8 to leadwood

[Al Agnew]

4 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

This one is full 18"s and only weighed 3.58.

 

In regard to my other post...I would call this one no more than 3.5 and probably less on an accurate scale.  18 inch Ozark river smallmouth seldom weigh more than 3 pounds.

[Al Agnew]

12 hours ago, top_dollar said:

Fished 8 to leadwood yesterday for the first time this year.  Lots of people out. Wt was 66 degrees with a few foot of visibility.  It was largely slow for me.  The river was moving quite a bit faster than I am used to and I'm just not good at catching them when it's like that.  Anyhow,  I caught about 15 bass or so, and lots of long ears after switching to a panfish rig.  Almost all of the bass came on a jerkbait with a few on a jigworm and wacky worm.  Biggest bass was a 15 inch smallie on a wacky.   I also lost a LM in the 18" range at the boat while I was fumbling with my backpack trying to get my phone out for a pic, that was humbling. 

I also heard a few whoppers from the locals.  One guy told me I saw a fellow with a stringer full of 5# smallies.  And a different guy told me of a 7# largemouth he caught.  I'm by no means good at bass fishing, but the biggest smallie I've ever caught here was 19inches and maybe 2.5#, and the biggest largemouth was also 19" and maybe 3.5#. Something tells me these guys see a 17" fish and call it 5#.  

Yup, or a 15-16 incher.  There is absolutely no way that stretch produces a legit 5 pound smallmouth in a year.  Maybe one every 5 years or so.  In fact, I know of only one true 5 pounder that ever came from that stretch.  And one other guy I know and respect his "guesstimates" told me he hooked one he was sure would go 5, and lost it at the canoe.  Largemouth are another story.  I have caught 5 pound largemouth from that stretch...not many, but a few.  But I've been fishing it for, oh, about 55 years or so.

[Gavin]

14.75" 5lb bass was a JOKE!...That might be a 2lb bass! Just got back from our friends farm in KS. They have a couple hundred acres in Ag, and part of the property has a mile of shoreline access to a 400 acre public lake near Topeka. Never have seen that many meat heads on that lake. Allot of short bass and walleye died this week. Maybe 1-2 boats on their cove per day on past trips, 5-10 a day this trip. Fishing appears to have suffered. Was hard to scratch out some legal Walleye. Used to be easy to fill a limit of 18-20" walleye. LMB bass fishing in decline too.

 

 

[Mitch f]

Here was a straight 19”’that weighed right at 4 pounds on my scale. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

11 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

In regard to my other post...I would call this one no more than 3.5 and probably less on an accurate scale.  18 inch Ozark river smallmouth seldom weigh more than 3 pounds.

I would not doubt that at all.  I’m not verifying the scale.  I only confirm lengths in my posts.  Which are facts.  I don’t care what they weigh.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

None the less, a stringer of smalls sux!!!!

[Mitch f]

5 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

None the less, a stringer of smalls sux!!!!

Yes 

I also caught a 19.5 that weighed 3.2...it was skinny

[top_dollar]

53 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

None the less, a stringer of smalls sux!!!!

Yeah I thought that myself.  I dont doubt he saw a guy with a stringer full of nice fish, just not 5# fish. 

[top_dollar]

13 hours ago, Brian Jones said:

Though uncommon, I know of at least one 7 pound largemouth caught through that stretch and quite a few 4-6 pounders in the past ten or so years. As far as the smallies go, that species of fish seems to bring out the big eye in all anglers............. And for the most part that stretch isn't really known for giving really big smallies like some of the stretches of river a few miles downstream......at any rate a good day nonetheless and I appreciate the report. Been wanting to float the upper part but have been impatiently waiting for river and weather conditions to stabilize before doing so....

Do you know how long that largemouth was? 

[Brian Jones]

22 hours ago, top_dollar said:

Do you know how long that largemouth was? 

I don't recall. But I can ask the guy who caught it when I see him at church Sunday.