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.

 

Tremendous, well done. What a fish! Sounds like it was already a great days fishing before you hooked the beast.

Man, I know that lake now that I watch the video. Heck of a fish!

3 minutes ago, 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. 

Congrats man on breaking your pb! 

Congrats!!! That’s awesome. Did you happen to get a length on it??

Congrats, enjoy the high!

6 minutes ago, 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. 

I was thinking it looked like a 2 footer!

 

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.

Congrats man we happy for you.

Congrats man! Fat brown ones are my favorite 

Congrats ,Beauty for sure.

Really Nice Fish!

Nice one..Congratz 

Nice smallie and video!

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 

 

Well done and congrats on the new SMB PB!

Congratulations on your new PB smallmouth!

Love the dogs watching over the side of the boat as you fumble with the net!

Well done ! 

Grats! awesome catch, pics and video.

One you won't soon forget!!