::)WOW IGNORANCE AT ITS FINEST.

I used to think the same thing about spotted bass, I used to be just as (spot prejudice) as you. Then my dad and I weighed in 15 pounds of spotted bass a couple of weekends ago, take home a couple thousand dollars, I changed my mind.

I know what you're thinking Chris- by god i'll catch 15 pounds of fish in one cast, because you've made it very clear that you are world friggin' renowned as far as catching big fish goes. But for the tournament fisherman, spotted bass can be a very efficient way of filling your limit and winning the tournament. Now as far as taking over the lake and taking all the food from the largemouth.

Largemouth have just as much of a chance of surviving as spots. A largemouth is a very different fish and prefers different habitat and forage. I've seen (dead lakes) fill up with spots and all of a sudden the resident largemouth just boom, the reason- competiiton. The little yearling largemouth will fight just as hard as the little spots and they will find a way to make it through, after all, a largemouth lives longer and has a faster growth rate than a spot.

So basically your big fish will be just fine, because they prefer forage bigger than most of those pesky little spots, and the little largies will find a way, because after all it is nature, and in nature they live together.

THIS JUST SHOWED YOUR IGNORANCE!

Triton_Mike, I am only referring to the lakes in the mountains of WNC. With these lakes you can have many different terrains that were flooded giving all three specises their prefered range on a few lakes. On these lakes one of which is Fontana, it is only apx 22 miles long, but it is very deep (380 feet at the dam) with three major creek arms. The best largemouth fishing has almost always been in the creek arms, and the smallies in the deeper sections of the lake. (At least for me) We pull smallies from humps at 75 foot depths pretty regularly. (While jigging walleye) Whenever we get on spots, they seem to be from 50 feet and up to about 15 feet. Keep in mind that there is water that is in excess of 200 feet very close to some of these humps. The majority of the largemouth come from 5-20 feet, in water that is less than 50 feet in depth.

There are a few good size largemouth that are on the main lake, but they are normally near bluff walls with a shelf that comes out apx 75 feet at a depth of 30-60 feet, which will drop to over 150 feet in the distance of a cast. Seems to be a good spot for smallies and spots, but you will rarely catch either of them here. The big'uns have a foot hold on some prime feeding grounds and will not let it go. I think that these largemouth are keying in on trout that are coming from the rivers into the main lake as they seem to really go after the rainbow trout pattern.

I have however seen what you are referring to about  lowering the numbers on largemouths on some of the lakes I fish  in the low lands. Hickory, Norman, Keeowee, Murray, and Hartwell  to name a few. On Keeowee, the spots seem to be pushing the smallies more and more toward the upper end near Jocasse dam, and the largemouth into the creek arms. On Murray, I have not caught a largemouth in my last three trips. (Mostly due to were I was fishing) And last t/x on Hartwell it was 3 spots and 2 largemouth.

I have to say that the worst news for me is that there are now spots in Lake James. A guy brought one to the scales last month in our t/x there. This is another prime lake in our area for smallmouth, but it is a much smaller version of Chatuge. The worst news is that the DNR shocked up the state record smallie here last spring, and I fear the worst for the smallies here as well.

I fished Lake Lanier in the sixties with my dad and it was a very good largemouth lake.  We caught bass over 5 lbs regularly and got mad if we caught anything less than 1.5 lbs.  My best largemouth was an 11+ pound lady that came out of the mouth of the Chestatee Bay.  When I get my new computer and scanner hooked up I will post some very old pictures of Lanier largemouths.  

I've heard fisheries biologists say that largemouths declined in Lanier and Allatoona because the wave action washed all the stumps away in shallow water.  I don't buy that because we would anchor on points in 5' of water and catch largemouths out of 15 - 20 feet of water.  The waterdog trollers used to catch them in deep water too, 6, 7 & 8 pounders.  I would like to see what would happen to a fishery if the spots were taken home and the largemouths released.  It would need to be a fairly small lake so the spot population could be taken down fairly easily.  Maybe institute a slot limit on spots of under 16" to be removed.  As far as Lanier is concerned, the blueback herring have probably doomed any chance of ever bringing the largemouths back.  I love catching Allatoona's scrappy spots on light tackle, but it's nice to catch a 7 lb largemouth once a year too.

We got a couple here where I fish every day but they hang out near the blue gill it seems like and dont really cause much of a problem. BUT some dumb little @#$% threw two catfish in this water I about killed him.

My apologies.

I was having a really bad day, got home from work, wanted to take my mind off everything, sat down to think about bass fishing.................................. it was not the right day for me to read about how one of my favorite fish are the scum of the earth. I went way overboard, especially on the IGNORANCE AT IT'S FINEST thing- yeah, pretty silly, My Apologies. :-[

But Senko you hammered me pretty well about my stupid quote. Yes you're right, I should always respond to posts in a nice way. But I think you responded to mine-

THAT WAS THE STUPIDEST POST I HAVE EVER SEEN

??????????? Seems like you're kinda contradicting yourself, but I needed to be slammed, so I can't complain too much.

Chris, we probably live in different areas- NC myself- I should not have entertained the thought of questioning you about big Florida Strain largemouth. But if we're talking about N.C. foothills or north I think I got you bud.

But, once again, sorry for my immaturity and temper, thanx for helping me realize what an arse I was.

Hope I can be forgiven.

No problems whatsoever JT. Apology totally accepted.

I wish I could tell you that I had never over-stepped my mouth ! ....but I wouldn't want to get struck down by a bolt of lightening, for lying :-)

Their is a very simple reason we sometimes get fired up over certain aspects of our favorite sport......

Because we are passionate about it !

Peace,

Fish

PS, Any dum-bass can get excited and lose himself on a public forum, but only a real man will recognize this later, and then come back and apoligize for it. You have my respect buddy.

jtbassman, stand up response.  

We've all, at some point, posted things that we later look back and regret. I know I've done it. Your response tells us more about you as a person than the original post. Debates on internet forums can get hairy because you can't tell the tone people are using. Something playful to me may be offensive to you and vice versa.