell, etc., but I’ve caught plenty of fish on them too. I prefer lipless that have more buoyancy, but I also like blade baits, so I can’t say one is better than the other.

 

I don’t see anybody mention the H2O, which is probably my favorite. Booyah makes a nice one too. Even the Walmart Chinese cheapos are okay by me, just cheap hardware and ugly colors.

 

I’m not wealthy enough to spend the big bucks on a lure than sinks like a rock, but if I was, I’d probably try every brand I could get my hands on.

I am a huge fan of H2O baits too. They are built well and they produce well! I have a couple of the H2O Spro Aruku knock-offs in the picture. I have not used those lipless ones much yet but I love their small deep running lipped cranks!

[fin]

2 hours ago, Cranks4fun said:

I pictured some of my lipless baits below:

 

What is the brand name of that one, second column from right, third from bottom/top? I never can remember that. I had it confused with River2Sea for a long time, so now that's stuck in my brain. Anyway, I've got that same model, but in black where that one is blue. The hologram inside is nice, it looks great swimming, and I must have thrown it a million times, but I can't catch a fish with it, even when throwing it in a school of feeding bass.