Finally happened, new PB smallmouth 2025
Bluebasser86 reply :
What seems like forever ago, I caught a 5lb smallmouth on a jerkbait fishing with my buddy on a super windy and cold day in April that we shouldn't have even been on the water in my little boat. I was 17 or 18 at the time, in the next decade and a half, I'd tie that fish 2 more times with smallmouth that registered 5 pounds even. Fast-forward to the present, I recently turned 33 and haven't seen a smallmouth over 4 pounds in the last few years due to continued high, dirty water conditions at our limited smallmouth lakes and this year looks to be more of the same.
Up until Friday I had caught a grand total of 2 smallmouth for the year, and one of those was from a lake I hadn't caught or ever seen a smallmouth from in 20 years of fishing it. I'd actually planned to head south and fish a different lake. I was afraid the water would be high and muddy at the little smallmouth lake, combined with the fact it was going to be a post cold front day, but something in my stomach kept telling me to head west in the morning. There's a couple other lakes close by, so I told myself if the water was muddy when I got there I wouldn't even put my boat on the water, I'd just go to one of the other lakes and chase largemouth like I was going to originally.
When I pulled up to the ramp, I could see a greenish-blue tint to the water. I walked down the ramp and could easily see 2' down. Something just felt right at that moment like I'd really made the right decision. The fish helped me feel like I had done right too, catching several right off the bat on topwater and a homemade micro finesse jig. Less than 30 minutes after I got there, a boat showed up that made my stomach churn, the state shock boat. I'd seen lots of bass and crappie on beds, and I watched them all day go down the banks shocking fish off their beds to take measurements. I nearly left right when they showed up, I've been unfortunate enough to be on the water when they were sampling before and it almost always shuts the fish down completely, but this lake is a little bigger than the others it's happened on, so I tried to stay positive and stick with it.
As the day went on, I caught gobs of largemouth, smallmouth, white bass, wipers, green sunfish, bluegill, drum (and later caught a few walleye and even a trout). I hadn't fished one of my favorite spots for smallmouth because it was one of the first places the shock boat went. I'd pretty much written it off for that trip, but I decided I'd try it for a minute. I was fishing a small Duo Realis Rozante 77SP jerkbait on a 6' 8" Ethos spinning rod, 30 size President, and 8lb AbrasX, fishing the bait pretty quickly when I snapped it into a really heavy fish, I thought I'd buried it into a big clump of weeds until I felt the first headshakes. I saw a big head really quickly and thought I'd seen brown, then she came up again and my heart stopped when I was sure it was a smallmouth. I hadn't caught a fish much over 2 pounds all day, didn't have my net out, and hadn't retied once after catching very conservatively 3 dozen fish on this bait. Trying to stay calm, I grabbed my net and started to get it ready when she started coming at the boat. There's not much in the way of solid cover, but there's lots of weeds she could bury in, so I had to keep her up out of those if possible. I caught up to her, tried to extend my net when disaster struck, I pulled the handle out of the hoop of my net. I almost just tried to net her with the hoop but I knew I needed the handle to have a chance, so I fought the fish (which had another giant following it, wish I'd had someone fishing with me to try to double up on it), wish one hand while trying to put my net back together with the other. I finally got the handle back in place and started working her towards it. She jumped once towards the boat and I awkwardly stabbed at her and thought I'd caught the hooks of my jerkbait for a minute. One more pass and finally, FINALLY, she slid into the net. I was just in shock for a minute at how huge she looked, a truly massive smallmouth for our area. My scale settled on 5.83 pounds, just 1.05 pounds off the state record.
I was in the clouds the rest of the day, almost lipped a walleye with a face full of jerkbait hooks because I was in such a fog. I spent about 30 minutes trying to get her buddy to bite before finding someone to take a couple pictures for me and watching her swim away. Don't know if I'll ever top that in Kansas, but I know I'll have fun trying 
Of course I got it on video too so you can see how lucky I really was to get her in the boat.
Tim Kelly reply :
Tremendous, well done. What a fish! Sounds like it was already a great days fishing before you hooked the beast.
Drew03cmc reply :
Man, I know that lake now that I watch the video. Heck of a fish!
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 5/12/2019 at 1:25 PM, Drew03cmc said:Man, I know that lake now that I watch the video. Heck of a fish!
There will be plenty of people who recognize the lake and even the spot from the video I'm sure. It's a long ways from a secret lake, but that made the decision to share it a lot easier.
NittyGrittyBoy reply :
Congrats man on breaking your pb!
TnRiver46 reply :
Congrats!!! That’s awesome. Did you happen to get a length on it??
long island basser reply :
Congrats, enjoy the high!
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 5/12/2019 at 6:44 PM, TnRiver46 said:Congrats!!! That’s awesome. Did you happen to get a length on it??
Nope, my board only goes to 18". I'd guess in the neighborhood of 23" though, it was a really long fish.
TnRiver46 reply :
I was thinking it looked like a 2 footer!
roadwarrior reply :
Will Wetline reply :
A well told story and y'know I'm thinking that it's your long experience playing fish - how many thousands? - that enabled you to keep your cool and land this one.
I congratulate you, sir.
Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :
Congrats man we happy for you.
Ksam1234 reply :
Congrats man! Fat brown ones are my favorite
bowhunter63 reply :
Congrats ,Beauty for sure.
Heartland reply :
Really Nice Fish!
Hammer 4 reply :
Nice one..Congratz
Bankbeater reply :
Nice smallie and video!
A-Jay reply :
Great Brown Bass Blue !
Sweet video to go with it too.
I know you've been working hard to lock up with that beauty for a while and it finally paid off. Glad your gear held up too.
Congrats on your new personal best smallie.
Well Done.
A-Jay
12poundbass reply :
Well done and congrats on the new SMB PB!
BASS302 reply :
Congratulations on your new PB smallmouth!
Glenn reply :
Vilas15 reply :
Love the dogs watching over the side of the boat as you fumble with the net!
N Florida Mike reply :
Well done !
NYWayfarer reply :
Grats! awesome catch, pics and video.
TOXIC reply :
One you won't soon forget!!
Paul Roberts reply :
Just awesome. Had to full screen that video. Dogs knew something was up too. Congrats. That's a heck of a smallie, anywhere.
JLBBass reply :
NICE smallie for sure!
Note:....tighten up that handle on your net!
Tennessee Boy reply :
Wow what a fish! Can I borrow your dogs for my next fishing trip? Congratulations there is something special about a big smallmouth.
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 5/18/2019 at 4:37 AM, Tennessee Boy said:Wow what a fish! Can I borrow your dogs for my next fishing trip? Congratulations there is something special about a big smallmouth.
They'd go with you I promise. I've had them jump in other people's boats off the dock more than once.
MossyBackDaddy reply :
Way to go Blue that's a nice one. Stay safe bro.
Dwight Hottle reply :
Sweet brown PB.
BassNJake reply :
Thats awesome, congrats!!
Thanks for the story and the video!!
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