Your first "big" smallmouth?

[Mitch f]

5 hours ago, ozark trout fisher said:

Good topic!

My first really memorable one came in a lake in the northern foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. He was 21 inches, actually measured, not estimated,  totally innocent, and succumbed to a Rooster Tail spinner. 

This is a tricky one, because I kept him. Please don't hate me! Because even my stupid 17 year old self had standards, and I really did do it for what I felt were the right reasons...he was in an extremely remote natural lake known to hold a very rare strain of brook trout, that had been illegally stocked with smallmouth bass about 15 years prior. They were having a deleterious effect on said rare brook trout. 

Anyway, it was a drop dead beautiful northwooods pond, without exaggeration, the kind of place you can feel semi-certain there is no one within ten miles except the people you brought. He fought like hell, and he sure as heck tasted better than the Ramen I was eating otherwise that night (it was a three day paddle with mutliple mile+ portages, and food that weighed more than three ounces was at a premium.) I still can't get that fish out of my head, and truth be told, all conservation logic aside, I wish I'd released him. But there you go. 

There's a good chance that fish was just as old as you were at the time....not that I'm rubbing it in! 😂

[ozark trout fisher]

2 hours ago, Mitch f said:

There's a good chance that fish was just as old as you were at the time....not that I'm rubbing it in! 😂

Gee, thanks.

That fish also forms the distinction being the last smallie I ever kept, so there is that. Not that I ever kept a lot of them, I can count the total number on one hand. But after that the idea of ever keeping another one was just a non-starter. 

[Al Agnew]

Three other smallmouth I really remember...

1.  The first one I ever caught.  I was probably 6 or 7 years old.  My grandpa was always taking me with him when he went to trap minnows...he was a big crappie fisherman and couldn't stand to actually buy minnows.  And his favorite place to trap minnows was a low water bridge on Saline Creek in Ste. Genevieve County, even though it was probably a 45 minute drive from his house, especially the way he went.  He'd grown up just south of there, and I think he went more for the memories of growing up than because it was a great place to trap minnows.

At the time, the low water bridge had three box culverts for the water to run through, and there was smooth current running through the culverts, with the middle one about three feet deep, the others shallower (it's amazing how much I remember of this).  When we got there, as he was preparing to toss in his traps, I walked out on the bridge.  Curious, I lay down on my belly, hung my head over the upstream edge of the bridge, and peered down into that middle culvert.  I could see two fish that looked pretty big to me, back underneath there.  I asked Grandpa what they were.  He said they were probably smallmouth.

Now...I'd heard Dad and Grandpa talk about smallmouth.  They were almost this mystical fish to me.  I wanted to catch one.  I asked Grandpa if we could fish for them.  He always carried an old spincast rod in the trunk of his black car, so I knew we had the equipment.  He told me to go up above the bridge and turn over rocks until I caught a couple of crawdads ("about this long", he said, holding his finger and thumb about two inches apart).  He finished tossing in his traps below the bridge, then got out the rod, put on a light wire hook about size 4, I think, and a small split shot above it.  I came running with the crawdads.  He tail-hooked one, gave me the rod, and told me to just stand on the edge of the bridge, let line out, and let the current take in under the bridge.  Sure enough, I quickly hooked one of those smallmouth.  I got so excited I forgot to reel; I just put the rod over my shoulder and went running across the bridge to drag the poor thing out of the water and onto the bridge.  Grandpa said I knew better than that, but I didn't care, the fish was flopping on the concrete and I was ecstatic.  It was maybe 11 inches long, but it seemed like the greatest trophy in the world to me at that point.

2.  A few years later...I was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old, I'd ride my bike the half mile to the river from my house, with a buddy, and we'd fish for whatever we could catch, using small lures on spincast tackle.  My dad had told me that a "black gnat fly and spinner" was really good for smallmouth, so that's what I used, but the little stretch of river we fished didn't really have many smallmouth in it because it was so shallow, so mostly we caught sunfish and once in a while a tiny bass.  Then one day I lucked out and caught one that was a good 13 inches long, the biggest smallmouth I'd ever caught.  Understand, Dad took me reservoir fishing for bass all the time and I'd caught 5 and 6 pound largemouth by that time, but I was really proud of that smallmouth.  I hung it off the handlebars of my bike and rode around all through town, hoping for people to see it and admire that kid who had caught that fish!

3.  A little later, I'd kinda figured out that you could catch smallmouth before the season opened, and on Saturdays in April and May, I'd ride my bike down to the river and fish for them with the floating Rapala that I'd recently discovered.  I'd bought a set of very cheap plastic waders to keep from freezing in the still very cool water.  One day I finally hooked a "big" one, a 16 incher.  I'd release all the pre-season smallies I caught, but I just couldn't stand to release this one, so I slipped it down the leg of my waders and rode home with it.  I showed it to Dad.  "Nice fish," he said.  And then he took me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes and said, "Let that be the last one you keep before the season opens."

