Late Summer Smallmouth Adventures

[Lloyd]

Speaking of state record smallmouth, this story cracked me up. Dude caught what would have broken the Vermont record by 10 oz., but wifey wanted fishcakes!

https://www.compassvermont.com/p/he-settled-for-the-unofficial-largest

[snagged in outlet 3]

18 minutes ago, Lloyd said:

Speaking of state record smallmouth, this story cracked me up. Dude caught what would have broken the Vermont record by 10 oz., but wifey wanted fishcakes!

https://www.compassvermont.com/p/he-settled-for-the-unofficial-largest

I believe the MI record was almost eaten too.  The guys neighbor convinced him it might be and turns out it was.  

[basska]

On 10/5/2025 at 8:34 PM, Al Agnew said:

Mineral Fork produces some big fish, but some of those are big ones that winter on Big River and come up the Mineral Fork to spawn.  I've fished Big River all my life, and have never seen, much less caught, a smallmouth there that I thought would break 6 pounds.  I once had a memorable day on Mineral Fork where I and my brother put 13 smallmouth in the canoe that were over 17 inches...the biggest one was 19.5.  (That was quite a few years ago, and I wouldn't expect to be able to do that today even though the access problem means some parts of it aren't pounded all that much.)  So no, I don't think you'd ever catch a 7 pound plus smallmouth on the Mineral Fork.  

Yeah, probably true.

However, I find it hard to believe that there isn't a high probability of a state record Smallmouth swimming in one of our Ozark streams. Probably the middle to lower Meramec or Gasconade. We all know of 6 lb. fish being caught in these streams, and Jeff Schultz caught one a few years back that was supposed to go 7.06.

I can also attest of verified 23" fish being caught in the Ozarks, although extremely rare. 

On the right day, in the right season, after the right meal. I'm sure there's a river fish that edges out the record. Problem is, there's probably another lake fish out there that obliterates it.