KSanford33 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 All things being equal, which species do you think is easier to find and catch? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Jig Man Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 Depends on the time of year. Pre spawn lmb. Post spawn smb 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 Find? LM. Catch? SM. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User A-Jay Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 1 hour ago, KSanford33 said: All things being equal, which species do you think is easier to find and catch? Got to be big Smallmouth Bass. Those things are just so easy it ain't even funny. And remember kids - if you ain't scoping - you're just hoping. A-Jay 3 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Jar11591 Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 I agree with @TnRiver46. LM are easier to locate but smallmouth can be more willing biters. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoneFishingLTN Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 @A-Jay I do sort of agree with the statement if you ain't scoping you're just hoping. I wish I could say I didn't 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 Eh, plenty of folks on BR catch monsters without a scope. Heck pat catches them standing on the bank at a duck pond 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Bird Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 The lakes I fish with equal population of LM and SM, I consistently catch more SM, they seem to be more aggressive. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User A-Jay Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 8 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said: @A-Jay I do sort of agree with the statement if you ain't scoping you're just hoping. I wish I could say I didn't @GoneFishingLTN - I heard a You Tube angler say it the other day. Thought it was pretty funny. I don't have FFS. Probably never will. A-Jay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susky River Rat Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 I am terrible at fishing for both equally. It seems like when I go to a lake with large mouth in I catch more large mouth. The river really only had smallies so hard for me to say which is easier or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 I thought there were some pretty healthy LM in the susky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User MIbassyaker Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said: Find? LM. Catch? SM. 1 hour ago, Jar11591 said: I agree with @TnRiver46. LM are easier to locate but smallmouth can be more willing biters. Yup, that's my experience too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Columbia Craw Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 When fishing a river system, it’s less difficult to find either depended on the season. Reservoirs are a little harder. As stated, Smallie’s are more prone to bite but those might also be the little ones. What’s a bugger is hitting feeding windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susky River Rat Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 @TnRiver46 you can bump into them but, it’s not an every trip catch. I personally have never caught one on the river. I’ve caught pretty much everything but a northern pike, pickerel and snake head on the susky. The southern part below the wingo dam has a better population of them. Most above that are ones that escaped from lakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Brown Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 I don't have as much experience as some people but my limited experience is this: I could catch 50 smallmouth in 2 hours bank fishing Huron in July when I was 10 years old and fishing nothing but floating Rapala Jerkbaits and Squarebill cranks on spinning rods. Here in NC as an eager and ambitious adult, it took me over a year of fishing for largemouth bass a LOT at the bigger public lakes before I started to figure out what the heck was going on. I caught my first NC largemouth bass as an adult trolling an orange crankbait into the mouth of a creek. It would be many months before I caught my next. That one would come on a black and blue senko 'texas rigged' and I caught it out of the back of a pocket. My third bass came one month later in March and it was a 6 lber on a 1$ walmart spinnerbait with a purple culprit worm on the back. That fish (about 2 years ago this spring) is the fish that changed my life. I was determined to make these fish bite my bait if it was the last thing I did, knowing after that 6 lber that I had to know what a true giant required me to do to catch it. It took me 3 years before I caught my first fish at the pressured pond local to me that no one catches anything at. Literally 3 years before that started to happen for me. All this to say, it is now abundantly clear that LMB fishing is a chess match played out across many seasons where instinct and anticipation and wisdom and knowledge are the only things you've really got, because those bass are almost always everywhere you're looking, they're just very very good at not biting baits. But I do enjoy the slugfest that smallmouth can be oh boy, yes I do! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 3 yrs @Pat Brown???? You are a patient man . I would have also said no fish there haha 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Brown Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said: 3 yrs @Pat Brown???? You are a patient man . I would have also said no fish there haha I was catching other stuff thankfully. Bass fishing really is a different animal from any other type of fishing in my humble opinion. There's really no frame of reference for it except for bass fishing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 Well that sure makes it more fun! Catfish ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Brown Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Yeah we usually ended trips with a few catfish and a few crappie and maybe a few sunfish! Crappie seem to be everywhere and bite a lot of the same stuff bass bite on my home lake. I still catch big ones every year on crankbaits in the post spawn. Do I believe that if people had full access to every inch of the Great lakes and they were not covered in ice for 6 months of the fishable year that the smallmouth up north would become much more difficult to catch? Yes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 You mean like TN river smallmouth? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Bankc Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 It probably depends on the lake and subspecies of bass in question. On my lakes, it's largemouth by a mile. There aren't nearly as many smallmouth bass, and they're extremely hard to find, due to all of the white bass. Plus they're hard to catch in these stained waters, even if you do find them. I can get on them every once in a while, but it's rare. Rare as in, some years I won't even catch a single smallmouth. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User ol'crickety Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 12 hours ago, A-Jay said: if you ain't scoping - you're just hoping. Nah. I have a bag of ways to find bass without FFS fingering them for me. And I catch bass steadily, so there's not much hoping. When I step into my canoe, I can rely on catching bass, except when the water's too cold for the bass to be perky, as in mid-April. To answer the question, I think they're about equal. I fished for smallmouth for decades, so I've caught many, MANY more of them, but they're both eager to strike, except during howling, cold fronts. Even then, smallmouth will still hit when the water is whitecapping, but you better be quick and sure with a paddle and clamp onto it, for the wind has blown my paddle out of my hand more than once. I don't launch and catch 100 largemouth in a day like I once did with smallmouth, but I think this is mostly due to my being old and not having the stamina to launch in the morning and the late afternoon of the same day. 12 hours ago, TnRiver46 said: Eh, plenty of folks on BR catch monsters without a scope. Heck pat catches them standing on the bank at a duck pond And Pat has to dodge kids on bikes and Frisbees while fishing. 2 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Bird Posted February 12 Super User Share Posted February 12 @Bankc Yeah that's the key. I fish a lot of WV lakes that are deep, clear and rocky, ideal habitat for SM. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowhunter63 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 River Smallies all the way. They share their water with Smallies. Don’t know about easy but I’m gonna chase em till I’m in the dirt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 12 Global Moderator Share Posted February 12 @bowhunter63, run that one by me again…… River smallies where I’m at share water with drum crappie catfish largemouth spots sturgeon carp bream white bass striper trout walleye and a few hundred other things 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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