Best Fishing Lures – Bassmaster Elite Series – Smith Mountain Lake

reelfishinglures — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:30:09 +0000

As mentioned in an earlier post about finding the best fishing lures by checking out the Bassmaster Elite Series winning lures, you can gleen a bunch of information about what fishing lures to use when by studying the pros on their strategy. The latest torunament was at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. Keith VanDam was the winner and he did so targeting smallmouth bass, which was a distinct difference between himself and the majority of the competition. Given the temperatures were rising and the bass were beginning to spawn, he targeting beds to catch his fish. I'm not a huge fan of targeting beds as it can lead to diminished reproduction, but there is no doubt that is can be effective. Just make sure to release the bass immediately if you do decide to go this route. Given that they were on beds, the most productive areas were hard gravel bottomed points and led to good spawning habitat. If the bottom were clay or mud it was not productive at all.

Strike King Finess Worm Used By Kieth VanDam to win at Smith Mountain Lake

His go to bait for the week was the Strike Master 3x finesse worm. I have used a similar type of soft plastic bait by Strike King, but never the finesse worm. I have found their version of the Zoom Centipede to be a reasonable facsimilie. I think the two key strong points that the Strike King series employ is a floating body and a ridiculous amount of stretchiness. The former is great if you are fishing your french fry lure with a weight of some sort (be it a carolina or texas rigged setup or in the case of this week's winner it was a jig head). The stretch does tend to help out the longevity of the lure and leads to less changing your plastic worms. The floating aspect was important for Keith VanDam this week as it allowed the bait to be very visible hanging out in the bed of the bass. This lead to increased catch rates for the week.

Do you have anything to add in terms of the best fishing lure of the week for the Bassmaster Elite Series stop at Smith Mountain Lake?

Best Fishing Lures » Strike Master 3x finess worm

Best Fishing Lures – Bassmaster Elite Series – Smith Mountain Lake