March 07, 2025
By Shane Beilue
Thinking back to when I was just learning to fish, my dad would always tie on a lure for me and tell me to start casting as we moved along in his 16-foot tri-hull boat. He selected lures that were easy for me to fish but also caught bass, two traits that the lipless crankbait embodies in spades.
We know these bass-fishing lures by the names on their packaging: the Rat-L-Trap, the Hot Spot and the Red Eye Shad being just a few of the myriad makes and models available. They’re all effective bass catchers and known for their loud rattle, which you can hear as the fishing lure nears the boat. The acoustics element provides tremendous drawing power to bring bass to investigate the ruckus coming through the water. Lipless crankbaits also have a very tight action in the water, which makes them especially effective in cold water. That slight wobble closely resembles the subtle swimming action of the baitfish the bass are accustomed to chasing.
Lastly, their designation as “lipless” comes from the lack of a diving bill, allowing us to fish the lure at various depths by simply letting it sink to the desired depth before starting the retrieve. Should you want to fish the lure in the extreme shallows, say less that 2 feet deep, simply hold the rod tip high and start cranking.
To maximize the effectiveness of these bass lures, we need to take advantage of each of the characteristics above. Here are three scenarios for which the lipless crankbait excels and the corresponding retrieves to deliver more bites.
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1. SHALLOW FLATS
The lipless crankbait is one of the best shallow-water “power fishing” tools we have at our disposal for bass fishing. They cast long distances and the loud rattle attracts bass like a magnet, whether fishing over the top of submerged vegetation or simply covering a shallow flat with sparse cover. I’ll toss a lipless crankbait in very shallow water from fall, through the cold winter months and into late spring due to their effectiveness for attracting bass from afar.
Their lack of a diving bill does limit their use around wood cover, as they’re prone to snagging easily. Aside from that, the lipless crankbait is a must-have lure in the shallows.
My tendency is to overfish the lure by fishing it too fast, especially in the winter season. Most of my bites come with a medium retrieve, but I like to occasionally pause the bait to see if a follower might be triggered into eating. Mix up the retrieve speed to see what’s working best that day.
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2. SLOPING SHORELINES
Because the lure sinks, another great bass-fishing use of the lipless crankbait is to let it hit bottom and “jig” it back to the boat in a lift-and-drop manner. This is especially effective for working down a sloping point or shoreline. With the boat in deeper water, cast the lure toward the shallowest portion of the structure. Once the lure hits bottom, lift the rod tip with short 8- to 12-inch twitches to pop the bait off the bottom before letting it flutter back down. It’s a great technique in the winter when bass are feeding on dying shad.
3. SCHOOLING BASS
In the warmer months of summer and early fall, bass can come up schooling in open water at any point during the day. Because the lipless crankbait casts like a bullet, you can often reach those distant schools feeding on the surface with these lures. This is a situation where a fast retrieve is most effective, as the bass are in a frenzy and attacking anything that appears to be getting away. A short pause after ripping the lure out of the schooling fish will often draw violent strikes form the bass below.
For color schemes, I try to keep it simple. Chrome, white and bone colors are effective most any time of year, and especially so when around schooling fish. Shades of red, brown and orange are known to be effective over vegetation or under bright skies when chrome might offer too much flash.
The lipless crankbait is a tremendous bass catcher and one of the all-time classics in lure design. If you’re just getting started in bass fishing or searching for an effective lure for a young angler, an assortment of these timeless crankbaits will likely guarantee success.
