Wired 2 Fish - Lucky Craft RC Wake

Lucky Craft RC Wake

Wakebaiting for bass – reeling a lure on the water’s surface so it creates a pronounced wake – is a productive fish-catching technique professional bass anglers have guarded for years.

Though wakebaiting is considered a topwater technique, it differs from traditional topwater buzzers, poppers and chuggers in that wakebait lures do not break the water’s surface to create splash.

Legendary bass pro Rick Clunn has always favored waking baits in clear, calm water over some kind of submerged cover such as standing timber or grass.

“The idea is to ‘bulge’ the surface with a lure so it leaves a ‘V’ on top of the water,” Clunn revealed. “The secret to wakebaiting is maintaining a consistent wake on the surface during the entire cast; the wake pulls bass to the top to investigate. If the lure breaks the surface or falls below it and the wake is disrupted, the fish loses interest.”

Traditionally, pros have used large floating minnow lures, ultra-shallow crankbaits and spinnerbaits as wakebaits by manipulating their retrieves to make the lures ride high in the water just under the surface.

“The problem with forcing some lures to be wakebaits is you’re often limited to one certain critical speed to make the lure wake just right,” Clunn explained. “Also, it’s hard to make these lures wake for the entire cast, especially on long casts, so some portion of the cast is always wasted.”

To fix this problem Clunn teamed up with Lucky Craft to design the perfect wakebait: the RC Wake.

RC Wakes are built on Clunn’s popular RC 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 body sizes and feature a jointed tail for enhanced action when reeled on the surface.

“Now wakebaiting is no longer a tenuous task of ‘holding’ a lure near the surface for just a portion of a cast,” he added. “The RC Wake stays locked into that illusive zone just under the surface, producing a consistent wake at any retrieve speed or casting distance.”