The lipless crankbait is an effective year-round lure, and is one of our favorites for targeting winter bass. Jeremy Francis of Fishing the Lonestar demonstrates the basics every angler should know when bank fishing a lipless crankbait in the winter. Knowing where the bass are hiding is just as important as knowing the right ways to adjust your technique to compensate for the colder water.  

There are a lot of amazing lipless crankbaits on the market today, but knowing where to start can be intimidating. Here are a few of our favorites

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Video transcript:

Jeremy:
There's one. So as I was just talking about those rocks, my very next cast. There's some crushed brick right up here and, oh, he came off. That's a good fish right there. What's going, guys. Welcome back to the MONSTERBASS channel. My name is Jeremy with Fishing the Lonestar. If you're new here, make sure you hit the subscribe button below. We'd love for you to join us here on the MONSTERBASS channel as we share a bunch of videos with you, fishing tips, tricks, how to catch fish from the bank as I'm fishing today, from boats, kayaks, you name it. We're here to help you get better as an angler and hopefully catch some big fish along the way, like hopefully we'll do today.

Jeremy:
But today we're talking about fishing with lipless cranks. I've got a couple to show you, including a new one that MONSTERBASS is releasing. I'm going to try to fish from the bank today, so we're going to show you a little bit of tips, tricks with the lipless crank, but especially from the bank, to hopefully have an effective day and hopefully I'll have an effective day out here as well. So let me turn the camera around, get to fishing, and give you a little bit of advice on what I do to catch fish from the bank on lipless cranks. And hopefully it works out. Let's roll.

Jeremy:
All right, guys, I've previously been throwing this little Red Eyed Shad, chrome and blue, but check out the new Incision 69 by MONSTERBASS. This is a greengill color, little two and a half inch, one ounce lipless crankbait. And I'm going to break this out. We're going to swap these out really quickly and I'm going to throw this one today. I like this greengill color. This body of water in fishing has a lot of bluegill. Has shad as well, so this one may work instead, but today I'm going to try the gill color first, since this is a new one I just picked up from MONSTERBASS. New feature, this Incision 69. We're going to tie it on and see if we can't catch some fish on this one. So let's swap these out real quick.

Jeremy:
So as I'm beating the bank today, I'll show you the three colors I brought with me. This is that new MONSTERBASS Incision 69, that green shad color. This one you've seen before. This is the Castaic lipless featured in a MONSTERBASS box. And of course, most people know the Red Eyed Shad. But I like these three colors, mainly because I've got a chrome color that gives off a lot of flash, I've got a kind of a more natural shad color with that Castaic lipless, but then also have a bluegill color here with that MONSTERBASS Incision 69. So we're going to go with that one right now, give it a go, and who knows? We'll see if they'll bite that one. If not, we'll mix up colors and try one of these other two.

Jeremy:
One thing I really like about this one, though, is I'm noticing that front red hook. That gives bass a lot to target in on. Little bit thinner profile, which is really good for this time of year. So let's tie this on. I'll show you the gear and equipment that I'm using and the retrieval as well, that usually leads to some bites. So let's get that rolling.

Jeremy:
Another quick tip for you. Right now I'm just walking around with one rod and reel today. So in order to carry some extra baits with me, I'm just going to take this MONSTERBASS packaging, pop in a couple extra lipless cranks in there, and there you go. So I've got those, but we've got this one tied on, and let's make some fan casts and see if we can't land one.

Jeremy:
Now that we got rigged up and we're making some casts, let's talk about the gear, and then we'll talk about the retrieval, all right? So the gear to use when throwing, in this case a lipless crank, but somewhat applies to a normal crankbait as well. First of all, let's talk about the rod. The rod, now this one is particularly made to be a crankbait rod, but this is a cranking rod, seven foot moderate action. The reason why you want a moderate action rod, if I show you the tip right here, you want a rod that's going to have a lot of bend in the tip. That's going to help absorb a fish's bite on the treble hooks and is going to allow for a good hookup ratio.

Jeremy:
So you don't want to be ripping the hook away from these fish. You want to have them bite in to it and stay pinned, and a moderate rod is going to help you do that. It's going to help absorb the bite and it's also going to help absorb your hook set, which doesn't have to be a hard hook set, all right? So if you get a bite, you're just going to kind of lean like this. You're not going to give it a hard rib like you would on a Texas rig or jig or something along that nature. So a good kind of seven foot somewhere in there, give or take a couple inches, but a seven foot moderate action rod, kind of a medium, somewhere in there, will work really well with throwing a crankbait or really anything with treble hooks. So keep that in mind.

Jeremy:
Now, the line that I'm using is a 12 pound fluorocarbon. You can throw 14, even 17 pound with your lipless cranks. Any of those will work, but for a line, 12 to 14 pound fluorocarbon is usually what most guys are using, and gals, but you can use 17 pound as well. I've done it, no problem. And then let's talk about the reel. When you're fishing a lipless crank, let me actually back up. When you're fishing a normal crankbait, I'm sorry, I'm bringing some grass here. When you're fishing a normal crankbait, you want it to reel slower. That's because a normal crankbait is going to dive as you're reeling and float when you stop. With a lipless crank, it's going to dive when you stop reeling.

Jeremy:
So in this particular case I'm fishing from the bank. I'm kind of reeling pretty fast, because don't want it to sink and drag the bottom and get hung up, et cetera, or get bogged down on all of that grass you're seeing. I want to come right over the top of it. So as I'm retrieving here, my reel speed or gear ratio, if you will, this one's a 7.5:1. And again, I'm reeling it pretty fast because I want to come right over the top of that grass. And when I hit it like that, I want to try to rip it out before I get stuck in it like this. But you want to be near grass or in grass because that's obviously where the fish are.

