alarcher

The dam would be a great place to try for smallies! They hang in the rocks and rip rap, give that a try. The reservoir drains completely? and the walley keep returning when it fills? Those walley must hate that place. Anyway good luck in your fishing the dam, like I said the fish are there unless the water is toxic or has a dissolved oxygen problem.

They're for sure in the lake all year. Like RW said "bass will follow the bait fish" and that's why you are catching them in the creek. I suggest you take all your bass tackle and hit the lake like a mad man for three to four solid days and you'll catch the smallies (I promise : ). Fish rocks and boulders and really target the smallmouth habitat and I know you'll be in business! Good luck and keep us updated after you fish it... alright I hear your wheels and doubts turning... FISH IT! THEY ARE THERE!

I agree with Firefightin, but I've done good in the mornings and on cloud covered days (those days that feel like morning all day). Top water is addicting. When I'm on the lake I can't help but grin as the sunset is arriving to throw top waters!

Awesome! Glad to hear you had a great trip and I imagine the help you got from here cut down on your water searching time. Congrats on your first smallie they are addictive! Send pics if you got them! ;D

Hey Macho Man Burley Savage here is the answer to your question. ;D John Galt is one of the main characters in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. An engineer by trade, Galt is the male hero of the story; his actions include withdrawing his talents, 'stopping the motor of the world', and leading the 'strikers' against the 'looters'.

Welcome, you won't find a better forum anywhere else!

Nice man, good luck with him and congrats on starting the Jr. Bassmasters in your area! I think that's very commendable of you! Keep up the positive aspects of our sport and let us know if we can help out with them youngsters.

Congrats! That's a nice fish, better then what I've caught this year (except for a 22lbs carp on a texas rigged robo worm)!

Where was it caught? This might help us solve the puzzle.

I should have mentioned that my PB smallie (5lbs) was on a blaze orange mepps.

No harm in eating exotics if you want to (as long as it's legal). Remember, when the state fishery agencies stock these fish they are mostly intended for "put and take" and to give anglers a new species to fish. However I agree with Karma, cool fish and I am a catch and release kind of guy.

Awesome work!

I agree! it's easier to control and you'll notice the difference on a windy day. Rear mounts are frustrating in 15-20mph winds and you'll feel like your battling with it all day.

Great work on the boat! It looks great, I'm getting ready to add some compartments to my deck and this forum helps a lot as you say. Again awesome job and let us know how it fishes!

Smallies do too. I've caught a good number of them.

Scott C with the specific holes! That's awesome, you couldn't get that much help/info. anywhere else! Kudos to Scott! Good luck to you Mottfia and tell us how it goes. -This is why I love this forum!

I started out bass fishing with those lures only (I was a trout guy and didn't know better). Now that I'm into bass heavily and found the world of finesse fishing I don't use panther martins and mepps (better yet: silver blue foxes!) too much anymore but they definitely catch bass.

This may not be the case but if the ice just left, and the fish was deep all winter and it was just coming up it would look the way you described; few markings and very shinny/silvery. They tend to get their "traditional" marking as spawning and summer comes on.

Chunky indeed, they're better than what I'm catching this year by far!

Wow, thanks Micro for that update it's good to hear the truths from an authority in their field. I would never have guessed/thought about it to that extent.

I'm with allstate too and my boat insurance is $240 a year. Only difference between our policy is boat value; mine is at $6k but my personal is up to $3500. I hope this helped.

With those fish, why hook up to a boat at all if it's within walking distance?! Those are awesome fish and congrats!

It's absolutely a female... it's mouth is open! J/K ;D I'm a fisheries technician and I would say it's probably a female, you probably picked her up leaving the bed after spawning. However the only true way to know is sexing it by dissection, tissue sample, or seeing it on the bed. On the bed if it was accompanied by a larger bass; male (almost always) if it was 100% by itself; male (again ON the bed). I believe (IMOP) it's probably a spawned out female... tell tale signs are the gut (looks to small to fit rest of fish), and geographically you may be approaching post spawn (for females). Again it's hard to know for sure and I hope this helped somewhat and I don't just sound long winded. This is my job and study these things constantly.

Awesome fish! way to stick out the long days between fish, that's what makes us true bass addicts.

Congrats! what an awesome fish! Still waiting for some good fishing up here as well but like you I'm not giving up. Congrats again on that monster