Well, the secret is finally out. One of my all-time-great fish-catching lures if finally getting some good press. I'm talking about the rattling, lipless crankbaits such as the Hot-Spot, Rat-L-Trap, Sugar Shad, Rattl'n Rap, Ratl'RRR "A" and numerous similar lures.

I've been a real fan of this type of lure since the mid-1960s when I began using them for bass. During 1968 when "coho mania" struck Lake Michigan waters, I threw these lures way out into the lake from piers using a nine-foot rod and pounded the salmon. This opened my eyes to the lure's non bass-catching potential.

Through the years I've developed and/or heard about many ways of fishing these so called "hot, new lures." First the basics.

One of the major reasons these lures have become popular during the last few years is that they can be real "no brainers." Anybody who can cast can toss 'em a mile. The retrieve is usually fairly quick, the strikes are easily felt, and they allow you to cover quite a bit of water. Even so, there are a few simple things you can do to greatly increase your results. Keep those hook points sharp and you'll hook and land many more fish. These lures have a reputation for being easily thrown away by a jumping fish. Sharp hooks, a stiffer rod (usually), and a good hook set will cure much of that problem.

The lipless crankbaits are most used over flatter cover-strewn areas--weed beds, stump flats, bouldered or large rock covered bottoms. For best results the lure should occasionally tick or bounce off objects of cover. this will trigger many more strikes than a lure running a "safe" foot or two above "potential snags."

Keeping the lure in slight contact with cover is done by counting it down to a set depth. Generally, these lures sink a foot per second. If a weed bed is about four feet under the surface, I'd let the lure sink to a count of three, then adjust retrieve speed so the lure just ticks the cover.

I rarely bring one of these lures in with just a straight retrieve. I generally rip it forward 6 to 12 inches every five or six turns of the reel handle and let it fall back as far as I pulled forward. These rips explode the lure forward which excites or triggers a fish. The drop-back allows them to suck it in, giving me a higher percentage of well-hooked fish.

These lipless crankbaits are also great trolling lures. in shallower water (four to seven feet).Lures of 3/8 to 1/2-ounce size can be used. It's rare to be able to use a crankbait type lure of this weight in this depth range. The fish catching keys of using this lure in shallow water are: it's a larger lure that appeals to larger fish, it holds up under high speeds with good hooking power, and it has the ability to come through or over the vast majority of snags.

I've had excellent success trolling these lures for suspended fish. They really work well for Great Lakes salmon and trout, pike and muskies, white bass, stripers, and crappies. When fish aren't too deep the fish can be free-lined or used a few feet behind a bead chain sinker. For deeper fish such as stripers, salmon, or trout, they are absolutely deadly when used in conjunction with downriggers. Just make sure you troll in a lazy S pattern that is interrupted with changes of speed.

Last year I did some playing around with the smaller sizes of lipless crankbaits. I did real well with a 1/8-ounce Sugar Shad trolling and casting for suspended summer crappies, and also on predawn smallmouth on super-tough Lake Geneva, a well-used water playground between Chicago and Milwaukee. In both instances the ultralight "shads" were used with a little bit softer action spinning rod spooled with a four-pound test. These smaller sizes are also deadly on super clear waters, in streams (smaller rivers), strip pits, farm ponds, and for large panfish.

Sometimes the small sizes really "match the hatch" on which big fish are feeding. A good example is 5- to 20-pound stripers feeding exclusively on inch-long shad and they won't hit lures much larger. Since the tiny hooks on the small lures are poor choices to hold a hard-fighting striper, take them off. Replace each small treble with a quite-a-bit-larger single hook. Now you've got a chance of holding a large fish.

The slim wind resistant profiles on these lures make them great for tossing to surface-breaking game fish. A long rod will allow you to toss them "a mile," plus it will drastically increase your ability to obtain a good hook-set. If you're only getting smaller fish out of the school, let the lure sink below the surface commotion and retrieve in a rip-pause manner.

The rip-pause tactic is also a great way to trigger bottom or cover-hugging game fish especially under warmer water conditions. One way to utilize this retrieve is to fish the lure along the bottom like a jig. Sometimes six-inch mini-rips are the answer while on other occasions two- or three-foot leaps trip their trigger. The more violent action seems to work better on smallmouth, pike, and muskies.

Yet another way to use these deadly fish-catchers is when still-fishing. When I'm anchored in current, usually below a dam or warm-water discharge, I often put a rod or two in a holder after casting the lure down current 50 or 100 feet. While I'm casting another lure across or up-current, my lipless, vibrating crankbait is being swirled around in the shifting currents., rattling and moving like a weaving fighter. Usually the strike will be a violent rod-bucking blast. Sharp hooks and a little give on the drag line are highly recommended.

This tactic is deadly in current, especially for fish that tend to be off bottom. Stripers, trout, salmon, white bass, and hybrid stripers are suckers for this technique. Don't lay your rod along the side of the boat or you may lose it.

Well, there's a few more ways to fish lipless, vibrating crankbaits. You can use the no-brainer approach of just casting and retrieving, or you can fish them with some imagination and skill and really catch more fish.