The Smallmouth are spawning!

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After waiting through a long cold spring, it looks like the smallmouth on Flaming Gorge are starting to spawn! This is a fun time of year to fish the clear waters of the Gorge and find some of the biggest fish of the year. Smallies are super aggressive on the bed and it can make for some exciting times on the water. 

I have two presentations I use when aight fishing. The first is a white Texas-rigged YUM Christie Craw. This bait is easy to see in stained to clear water, and will usually get the bass to react. I’ll also throw a drop shot with a bright colored worm, and the advantage of the drop shot is you can let it sit in one spot for as long as you want, and sometimes that’s what it takes to tick off a bass enough for them to bite. You can even drop it on the bed, open the bail on your spinning reel and back away, leaving the bait in place. More often than not, your line is going to start moving sideways. Then just reel into him! 


Some people don’t like the idea of sight fishing for bedding fish, due to the possibility that it could impact the success of the spawn. I don’t have any issue with bed-fishing, but I do take extra precautions to take care of the fish and get them back into the water as soon as possible. This way they get to do their thing and I still get to enjoy catching trophy quality fish. 

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