Dwight Hottle

Here is an upgrade caught in lake erie 4/25/09 . 6.25 lb divided by PA state record 8.50 lb x100 =s 73.52.

Thats a beauty southern musky. Funny how musky fisherman always catch their biggest bass & walleye when musky fishing with musky sized baits & tackle. And bass fisherman catch their biggest musky while fishing for bass with bass baits & tackle. There are a lot of northern musky guys who would kill for a trophy like that. Nice fish & nice picture too.

Chris, Your pictures are always so perfect. I assume you use a timer? What type of delay? Mine has a 10 second delay which makes hitting the shutter & getting the fish out of the livewell quickly a real pressured moment. Keep those pics coming.

Here is my 1st smallie for this year. 4.5 lb/8.5 lb PA state recordx100 equals 52.94.

Not only is this site the best it has the most friendly people without all the carping that usually goes on at other sites. There is a wealth of information shared by all members & mods. Thanks.

I prefer the 128 for shallow presentation & the 100 DD for getting deeper.

I would love to enter for the PA smallmouth division.

Fish Chris As an objective observer I would say any bass fisherman fishing anywhere in the United States with 40 DD bass to his credit qualifies as a "big fish" fisherman. With those numbers he is successful in what he does the way he enjoys doing it. Your numbers of DD bass is comendable. My hats off to both of you.

That's a beauty, Don. PB's are sweet!

Keep up the stories & the pics. I love the color & markings on your california fish. The size isn't bad either.

Good advise so far. Ponds are unique from inland lakes because the proper balance is so fragile. Friends of mine have been fishig four farm ponds in southern Georgia. They caught bass up to 9lb+. They hired a biologist who electroshocked the two best ponds. He interpolated the shock sample, 10-20% of the pond population, to make his recommendations. Add so many bluegills per acre and remove all small bass caught until the remaining bass caught look super healthy. Unfortunately after the bluegill fry were added southern Georgia went into a two year drought & decimated the big bass. One of the ponds was additionally drawn down to irrigate crops. Now they have to remove all stunted bass under 15 inches to help restore a healthy balance. On a side note I heard large crappie are big time predators of bass fry.

Here in erie its gobies, emeralds, perch & rainbow smelts. Two years ago in May there was a massive die-off of rainbow smelts with dying & dead fish all over the surface. I had great difficulty getting any bites until I tried matching the hatch with similar color pointers basically dead sticking them.

My guess is 6.5 lbs. Beautiful fish, looks longer than 20".

22.5 inches.

Your timing should be great. If your comfortable using tubes on LSC try them on PIB. Jerk baits will work also.

I don't have any experience with the pfeuger president. My favorite baitcaster combo for smallies is a st croix avid avc70mm coupled with a shimano calais cl200a with 20lb ultracast braid and a maxima ultra green leader. I use this combo for cranks, jerkbaits, blades & jigs/plastics. The moderate action crankbait rod loads nicely when hooked-up but cushions the non strech braid. I probably use this setup as much as I use a spinning rig.

largemouth-lc pointer 128 ghost minnow smallmouth-rapala tail dancer flash perch ;D

Look back one page for the same question with answers posted by Bug under presque Isle Bay Smallies.

Yea bug. Look how flat the water is behind me.

Bug, HPBB pretty much hit it on the nose. The bay is always awesome for largies most of the year. Large numbers of 1.5 to 3lbers with occasional 4 to 5lbers and some larger. The smallies migrate into the bay in april with rising water temps & additional bait movement. The smallies average bigger than the largemouth in size from my experiences. Avg smallies are more like 3 to 5lbers with occasional six lb plus. My biggest smallie in the bay over the last four years is 6lb-3oz. Now the lake proper is another story. Bigger average size with the potential for a new state record. Present state record is 8.5lb. My two biggest lake smallies are 6lb-14 oz & 7lb-6oz. On a good day out in the lake you can have mutiple 5 & 6lbers. My best day for two guys fishing was five over 6lbs & one over 7lb. The nice thing about the bay is it offers more shelter from the wind compared to the lake. The two best months for the bay are April & May, prespawn.

For price you can't beat the Smithwick suspending rogue. Rapala husky jerk & xrap work well. I also love using LC pointer 128SP , pointer 100 DD & staysee 90 SP.

I'm looking to replace my 2nd failed garmin gps sounder within tle last five years. Hummingbird units look very favorable to me. I called Hummingbird service & talked to a very knowledgeable gal on the phone. Most of their units work with a dual cone (20 degree & 60 degree) or some with a quad cone transducer. These units allow you to see a wider area under & to the side. The side imaging units allow up to 180 degree view of the bottom. I have been impressed with their technology and service.

I can help you out. What do you need?

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