T AR G E T I NG F
Story & Photos
BY MARK FONG
with lipless crankbaits
S
tarting in the summer and extending all
the way into the late fall, a lipless crank-
bait is perhaps one of the best baits you
can have at your disposal. I make it a best practice to have at least one rod
rigged with a lipless crank on the deck during this
time of the year. Over the years I have caught lots
of bass on lipless rattlebaits, mostly largemouths
and smallies.
I don’t exactly know why, but a lipless
crank was never my first choice or my second
choice or even on my radar when I went to a
spotted bass lake, but all that has changed
thanks to my good friend, Ron Gandolfi.
Lead in Lowrance Structure Scan becomes your eyes under water.
As a fulltime guide, Gandolfi spends upward of 150 days a year on the spotted bass factory that is Lake Oroville. It goes without saying that this man knows a thing or two about catching spots; so when he picked up a rod rigged with a lipless crankbait and proceeded to put fish after fish in the boat, I
knew that I had better pay attention. I was
armed with a fresh perspective, after
witnessing his spot catching prowess
and I diligently set out to unlock the
spotted bass - lipless crankbait
connection.
FEEDING STATIONS
The first thing to
keep in mind is that
regardless of which black
bass species swims
in your lake, the key to
catching bass during the
fall is locating the bait.
Whether it is schools of
shad or swarms of pond
smelt, covering water and finding the forage is paramount. Fall fish can be extremely aggressive one minute and seemingly uninterested the next.
I like to start by targeting major structure. Schools of spotted bass like to hold on main lake
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