Jeremy:
The goal, though, is to just hit the tip of it and then rip it up or rip it out of the grass, not get stuck in it. But sometimes, if you get a lot of hydro like that, you'll want to be in there in it. So that's going to happen. But again, reel speed, 7.5:1 is what I'm using. That's a good all around speed. You can go slower if you want, like a 6.8, or you can go even faster. Just be cognizant of how fast you're reeling. And I'll tell you if you're hitting the grass quite a bit then speed up your retrieval, just like I did there, and came through clean that time. If you're not hitting grass or hitting bottom or deflecting off stuff, I'd tell you to slow down your retrieve and make sure you're doing that. Because also when you're throwing a lipless, you want to be in and around stuff. Sure, you can fish in open water, but along the grass edge, over the top of grass, something like that's going to work really well because a lot of times that's where those fish are going to be hiding in.

Jeremy:
So I can tell, as I'm getting a little bit shallower here, I'm going to reel a little bit faster, come across the top of the grass. And kind of just... (silence) There's a little one. A little guy. But threw it right over the edge of the grass over there, kind of kept it on top of it, and little guy came and munched on the new MONSTERBASS Incision 69. All right, little one. Hopefully there's some bigger ones up there. But I thought I saw some shadows flickering along the bank line, so I kind of paralleled it right there and I got that little one coming up and eating. So let's see if there's maybe some bigger fish over there.

Jeremy:
Hi guys, another quick tip. If you ever come across a body of water that you're fishing, you have some rocks like this, you may not be able to see them but they go out a little bit ways in your water. Run a lipless crank right over the top of those. Rocks like this will hold heat in the winter. So today it's about 40, 45 degrees. I know it looks warmer, but it's not, so 40, 45 degrees. Last night we got below freezing. But rocks like this will hold heat on sunnier days, and fish will kind of gravitate towards that because the smaller bait fish are there because it's a little bit warmer. So fish your lipless around rocks like this. There was not any fish on this one, but there's another pile of rocks down this bank line as I gravitate towards my left, so we're going to keep doing that and see if it might produce a fish for us. But don't be afraid to fish rocks in the winter, because they hold heat, whether that be a rock dam, if there's a dam anywhere you're fishing, or even if you're just walking around the bank and you see rocks like this. Fish them.

Jeremy:
There's one. So as I was just talking about those rocks, my very next cast. There's some crushed brick right up here, and oh, he came off. That's a good fish right there. That was a good fish. I went to swing up on the bank. I'm going to count that one. That one counts. Hopefully it counts. I'm on kind of a ledge right here. I couldn't get down to him, but that was a bit of a two and a half pounder. So, but what I was saying is these rocks right here, there's some crushed brick and a little bit of just a different contour than the grass I've been fishing, although there's still some grass in there.

Jeremy:
And the first cast, I mean like literally I just turned the GoPro back on and took two reel turns and that fish came up and ate that lure. And had him on there. He came up and gave me a head shake right here. And then there's about a four foot, three foot drop right here that I went to swing him up and he came off right as I went to swing him. But that was a good fish. It's a fun little catch. (silence)

Jeremy:
Oh, a little one came up again right at the bank. Got that one, guys. He came up and ate it just as I was pulling it out of the water. Just a good reminder to finish your cast. But that little guy came up and munched on... He's fat, too. But he came up and ate it right there at the bank.

Jeremy:
All right guys, as you can see, I am back at home. It got too dark out there. Sun goes down too fast these days. But anyways, I wanted to recap really quickly by just showing you again those colors in this new lipless crank. So let me turn the camera around and show you that lure. All right guys, I'll say I was really impressed with the Incision 69. Now it is a little bit more narrow, probably, than most lipless cranks, but I will tell you, see if I can hold this up to the light, you can kind of see how it's translucent towards the bottom, with this longer weight. Gives it a really nice rattle.

Jeremy:
So it's almost like a one knock, and it has a really unique sound to it. So I really like it. I'm going to have to pick up some more colors, some additional colors here, and those hooks are super sharp. Caught I would say three. I don't know, you guys tell me, tell me if the one that came off at the bank counts or not. But landed two. Let's just say I caught three, but this little Incision 69, two and a half inch, half ounce lipless crank by MONSTERBASS got it done today.

Jeremy:
All right, guys. There you have it. MONSTERBASS Incision 69, get out and throw some lipless cranks right now, this time of year, all right? The fall, the winter months are a great time, really any time, year round, it's a great time to throw lipless cranks, but right now especially. So make sure you get out there, give them a try. Also go visit the MONSTERBASS store, MONSTERBASS.com, not only for the lures they have that are MONSTERBASS lures, but also anything that you've seen in the boxes, you can only then go and purchase more of there on MONSTERBASS.com.

Jeremy:
And make sure you check out the regional pro bags through the subscription monthly. It's an awesome set of lures that come to you each month, regionally handpicked to help you go catch fish wherever you're located in your part of the country. And if you haven't yet, make you subscribe right here. And if you would, hop over to my channel, Fishing the Lonestar, give me a subscribe as well. Make sure you stay tuned, though, for more awesome tips and tricks to come. It may be getting cold, but it doesn't necessarily mean the bass fishing isn't heating up. So stay tuned. More to come. MONSTERBASS, go catch one.