A Man Who Knows a Thing or Two About Fishing Lipless Crankbaits

Professional angler Mark Daniels, Jr. is a lipless crankbait connoisseur who has spent hundreds of hours with one of these lures in his hands. MDJ first remembers fishing a "trap" when he was 10 or 11 years old.

Now, he has caught bass from California to New York with the iconic bait. What follows is a tip he graciously offered to Wired2Fish staff writer Luke Stoner back in October 2021.

"MDJ learned to get more bites with a lipless crankbait by fishing it in places that other anglers avoid, namely hard, wooden cover like laydowns, stump flats, and shallow brush piles," said Stoner. "Lipless crankbaits have proven themselves as an incredible lure around aquatic vegetation, but they don't get mentioned too much around other cover types."

"People don't throw traps around wood because, honestly, they are pretty bad about snagging," MDJ admitted. "But if you can finesse a lipless through laydowns or around stumps, bass will jump all over it, 'cause it's something they don't regularly see in those areas. To combat a lipless crankbait's tendency to hang up, I simply take the back hook and split ring off the bait altogether."

The only time the pro takes this action is when he specifically focuses his casts around hard, wooden  cover.

"He always upsizes the front hook in these scenarios," noted Stoner. "With the standard 1/2-ounce size, he typically upgrades his Rat-L-Trap hooks to No. 4 Owner ST-56 hooks to improve his landing ratio. When targeting wooden cover, he upsizes the single front hook to a No. 2 ST-56 hook."

"I've tried so many hooks over the years," said MDJ, "because Rat-L-Traps and other lipless baits are notorious for losing fish," he explained. "The ST-56s from Owner are short shank and triple the strength of a regular hook with a ridiculously sharp point. I just don't lose as many fish with these hooks. KVD has proven to the world that short-shank treble hooks catch fish once they have 'em pinned, and I've experienced the same on lipless baits."

With the back hook removed, MDJ's bait doesn't get snagged nearly as often and doesn't affect his landing ratio when it comes to putting bass in the boat.

"If MDJ is fishing the smaller 1/4-ounce version," explained Stoner, "he opts for two No. 6 Owner ST-56 hooks around grass but prefers a single No. 4 front hook when targeting wood cover. Upsizing the front hook when he completely loses the back hook is extremely important to getting a hook into fish that react to the bait."

Lipless crankbaits like the Rat-L-Trap have been catching bass for years and are just as effective today as they were when they were developed in the late 1960s. Don't forget about these proven fish-catchers this fall and apply MDJ's tips to help you get the most out of your lipless crankbaits, regardless of the time of year.