Playing the Lipless Card for Prodigious Predators

PLAYING THE LIPLESS CARD FOR PRODIGIOUS PREDATORS

One of the things for which I will be forever grateful is meeting up with Roger Stearns in the early days of the lipless crankbait game on Lake Winnipeg. I was doing fishing seminars at the Mid-Canada Boat Show in Winnipeg and the glass-lined hawg trough that was serving as the stage was packed with mammoth walleyes in the 10- to 14-pound range. Roger came up, introduced himself and told me that he and a couple of friends had caught the fish jigging LiveTarget Golden Shiners. He invited me to join him and it was the start of a great relationship.

In those early days of exploration, and for several years after, we never saw another angler where we were ice fishing and not a day went by that we didn’t land at least one double digit walleye. Many days it was double digits of double digits.

DOUBLE DIGITS OF DOUBLE DIGITS

“I remember those early days,” says Donovan Pearase, who runs Blackwater Cats Outfitter, “Roger had his first batch of LiveTarget crankbaits and he handed them out on the ice. Shortly afterwards, one of my guides nailed a 28-inch walleye that might have been the first Manitoba Master Angler walleye caught in Lake Winnipeg on a rattlebait. At least it was for me and a lot of the guys around here. That was our introduction to rattlebaits and a dozen times since the LiveTargets were introduced, other lipless baits have come along. Each one has promised to be the last rattlebait you’ll ever have to use – the mother of all rattlebaits. You buy dozens of them, they work well and then, boom, something bigger and better comes along.”

One of the first things we learned in the pioneering days was that lipless crankbaits shine in large lakes and reservoirs that are shaped like bowls and lack structure. Think Lake Winnipeg, Last Mountain Lake in Saskatchewan and the Bay of Quinte in southern Ontario. The flatter and more featureless the body of water, the better they excel at using flash, sound, vibration, colour and profile to attract the fish. It is not that they don’t work well in heavily structured lakes, too, because they do, but their ability to call in fish from afar is unparalleled. They’re no slouches either, when it comes to triggering strikes. Especially, when the walleyes are aggressive. When they’re in a neutral or negative mood, on the other hand, lipless crankbaits

still deliver the fish, allowing you to catch them on a variety of finesse presentations.

Indeed, we learned quickly to drill three holes side-byside, placing the transducer in the middle one to monitor the outside action. Then we’d jig a LiveTarget Golden Shiner in one hole, while setting a deadstick presentation in the other. Sometimes the walleyes would rush in and clobber the rattlebait, while other times they’d inspect it and then slide over and eat the finesse bait. The tactic still remains one of the deadliest winter walleye presentations ever devised.

TO TIP OR NOT TO TIP

“The only thing I wanted for Christmas one year when I was a teenager reading about the lipless game you guys were writing about was three Rattlin’ Raps,” says Just Fishing contributor, Jeff Matity. “A blue/silver, gold/black and firetiger model. I was blessed with two of each colour. I took the baits onto the ice, removed the treble hooks and attached a three-inch length of stiff monofilament line to the hook hanger. Then I tied a red #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook to the end and baited it with a wax worm. I schooled my friends that Christmas catching walleye, yellow perch, northern pike, ciscoe and burbot. I didn’t have a fish finder back then, so I’d drop the lure to the bottom, rip it up to attract the fish, let it fall, count to five and then rip it up again. I caught a jumbo perch on almost every lift. It was a complete game changer.”

By: Gord Pyzer (Continued

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Gord’s daughter Jennifer with a hefty whitefish

No complaints from Gord about catching this bonus pike.

The author, – Gord Pyzer with a beautiful Lake Winnipeg walleye

even get a hook set. It snapped the handle and almost pulled the rod out of my hand. I yelled, Whoa, and oh my god, the savageness of the strike and fight was unreal. I managed to land the 37 1/2 inch pike and it weighed about 18-pounds.

“I had a tip up going that day, plus the jigging rod, and almost every time I moved and drilled a new hole I caught a pike. So now I am alert and paying attention. But there was no snow – it was glare ice – and the next fish took me off my feet on the strike. It just slammed me and I slipped. It knocked me off my feet. I kept doing this all day. It was the most exciting fishing I’ve ever done. I’d be jigging, jigging, jigging and then a freight train going a million miles an hour would crush the bait. Honestly, in all my years of fishing I’ve never experienced anything more exciting or exhilerating.”

NOSE TO TOES TROUT & WHITEFISH

One of the lipless crankbait features that has always impressed me, and I believe many anglers overlook, is their realistic appearance. When you hang one in the middle of an ultra-clear water column patrolled by prowling shark-like lake trout and whitefish, they stand out like sore thumbs, even when you don’t move them. But rip it up, get it vibrating and rattling and then let it plummet, and it excites the pectoral fin-splayed predators more than almost any other bait.

