Big River Giant

[405z06]

My best fishing buddy called this morning to tell me that a friend of his caught a 24" smallie on the Big River this morning. Of course, I was highly skeptical and asked if there were any pics. He said there was one, but it was supposedly a poor phone pic and the fish was caught right before dawn with poor lighting. He hadn't seen the pic yet, but I asked him to forward it to me if he ever received it.

Well, here it is. I don’t know the guy, or even what his name is. I didn’t feel right posting his face on here, so I made an adjustment to the pic. I’m not going to divulge his location for obvious reasons, but I will say that I caught my personal best less than 2 miles from this location last year. It’s an area that isn’t considered to be a great smallmouth area, and you don’t catch the numbers you will on other streams, but the area obviously can produce big fish. If it's legit.

Does this fish look 24" to y'all? It's a trophy fish regardless, I guess.

Take it for what it’s worth. I can’t verify anything.

Edit: The coloration on that fish leads me to believe that it spent some time in a livewell, no?

[Guest Brian B.]

I. Think he may be correct, look at the size of the head in relation to the guy's fist, then the girth of the mid-riff of the fish, the. Distance between his hands, and finally his tail, the quality of the pic washed out the detail of the rear fin. (If this fish were laid down I think it has a legit chance to reach 24".

The problem with modern tech- we all started. Using cell phone cameras- which means crap. Photos, as well as lost photos all too often.

[ozark trout fisher]

24 inches is awful big. I'll go 20" as purely a (somewhat) educated guess, but great fish regardless.

[Mitch f]

How urban legends start it's a trophy fat 18-20"

Fish.....the hands don't lie

[Guest Brian B.]

I thought I read that he had measured it- but I guess it didn't state that- trophy regardless,

My best largemouth was cell phone pic- and long gone. Pic sucked anyway.

[Flysmallie]

The problem with modern tech- we all started. Using cell phone cameras- which means crap. Photos, as well as lost photos all too often.

Not me. Cell phone cameras suck.

[405z06]

How urban legends start it's a trophy fat 18-20"

Fish.....the hands don't lie

The more I look at it, the more I agree with you.

[Quillback]

Certainly a piggy of a smallmouth, but I doubt 24".

[Jerry Rapp]

21.145 inches.

[Quillback]

Jerry has a good eye. What's it weigh?