®
spring
S I GHT
By Marc Marcantonio
Spring 2021
F ISHING
TR I CKS
page 30
THE STORY
Nothing illustrates my favorite sight fishing tricks better than a real-life story that occurred more than 20 years ago.
I was fishing a team tournament in late May on the Willamette River in Oregon, and the smallmouth bass had just begun to spawn. Pulling up to a shallow flat, I started to search for both prespawn and spawning bass employing a deadly but often overlooked technique. Using a lipless rattling bait allowed me to fan cast the shallow flat and keep the trolling motor moving in search of a concentration of smallies.
In the clear water and still morning, it was important to make long casts. Shallow water smallmouth are easily spooked, so enticing a strike is more likely with a stealthy approach. The choice of lipless rattler also helps in making long casts. My favorite is the Lucky Craft LV-100 in a baitfish color like Aurora Black or Ghost Minnow. Although diminutive in size, the LV-100 casts like a bullet, and I fired it out and slowly retrieved it as I searched the flat for my first bite.
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