Why are smallmouth so line-shy in clear water?
Smallmouth are sight predators refined for clear water, and they routinely inspect a bait from centimeters away before committing — plenty of range to notice a thick, high-contrast line or its shadow. The line rarely "scares" the fish off the spot; it just tips the inspection toward rejection. Dropping to thin fluorocarbon leaders (roughly 6–10 lb class) and keeping hardware minimal measurably improves the conversion on followed baits.
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