smallmouth sPECTACULAR
Bass Pro Tour ’ s Josh Bertrand thinks outside the box and uses spybaits in more situations than tradition dictates , for smallmouth and largemouth bass .
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE
CLEAR WATER KILLERS ANY WATER , ANY TIME
With such a subtle action , clear water seems to be mandatory for the spybait to be effective . While it helps , what an angler actually needs is not necessarily clear water but water in which you know there are fish .
“ With how slow you have to fish this lure , it ’ s not a search bait ,” says Bertrand , who helped design the Berkley SPY Spinbait . “ You have to know the fish are there to begin with . If they ’ re there , though , so long as I have a couple feet of visibility , I ’ ll throw it .”
Serafin will go even dingier after that one fateful muddy-water experience .
“ The props may be tiny , but they put off enough vibration for the fish to find it — even in really muddy water ,” Serafin explains . “ You just need to get it close to them , but they ’ ll definitely eat it .”
Both pros say they ’ ve used the lures with remarkable success all over the country in all water types — even the
“ any lure that can get you ahead by getting you extra bites when nothing else can is one worth trying .”
greenish tints of Tennessee River lakes and even in the tannic waters of Florida . The key is simply knowing exactly where the fish are and then letting the subtle action and vibration call them in .
SMALLMOUTH OR BUST A THREE-SPECIES JUGGERNAUT
If the clear-water stereotype is out , suddenly the one-species-only stereotype is , too . Then again , this isn ’ t news to many anglers who frequent spotted bass fisheries like Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama and Lake Lanier in Georgia , and who have long known their effectiveness .
At a recent Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit event at Lewis Smith , Serafin says a spybait was a killer all through practice , but come tournament time , the spotted bass were suspending so deep and far under docks that the spybait couldn ’ t reach them .
“ It ’ s awful for skipping so you had to go with a swimbait ,” Serafin says .
Still , he utilizes a spybait alongside docks all the time , routinely getting bass to come out and show themselves .
While there are smallmouth out in Arizona where he lives , Bertrand typically fishes for largemouth , so it stands to reason that spybaits work on largemouth , too . In fact , Bertrand says that under the right conditions , a spybait has become a go-to bait for him when fishing for largemouth .
“ I can ’ t tell you how many times it ’ s put a smile on my face because it caught fish I didn ’ t think were catchable ,” he admits . “ Those schools of largemouth that won ’ t look at anything , and suddenly I ’ m able to catch a few with a spybait .”
38 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | JUNE-JULY 2021