[Bushbeater]

I was fortunate enough to grow up with a family that camped and fished as long as I can remember. Grampa always had a jon boat and outboard, and one of those old minn kota trolling motors with the motor on top. We were on the Meramec at the campground run by Onondaga when he offered to take me bass fishing. There had just been a thunderstorm and the water was off color and rising. He fixed me up with a push button reel and a Lazy Ike. We were just downstream of the low water bridge where the canoe landing is now when the fun started. As I recall we landed big fish almost as fast as we could cast. Even in those days, probably around 1960 Grampa said we don't keep the bass. To me they all seemed huge, but my guess is the best were less than 18" and probably smaller. I still have Lazy Ikes in my tackle box. My PB actually came from a small farm pond just off the South Fork of the Salt River. Our thought was the previous owner of the property transplanted river fish to the pond. The pond was to be destroyed and rebuilt so we kept that bass, weighed it at 5 1/2 lbs., and ate it for dinner. I had a photo but it seems it has long since been lost in the shuffle.

[billym100]

My first big smallie came out of the Big River in the Bonne Terre area about 3 years ago. It can't compare with some of the behemoths on this thread, but for 12 year old me it was a special fish. It was on a stretch of river me and my dad fished annually, and he had caught several smallmouth in the 18"-20" range over the years. I had already been having a banner day; having caught twin 16" smallies on a rebel craw on an ultralight setup as well as a 24" channel catfish in a deep bluff hole. As the sun was beginning to set the smallmouth began to aggressively feed on bugs on the surface. At our takeout my dad suggested I fish a popper while he loaded up the truck. He left for about 15 minutes to get something for the house on the property we were staying at, and while he was gone I hooked into my biggest smallmouth to date. I still remember the explosion that fish made on my 2" rebel popper. After a nervy fight I was able to measure it against my 5 foot berkeley lightning rod, and later I measured up to the spot the fish lined up to, and it was a hair under 19". The kicker is that nobody saw me catch this fish. I would usually be angry that nobody could back me up about catching the fish, but I enjoyed that moment alone in an Ozark streak with a trophy of a fish nearly as old as me. That is the kind of fish that keeps you coming back to the Ozarks, and I hope to one day connect with another fish of that class.

[MOsmallies]

On 9/10/2017 at 11:51 AM, billym100 said:

My first big smallie came out of the Big River in the Bonne Terre area about 3 years ago. It can't compare with some of the behemoths on this thread, but for 12 year old me it was a special fish. It was on a stretch of river me and my dad fished annually, and he had caught several smallmouth in the 18"-20" range over the years. I had already been having a banner day; having caught twin 16" smallies on a rebel craw on an ultralight setup as well as a 24" channel catfish in a deep bluff hole. As the sun was beginning to set the smallmouth began to aggressively feed on bugs on the surface. At our takeout my dad suggested I fish a popper while he loaded up the truck. He left for about 15 minutes to get something for the house on the property we were staying at, and while he was gone I hooked into my biggest smallmouth to date. I still remember the explosion that fish made on my 2" rebel popper. After a nervy fight I was able to measure it against my 5 foot berkeley lightning rod, and later I measured up to the spot the fish lined up to, and it was a hair under 19". The kicker is that nobody saw me catch this fish. I would usually be angry that nobody could back me up about catching the fish, but I enjoyed that moment alone in an Ozark streak with a trophy of a fish nearly as old as me. That is the kind of fish that keeps you coming back to the Ozarks, and I hope to one day connect with another fish of that class.

Absolutely Awesome! Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you have an awesome understanding and appreciation at a young age!

[Griffster]

Caught some hogs when I was young lad and a bait fisherman.  (back in the 70's and early 80's)  Several 19s and a 20 or two.  One in front of Black River lodge on a live frog, and the others camping in Lesterville way up on the middle fork.   If I remember correctly on a live crawdad.   Several 18's and a 19 or two on lures, but I don't think I have broken that 20 inch barrier in a long while.   I'm not a very good fisherman though, but I love to try.     

 

 

[Hog Wally]

On 9/10/2017 at 11:51 AM, billym100 said:

My first big smallie came out of the Big River in the Bonne Terre area about 3 years ago. It can't compare with some of the behemoths on this thread, but for 12 year old me it was a special fish. It was on a stretch of river me and my dad fished annually, and he had caught several smallmouth in the 18"-20" range over the years. I had already been having a banner day; having caught twin 16" smallies on a rebel craw on an ultralight setup as well as a 24" channel catfish in a deep bluff hole. As the sun was beginning to set the smallmouth began to aggressively feed on bugs on the surface. At our takeout my dad suggested I fish a popper while he loaded up the truck. He left for about 15 minutes to get something for the house on the property we were staying at, and while he was gone I hooked into my biggest smallmouth to date. I still remember the explosion that fish made on my 2" rebel popper. After a nervy fight I was able to measure it against my 5 foot berkeley lightning rod, and later I measured up to the spot the fish lined up to, and it was a hair under 19". The kicker is that nobody saw me catch this fish. I would usually be angry that nobody could back me up about catching the fish, but I enjoyed that moment alone in an Ozark streak with a trophy of a fish nearly as old as me. That is the kind of fish that keeps you coming back to the Ozarks, and I hope to one day connect with another fish of that class.

Awesome story!  You are very articulate as well.  If my math is correct that makes you a 15 year old?  Very cool.  Made my day   

[Hog Wally]

I took this guy out today   He's 70 years old.  I was curious why he was so excited over a average sized smallie.   It was his first smallmouth bass he ever caught in his life    It made my week.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

Nice Aaron.