Ever See a 10# smallmouth?

[MoCarp]

This is the MI state record think its 9.88#

[snagged in outlet 3]

His neighbor talked him into getting it weighed because the dude was going to eat it. 

Caught on worms. 

[Quillback]

Sure that's not a carp?   It's ugly enough. 

[Mitch f]

I used a guide at Dale Hollow once who told me that in the old days there was a local guide who “filleted more 10 pound smallmouth than any other human in history” 

[kjackson]

Since I'm in work-avoidance mode, I'll add a story here.  

Probably 20 years ago, I was on a spring trip with a local guy, fishing the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River.  This section is the last free-flowing stretch of the middle Columbia and passes through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation--which means it's closed for a major portion of the year.  

My friend/guide took us to a slough off the main channel, and we started catching bass right away. It was absolutely the best smallmouth fishing I've ever had, and that includes Erie, Mille Lacs and some of the shield lakes.  The smallies we were catching were a measured 18- to 20-inches long, and it was a rare cast that didn't result in a fish. It was that good.  It's difficult to say this, but there were so many fish in that slough, and they were so hungry that we kinda got bored.  Throw out a Kalin's three-inch or five-inch grub on a leadhead, and you'd land a fish. If one dropped it, there was a good chance another would hit it on the way back to the boat. There was no challenge at all.

So we decided to move out of the slough and see if we could find fish elsewhere. At the mouth of the slough we stopped to give it a try. The area was full of boulders--big, basalt rocks that were broken bits of the old lava flows.  I didn't get a bite on the grub, so I picked up a crankbait rod with a Wiggle Wart and cast past a pair of large rocks, and as the bait worked past the gap between them, two fish started to follow.  Here I'll say that the water in that stretch was/is fairly clear most of the time, and visibility was six feet or so. 

One of the fish was a dink, and the other dwarfed it, and by "dwarfed", I mean the larger fish was at least six inches longer and perhaps three times the mass. 

Of course, the dink dashed to the Wart and inhaled it.  That fish measured 20 inches. Sooooooo-- I'm claiming I've seen a 10-pound smallie.  Granted, it was only for a few seconds, but it is a fish I will remember.

Also-- we didn't find any bass in other stretches of the river and went back to that slough to end the day.

[Mitch f]

7 minutes ago, kjackson said:

Since I'm in work-avoidance mode, I'll add a story here.  

Probably 20 years ago, I was on a spring trip with a local guy, fishing the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River.  This section is the last free-flowing stretch of the middle Columbia and passes through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation--which means it's closed for a major portion of the year.  

My friend/guide took us to a slough off the main channel, and we started catching bass right away. It was absolutely the best smallmouth fishing I've ever had, and that includes Erie, Mille Lacs and some of the shield lakes.  The smallies we were catching were a measured 18- to 20-inches long, and it was a rare cast that didn't result in a fish. It was that good.  It's difficult to say this, but there were so many fish in that slough, and they were so hungry that we kinda got bored.  Throw out a Kalin's three-inch or five-inch grub on a leadhead, and you'd land a fish. If one dropped it, there was a good chance another would hit it on the way back to the boat. There was no challenge at all.

So we decided to move out of the slough and see if we could find fish elsewhere. At the mouth of the slough we stopped to give it a try. The area was full of boulders--big, basalt rocks that were broken bits of the old lava flows.  I didn't get a bite on the grub, so I picked up a crankbait rod with a Wiggle Wart and cast past a pair of large rocks, and as the bait worked past the gap between them, two fish started to follow.  Here I'll say that the water in that stretch was/is fairly clear most of the time, and visibility was six feet or so. 

One of the fish was a dink, and the other dwarfed it, and by "dwarfed", I mean the larger fish was at least six inches longer and perhaps three times the mass. 

Of course, the dink dashed to the Wart and inhaled it.  That fish measured 20 inches. Sooooooo-- I'm claiming I've seen a 10-pound smallie.  Granted, it was only for a few seconds, but it is a fish I will remember.

Also-- we didn't find any bass in other stretches of the river and went back to that slough to end the day.

I live for stories like this. So how many times have you seen the bigger fish follow behind and let the smaller fish commit. How do you reverse that pattern?

1. Wait for more stained water and throw a huge spinnerbait?

2. Use a lure so big that the smaller fish is less likely to inhale?

3. Let your fishing partner catch the smaller one and you dangle a lure in front as the bigger one thinks his buddy dropped it?

all three will work

[Flysmallie]

15 minutes ago, Mitch f said:

3. Let your fishing partner catch the smaller one and you dangle a lure in front as the bigger one thinks his buddy dropped it?

all three will work

Can't tell you how many hours my dad spent in his life standing behind me in the front of a bass boat ready to fire a fluke into the water. We had some really good days like that. 

[MoCarp]

4 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

His neighbor talked him into getting it weighed because the dude was going to eat it. 

Caught on worms. 

 

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

I used a guide at Dale Hollow once who told me that in the old days there was a local guide who “filleted more 10 pound smallmouth than any other human in history” 

I believe that back in the day people fished for food more than sport, still a few of those left but its changing 

[MoCarp]

4 hours ago, Quillback said:

Sure that's not a carp?   It's ugly enough. 

nope too small

[Al Agnew]

A lot of times the really big ones just aren't going to commit.  A lot of the 20 plus inch smallies I've caught were with others that were of comparable size, and competition made them take it.  I can remember a lot of times when I did catch (or at least hook) the biggest of the pod of big fish approaching my lure, but a whole lot of times even in that scenario, one of the smaller ones got there first...and I'm convinced that if the biggest one wanted it bad enough, it would run off the smaller ones and take it.

And one of the two biggest Ozark stream smallies I ever caught tried to take the lure away from an 18 incher I had already hooked, got hooked itself, and then the smaller one got off.  And one of the three or four biggest I ever saw was following my partner's fish around trying to take the lure away from it, and when I cast to it, it struck but didn't get hooked.  I suspect that neither of those fish would have taken the lure first itself.

It is always a good idea for the partner in the boat to have a rod ready with a fluke or some other slow-sinking bait, to cast to fish following a hooked bass.