A thought about lipless cranks.

[keithdog]

It's well established and common knowledge that a lipless crank is a go-to prespawn lure, especially in cold water. Right after ice out and through the prespawn period, lipless cranks are always one of the baits that are recommended by many experienced anglers. The question though is why?
To me, it just makes no sense. I mean, it works, but why does it work?

After ice out here in the north, jerkbaits like the Lucky Craft Pointer and the Rattlin Rouge shine because bass are still rather lethargic and not wanting to chase down their target. A jerkbait can be worked very slowly with a couple short jerks and then left to suspend for long periods of time allowing the lethargic bass to take the bait.

Jigs are also a bigtime early spring bait for bass. Big and slow, I hear it all the time. Cast it out and crawl it back slowly, maybe giving it a twitch now and then. It gets the basses attention and it's slow movments works perfectly with early spring cold water application.

And then there are lipless cranks which don't seem to fall into this catagory of early spring baits. They fall like a rock, can't suspend, and are worked quickly through grassbeds, while being ripped when snagged on the tips of the grass. This is hardly a cold water slow applications. Rather, it is a lure that is worked rather fast, either reeled straight in, or yo yo the bait back to the boat. Lift, fast fall, over and over. Something you would expect to use in warmer water for reaction bites. They are hardly the typical cold water slow suspending type bait one would expect to use. And yet they work. The question is why? If you can work a fast moving lipless crank, ripping it through the grass beds, why then do we want to work a hard bodied jerkbait so slowly? Why crawl a jig instead of quick hops and fast crawls?