Ice-fishing Friday: Your complete guide to slamming fish with lipless cranks

Believe it or not, my top ice lures are no longer time-honoured classics such as spoons and jigs, or even live bait. These days, my first drop of the day is usually a lipless crankbait. They’ve become my go-to lures because of the way aggressive fish devour them, and how they trigger neutral fish into striking. It’s not that lipless crankbaits are new—open-water anglers have been using them for decades.

It’s only in more recent years, however, that anglers have discovered their effectiveness when fished vertically through the ice. In fact, lipless cranks have proven irresistible for many of our most popular winters species, including yellow perch, walleye, pike, lake trout and even burbot. Here’s how to select just the right models for your ice-fishing adventures, and how to fish them effectively for a variety of species.