How to fish a Rat-L-Trap™ on Lake Guntersville

I often fish with anglers who just don’t understand that fishing a Rat-L-Trap™ (or any other lipless crankbait) can be more than just throwing it out and reeling back. Varying your Rat-L-Trap™ presentation is a key to catching more fish.

On Guntersville, the presentation that I believe catches the most and the biggest fish is what I call the stop and drop method. The key to success with this presentation is to know the depth of the water and the height of the grass growing on the bottom.

First, make long casts over the grassy flats.

Second, stop winding the reel and let the lure drop. If you’re fishing 5 feet of water and the grass is showing at about one foot high, then as soon as the bait hits the water let it drop down for three or four counts. When you start your retrieve, you should feel your bait ticking the top of the grass.
Third, keep your rod parallel with the water throughout the retrieve; don’t drop the rod tip. This helps keep the nose of your bait up so it doesn’t dive down into the grass.

One important factor in this presentation is retrieve rate. A high-speed reel, preferably a 7.1:1 ratio, will give you the fastest retrieve time of the bait and allow the bait just to tick the top of the grass and recover quickly.

Another important factor is your fishing line. You need a line when fishing over grass that has very little stretch. Braided line has no stretch to it, and when caught in the grass it slices through it easily.

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