Summer 2024
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“Those are overlooked a lot because they’re not necessarily big and beautiful,” he said. “But they hold a lot of really big fish.”
He wants his lure to fall as naturally as possible, so he may have to go as light as a half-ounce, but usually he’s employing 1- to 1 1/2-ounces of tungsten. While he’d like to have the pulling power of the 65-pound frogging braid, he’ll drop down to 50-pound test when flipping – it retains most of the strength of the heavier braid and tends to fall more easily through the congested water column.
“I like yellow braid,” he explained. “It shows the bites way, way better. If you get a bite while the bait is falling, it’s exaggerated that way.”
Again, he keeps his lure choice simple and efficient. The starting point is almost always a Strike King Rage Bug, in black and blue or green pumpkin.
“It has lots of presence so it’s easy for them to find under those dark mats,” he explained. He rigs it on a 3/0 straight sank flipping hook which he ties on with a snell knot to maximize his hook up percentage.
WHEN WILL THEY RETURN?
Smith hadn’t yet embarked
on the Bassmaster Opens
journey the last time B.A.S.S.
visited Clear Lake for an Elite
Series slugfest. In fact, he was
just 16 when Steve Kennedy
won with a then-record 122-14
on Clear, thereby exposing a
national audience to the true
power of a swimbait. Then
they returned in 2010 and
Byron Velvick brought bragging
rights back out West. But when
B.A.S.S. returned in 2015, they
visited the Delta, and then
detoured to Havasu without a
return visit to Clear Lake. That
means it’s been 14 years since
they’ve been back.
While he can expect that if B.A.S.S. ever returns, it’ll be in the spring, Smith’s feelings wouldn’t be hurt if they visited in the heat of the summer. It’d be prime time for his power fishing prowess, and a chance for the Roseville resident to show what his home lake can still produce with certified bubba techniques. •
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