Your first "big" smallmouth?

[Brian Jones]

These are the first two big smallmouth I remember.  They are from a 1985 float trip on the middle Meramec.  The ol' man is on the left and the one he is holding was 18 inches.  The one the guy on the right was holding was 21 inches.  Unfortunately, these two specimens were killed; something Dad really regretted doing years later.  Though I was only 11 at the time, seeing those fish in person and hearing dad repeatedly tell the story of the trip to his buddies absolutely drove my obsession with smallmouths, river fishing and the desire to see the Meramec for myself.  Seven LONG years later I finally made my first float on the Meramec and have spent a ton of time on it as well as other Ozark streams ever since. 

[Foghorn]

My old friend, Yogi !