A beautiful smallie!

[Hog Wally]

My 11th 20" or bigger smallmouth for 2018   Caught it on the new Tackle HD shakey head   

[jdmidwest]

Nice.  Looks like your day was better than mine.  TN Rivers were dead yesterday with the showers moving thru all day.  Best fish was 15"

[Johnsfolly]

Great looking smallie! Saying that you have figured out the big girls over 20" is not a surprise statement. You have put your time in year after year to be able to get on those type of fish that most of us dream about. Congrats!

[Smalliebigs]

Dang dude!!!!!!..... nice One Hog Smally😜

[Hog Wally]

8 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Great looking smallie! Saying that you have figured out the big girls over 20" is not a surprise statement. You have put your time in year after year to be able to get on those type of fish that most of us dream about. Congrats!

Gotta go to catch em.  I get jealous of the guys that go once a month and catch a giant.  I've switched to their tactics.  Fish dumb water.  Fish where I wouldn't normally dream of fishing.  We lost two this evening and one was another possible 20"   The other was a huge largemouth for the river.  

[Johnsfolly]

17 minutes ago, Hog Wally said:

I get jealous of the guys that go once a month and catch a giant.

In hunting it is usually that first time hunter that bags the biggest buck by dumb luck! One year a hunter that never went bear hunting before, drove down to a public game land. He gets out of his truck, gets his gear together and starts walking down a logging road and stumbles upon a bear not 50 yards from his truck. He killed the largest bear taken that year and it was well over 600 lbs. He was even able to drive up to the bear to load it along with 6 other guys.

That happens all of the time, but as you know to get a "trophy' year after year or in your case several each year means that you have put in the time to be successful.

Go fish that dumb water. May be les pressure in those areas. Can't wait to see the next big girl!

[snagged in outlet 3]

A buddy of mine had a hangover on opening day of deer season a while back.  He was so bad he only made it past the driveway of the cabin and sat down next to a tree, barfed and then fell asleep.  Ne where near his stand.  He wakes up to a monster buck right in front of him.  He shoots it and it turns out to be the largest rack shot in that county for about ten years.  Thing looked like a sticker bush on it's head. 

[curtisce]

way to go

[MOFishwater]

I can't compete with you guys and your ability to consistently boat the hogs but thought I'd shake my personal best MO smallie from yesterday's work float trip. beautiful day for a float! we headed out from Blue Springs Ranch with a few other parties. 

buzzbait was the ticket. Had this one miss twice on huge explosions and kept cranking and she came in for a third whack and I got her hooked up. Completely random spot with no noticeable cover or ambush site. 

Hooked 3 in a row on ned rig while we stopped for lunch, all little dinks. Lots of small ones and missed blowups using a mini-buzzbait, no real luck with flukes or craw-jigs. I never end up throwing crankbaits, usually just rapid firing topwaters since I'm the only fisherman on the trips. 

Sure beat working, nice to have a boss that loves to float probably more than i do. We do this trip every mid-sept and it's always a great time. We have a revolving cast so there's always people who've never gotten out or even been in a canoe before (folks from Germany, Taiwan, Slovakia, Mexico City, Idaho, NC, CO this trip). Always fun to show them a slice of Missouri countryside even though we're barely an hour from downtown. 

 

[Hog Wally]

On 9/21/2018 at 10:44 AM, MOFishwater said:

I can't compete with you guys and your ability to consistently boat the hogs but thought I'd shake my personal best MO smallie from yesterday's work float trip. beautiful day for a float! we headed out from Blue Springs Ranch with a few other parties. 

buzzbait was the ticket. Had this one miss twice on huge explosions and kept cranking and she came in for a third whack and I got her hooked up. Completely random spot with no noticeable cover or ambush site. 

Hooked 3 in a row on ned rig while we stopped for lunch, all little dinks. Lots of small ones and missed blowups using a mini-buzzbait, no real luck with flukes or craw-jigs. I never end up throwing crankbaits, usually just rapid firing topwaters since I'm the only fisherman on the trips. 

Sure beat working, nice to have a boss that loves to float probably more than i do. We do this trip every mid-sept and it's always a great time. We have a revolving cast so there's always people who've never gotten out or even been in a canoe before (folks from Germany, Taiwan, Slovakia, Mexico City, Idaho, NC, CO this trip). Always fun to show them a slice of Missouri countryside even though we're barely an hour from downtown. 

 

My time has been so limited that I haven’t fished topwater like I want to   I’m sure they are going nuts but I’m working