Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3720 Sept 14-18 | Page 11

FRESHWATER VOL.37 • ISS. 20 Sept 14 - 28, 2018 11 Thoughts On Lipless Crankbaits presents Let’s Rattle Up Some Black Bass & Stripers! ^ This feisty smallmouth slammed a lipless vibrating crankbait. This type of lure has a baitfish shape that black bass and stripers recognize. The rattles inside such baits draw fish in from long distances and trigger violent reaction strikes. > Here we see a couple of Cal Kellogg’s Yo-Zuri Rattl’n Vibe crankbaits. Cal favors baitfish and crawfish patterns most of the time, but if the water is stained he’ll go with bolder colors. < When it’s overcast or dark, Cal has enjoyed very good success while tossing a black Yo-Zuri Rattl’n Vibe. In low light conditions, black lures give the fish a clear target to attack. > Here we see Cal’s lipless crankbait rig. The rod is a Cousins Tackle stick that features a lively tip and some backbone. The Daiwa 6.4 to 1 reel is spooled with 17 pound Berkley Vanish Transition fluorocarbon line. W hat if I told you there was one bass lure that you could effec- tively use in water of virtually any depth, regardless of water clarity or cover that would catch fish day in day out during every month of the year? A lure that effec- tively mimics both baitfish and crawfish, that can be burned, slow rolled, ripped, jigged or banged off solid structure such as rocks, dock pilings or tree stumps. You’d probably want to run out and pick up a selection of these miracle lures, right? Well, the good news is that you probably have some of these lures in your tackle box right now, but the bad news is that you likely tie these lures on infrequently at most and if you are like many bass anglers you don’t use them at all. The lure I’m referring to is the lipless crankbait. Virtually every manufacturer of hard baits offers a lipless crankbait. Most of these lures share common characteristics. They all shake violently when retrieved, most have internal rattles that generate a ton of noise and they all drive bass crazy. I have no idea why more bass anglers don’t utilize these super effective lures. Perhaps they are just too simple to fish and therefore anglers dismiss them as the tools of rookies or the unsophisticated. Well, if catching bass after bass while simply chunking and winding a lure makes you a rube, kindly label me as being unsophisticated! Why do lipless cranks appeal to black bass and stripers? Well it’s actually pretty simple. Lipless crankbaits present bass with several different triggers. First is the shape. Lipless cranks are shaped like shad and bluegill. When burned through open water they move like them too. When skittered along a rocky bottom, dark colored models look a lot like a panicked crawfish and as they clack along they sound like them too. As we know, bass rely heavily on their lateral lines to pick up the vibra- tions put off by potential prey. When you are retrieving a lipless