Dwight Hottle

The smallie weighed 7lbs-6oz.

My very favorite rapala for deep applications for smallmouth is a deep tail dancer TDD09 dives to 20 feet. Best colors for me are clown on cloudy & sunny days & perch on sunny days. I caught my biggest smallie on them. Best shallow application is the original floating rapala in F11 or F13 size pick a color.

Some big fish never get widely reported. Here is a picture from the Ohio Game Fishing site. Reported caught in April 2005 from lake erie near Conneaut Ohio. Caught by Don Ishee. His son Todd is shown holding the fish in the picture. And yes is went to the taxidermist. 9.2 lbs. No dimensions given but the picture supports the stated weight in my opinion.

Great video. I have fished for lake trout in numerous upper candian lakes. They say they only grow 1/2 lb to one pound per year of age. I saw a still photo of a 101lb laker netted from lake athabasca when they still commercially netted the lake. It was said to be asexual. It looked like a giant sunfish in shape, small head with a heavily rounded body. A real freak. Here is a picture of a red fin lake trout caught in lake athabasca northern saskatchewan.

bassnleo said What are ya waiting for Kent? Me, Dwight, and YOU this Spring. We may not find a double digit fish but we may hit triple digits per day . I'm in leo. Kent its time to get your bucket list moving! I'll even go back to get your snags loose if you want to use those cranks bumping bottom. ;)

I agree that Tenn, KY, Al and CA have the best shot. The great lakes have such tremendous fisheries that double digit smallies surely exist. Randy VanDam's 9lb-8oz Ohio record supports that the 10 pound barrier could be exceeded. Only time will tell.

"The new World Record Smallmouth will be caught on the Tennessee River." I predict that Kent will get that BIG smallie on the Tennessee River & then will come north to fish Lake Erie with all of us great lake boys! I know that will take care of two bucket list things to do. ;)

Very good read, SportMN

X4. I bought a pair of sorels -100 for a winter carnival quebec trip which included a day of dog sledding. They are about 15 years old & go to Canada every November for a walleye trip. Expensive but well worth the price.

Jenga-I'm curious why are you leaving LSC to fish erie since the fisheries are so similar?

Outstanding. WTG Simon.

Nice catch. Those roach must be high in fat content. All your bass look super healthy & carry a lot of weight per length. Do you ever catch any stunted or sickly looking bass?

Excellent slide show. 2009 was a good year.

bassnleo Excellent post. Very informative & the pictures helped immensely.

24ergast-We use 12" leaders for casting & 36" for trolling. Anything longer than 15" for casting can become a problem in a crowded boat.

In-fisherman gets my vote. Very informative articles on multi-species fishing.

basser89-We have been using 120lb fc leaders. I started using 80lb but had some biteoffs. Pike often miss a lure but hit the leader in front of the bait if your retrieving fast and or erratically especially with a side to side walk the dog type bait.

A-Jay your attention to detail comment reminds me of a quote from a fishing buddy "when attention to detail meets opportunity its not luck" ;)

Paul, We started using fc leaders about three years ago. We used to use store bought steel leaders, then titanium but had nunerous componet failures. We then started making our own with quality snaps & swivels & mostly seven strand wire which we tied rather than crimped. Eventually they all kink & need replaced. Then we tried fc leaders not so much for the stealth aspect but the durability. I often use one fc leader for 3-4 days or the whole week on a pike trip. Minimum of 8 hours per day, mostly all casting. The fc leaders are the most cost effective considering the durability aspect. They are hand tied & then crimped to keep the tag end from fouling weeds. I often replace the duo-loc snap after a few days & continue using the leader. I'm pretty anal about quality componets & retying all knots.

Great bait. Underutilized today. They catch all species. I have caught pike, steelhead, smallies, largemouth, crappie & lake trout on them. I think they were the original banana bait. Kwik fish, canadian wiggler, lazy ike, beano, etc are all in the same family.

J Franco is right get him a gift card. Gift cards seem tacky to some people but most fisherman would prefer to buy a specific brand & weight when it comes to fishing line & tackle in general.

And the pointer strikes again. Good fishing trip.

My biggest largemouth was 7lb-8oz caught on a pointer 128. My biggest smallie was 7lb-6oz caught on a rapala taildancer TDD-9.

A-Jay, Anytime you need some mojo just head over to Erie Pa and I'll share some with you. We need to fish for some of those famous lake erie smallies.

Don B you have got a private message.