(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Like many bass anglers, Elite Series pro Mark Daniels Jr. caught his first memorable bass on a Rat-L-Trap – specifically a red crawfish version (color No. R46) on the California Delta at the age of 5 or 6. It’s a simple lure that can produce big catches just by casting it out and retrieving it steadily, and it continues to win tournaments that way, but in the ensuing three decades Daniels has learned all sorts of strategies for maximizing the lure’s tournament-winning effectiveness.
The plague of many anglers’ lipless crankbait experiences is losing hooked fish, and Daniels said that it’s “almost like a science” to keep them buttoned up. His first correction is to use a composite rod rather than a pure graphite stick to avoid setting the hook too soon. He likes 6’10” to 7’4” models from Kistler, which he pairs with a 6.3:1 Cabela’s Arachnid baitcasting reel. Sometimes he’ll go faster, sometimes slower, but usually that mid-range reel provides a “happy medium.” He’ll typically spool it with 12- to 17-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, which has limited stretch, and in extra-heavy grass he’ll use braid up to 40-pound test. “I get my cushion from my rod,” he explained, noting that sometimes the lack of stretch triggers strikes by allowing him to snap the lure free from the vegetation.
His favorite season to use the Rat-L-trap is the winter, when water temperatures are anywhere from 42 to 55 degrees, with springtime a close second, but he has at least one tied on 12 months out of the year, including the fall, when it’s deadly in the backs of pockets, creeks and bays. While he sometimes crushes fish with a nice and steady retrieve, at other times he’ll use a yo-yo (“deadly around rocks”), stop and go (imitates a fish fleeing and dying), burning (for schooling fish or when they’re high in the water column), or a snapping retrieve. It changes not only from day to day, but even from hour to hour.
While Rat-L-Trap produces over 200 different paint schemes on its lipless crankbaits, Daniels tries to keep his choices simple, preferring to emulate crawfish, shad or bluegills. On the other hand, he doesn’t just rely on the original 1/4-, 1/2- or 3/4-ounce versions of the lure. He’ll switch up among the Knock-N-Trap, the Floating Trap, the Stealth Trap and the Tiny Trap as conditions dictate, or whenever the bite slows down on the one he’s been using.
He also modifies his Rat-L-Traps for specific circumstances. In the old days, he was a fan of the Pro Trap, which has a hole bored through it from top to bottom, allowing the line to be threaded through and affixed to a free floating treble hook. While it’s no longer made, he still has dozens of them in his possession. Another mod that you can make at home is adding flash by removing the rear treble and replacing it with a small willowleaf blade. He only does that on colored (i.e., non-chromed baits), which benefit from the extra flash. For fish that have seen too many square bills and spinnerbaits in laydowns, he removes the back treble and upsizes the front treble (e.g., from a No. 4 to a No. 3), which allows him to get the lure through surprisingly gnarly laydowns.
If you want to learn some of the other strategies that MDJ employs for Rat-L-Trap success, including how he uses his Garmin electronics to eliminate water quickly, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
