Deep, really deep in the bottom of my tackle box there rest lures that haven’t seen day light in years. I rarely reach for these lures when out fishing. They just look lifeless with no texture. It’s hard to have confidence in a lifeless lure, but that has all changed now. Now when I reach in my tackle box it’s with anticipated excitement over which color of lifelike XCalibur Xr50 Real Craw lipless crankbait to fish with. It’s scary how realistic the new XCalibur Xr50 Real Craw lipless crankbait looks.

Although lipless crankbaits have been around for a long time few if any changes have happened with them. Sure lure companies have come out with new color patterns, but nothing that revolutionary. The new XCalibur Xr50 Real Craw (www.lurenet.com) actually has a texture of a live crawfish. Just close your eyes then rub your fingers over it and you get the impression it’s a live crawfish, but there is more. Every XCalibur Real Craw goes through a multi-step painting process that resembles a live crawfish. The last detail in its lifelike appearance is its menacing raised red crustacean eyes. The XCalibur Real Craw comes in 7 natural colors.

 
Lipless crankbaits can be fished in a number of different situations. Ripping a lipless crankbait through the grass during prespawn is an extremely productive technique. On Sam Rayburn Lake in Eastern Texas, anglers begin fishing lipless crankbaits in early February for giant prespawn bass moving up shallow after a long cold winter. These giant bass search the shallow grass for crawfish and baitfish that inhabit this fertile cover. The dominate color for lipless crankbaits on Sam Rayburn is red, but other colors like chartreuse or browns will also catch bass. To rip a lipless crankbait, an angler reels the lure until it gets hung in the grass then with a quick snap of the rod tip breaks the lure free. That sudden movement by the lure often incites a vicious strike from a bass. On Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas, anglers often cast lipless crankbaits around 45 degree chunk rock banks in the spring reeling the lure just fast enough to tick the top of the rocks. Lipless crankbaits skirting and bumping across the top of rocks looks just like a crawfish swimming among the rocks. It’s an easy meal for any bass. The lift and drop technique is another way to catch bass on many impounds like Lake of the Ozarks. To do it, an angler casts out and strokes the rod tip up and lets the lure drop on a semi-slack line to the bottom. Most strikes happen when the lure is falling when utilizing the lift and drop technique.

Lipless crankbaits are a reaction lure. Bass seldom get a really long look at these lures, but when they do it needs to look realistic; so realistic that it’s scary.