Lipless hardbait

This lure has no lip, and the role of a rudder is taken over by a tie eye set on the back. The pull is applied from above, not from the front, and that changes everything: buoyancy, character of action, and how it is presented.

Why it sinks

There is no cavity here to keep the lure afloat, and the body is flat and dense. A lipless hardbait sinks on its own, and its depth is set not by shape but by the pause: however far you let it drop, that is the depth it runs at.

Vibration instead of a wobble

A flat body hung by the back does not roll wide but trembles finely. This is a different signal in the water than a lipped hardbait gives, and that is exactly why the two are kept side by side in the box, not used as substitutes for each other.

Several holes for the tie eye

The back often has not one mounting point but two or three. The front one gives a steeper rise and a finer vibration, the rear one a shallower path. This is the only adjustment the design of such a lure provides at all.

Noise inside

Many models carry small balls inside the body, and on a fast retrieve the lure rattles noticeably louder than an ordinary hardbait. A quiet model with no balls also exists — the choice between them depends on whether noise helps in a particular water, not on the class of the lure.

Where it is more convenient than a lipped one

It casts far, being heavy and compact, and it can be worked at any depth — from the surface to the bottom — simply by changing the pause after the cast. A lipped hardbait cannot do this: its range is built into its construction.

How it is retrieved

A steady retrieve gives an even vibration, rod twitches give a series of short drops and recoveries. In winter it is fished vertically too, simply lifted and dropped in the ice hole: a lure hung by the back trembles on that motion as well.

It is not the same as a metal blade bait

A flat metal blade bait is also hung by the back and also worked without a lip, but it is not a hardbait: it has neither a hollow body nor a rattle chamber, and its vibration comes out sharper. The only thing they share is where the line pulls from.

Where it loses out

It has no lip to bounce the lure off obstacles, and two open trebles run out ahead along the bottom — on a cluttered bottom that means collecting snags. There a soft lure with a hidden point works, or a rig with the weight set away from the lure. And it does not hold a set depth by itself: slow down, and the lure sinks to the bottom; speed up, and it rises.