Two winters ago, my grandson Liam and I were ripping a rainbow trout Kamooki Smartfish under the ice, monitoring the action on our Helix sonar screens. We stuffed 13 fat lake trout back down our holes but could easily have doubled the number had we not reeled up and away from chasers in order to help the other person land a trout.

HT’s Tom Gruenwald shows off his massive whitefish.

And he never varies his signature nose-to-toes violent ripping cadence. It starts with his rod tip down almost in the hole and ends with it high above his head.

Southeastern Ontario based buddy Mark Alford, on the other hand, uses a hard-tofind original Sebile Flatt Shad 65 – the one with liquid inside the lure – to annihilate winter whitefish.

It looks like Stephen Sandell’s walleye swollowed a basketball!

“They always hit the lure on the fall,” says Alford. “It is uncanny, but the rapid vibrating upstroke unleashes some sort of anger response and then they swallow it on the fall. They’re two completely different horizontal vibrations and motions that attract and then

(Playing The Lipless Card continued from page 10.)

trigger the fish. The Sebile 65 isn’t a small lure. It weighs close to half-an-ounce. So you look at it and think it is way too big for whitefish. But trust me, you can’t over work it. It is a whitefish killing machine.”

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

When you see the fish responding the way Alford does you know you’re tuned into giving them what they want. But Matity cautions about too much of a good thing. “Few anglers appreciate the ability of a big walleye or lake trout to hear and respond to a target like a lipless crankbait,” he says. “I remember one time my brother Jason and I scored big time jigging Rippin’ Raps, while scouting the day before some friends were due to arrive. Where we fell down was appreciating that our guests were expecting to catch giant fish and lots of them. So everyone was ripping the big lipless cranks to match our previous days results. But there were too many guys huddled too closely together and our lures were no more than a few yards apart.

Yes, the fish showed up and we caught some dandies. But what was noteworthy was the fact that most of the action came on the deadstick rods. What we learned that day was that too many anglers, fishing too closely together, turned off the aggressive walleye. I should have spread everyone out over a wider area. I learned the hard way that fishing with rattlebaits is like spreading fertilizer. You need to apply it thinly for the best result. Put everyone too close together and you risk burning your spot.”

LINED UP

Something Alford has discovered is that you will catch more fish with lipless crankbaits on rods spooled with lighter, not heavier, monofilament line. “Most of the time we’re pushing the line strength envelop upwards, looking for the strongest line we can get away with,” he says. “And braids dominate. But I fish outside all winter long and catch more fish when I use the lightest monofilament line that I can get away with. I’ll often scale down to six-pound test.

About the Author – Gord Pyzer:

Regardless of what you are fishing for – walleyes, lake trout, stocked trout, northern pike, whitefish, crappies and perch – no lure lets you cover water more efficiently and effectively than a lipless crankbait.

When I am running and gunning on the ice, I don’t tip my lure with bait or drill a second hole. This is all about moving quickly while you search for aggressive fish using sound, flash and vibration. You will have plenty of time after you find the fish to tip your lure and drill additional holes.

That sounds too light for such a big lure, but it produces the sound, vibration, flash and horizontal fall that the fish want.”

And how this for a coincidence? Pearase is a big fan of monofilament, too. “Braid is definitely superior,” he says, “so if I am fishing inside a shack, I’ll use 15- or 20-pound braid. One of my guides swears by 10-pound braid because he feels it gives him better jigging and snapping actions. But I can’t stand braid when I fish outside.

So I use eight-pound test mono down to a small barrel swivel and then a 17-pound test Trilene leader that is roughly the same length as the ice is thick. That way, when you are fighting a fish, you’ll see the swivel and then take your time to get the fish’s head into the hole. I use mono because it freezes up less. There isn’t a braid out there that comes close to staying as ice free as monofilament. I just hate wiping ice off my line all day long in the cold.”

Rattlebaits have forever changed the way we play the walleye ice fishing game. Now they’re doing the same thing with other species, as we hit the jackpot by playing the lipless card.

2009 Inductee, Canadian, Angler Hall of Fame, Fishing Editor, Outdoor Canada Magazine, Field Editor, In-Fisherman Magazine & Television, Co-Host, In-Fisherman Ice Fishing Guide Television, CoHost, The Real Fishing Radio Show, Host, Fish Talk with “The Doc”, Outdoor Journal Radio & President, Canadian Angling Adventures Ltd.