Wow!

This post started 18 pounds ago!

That said, while a 7lb LM is as big as I can expect in my primary fishery,

I would be happy with 4 pound SM all day long

I 100% agree, hooking into a small mouth is way more enjoyable. A fight that is clearly better then most large mouth. But I prefer to fish for large mouth.

Smallmouth are my favourite fish to catch, and largemouth my second, but the gap is big.

 

Here in Ontario (Canada) I fish mainly Muskoka, Haliburton, the Kawarthas, and Lake Simcoe, and largemouth just don't typically get that big up here, although they are very abundant. Smallmouth on the other hand have quantity and quality. We've got hundreds and hundreds of deep, clear, high dissolved oxygen lakes so they're always nice and healthy. Catching a half dozen 5-6+ pounders in a single outing is normal on parts of Lake Simcoe, for example.

 

I'm sure if I lived in Texas, or the Deep South I'd like largemouth more...

 

 

8 hours ago, NorthForNigthts said:

Smallmouth are my favourite fish to catch, and largemouth my second, but the gap is big.

 

Here in Ontario (Canada) I fish mainly Muskoka, Haliburton, the Kawarthas, and Lake Simcoe, and largemouth just don't typically get that big up here, although they are very abundant. Smallmouth on the other hand have quantity and quality. We've got hundreds and hundreds of deep, clear, high dissolved oxygen lakes so they're always nice and healthy. Catching a half dozen 5-6+ pounders in a single outing is normal on parts of Lake Simcoe, for example.

 

I'm sure if I lived in Texas, or the Deep South I'd like largemouth more...

 

 

Wish I knew how to fish simcoe! family has a cottage on the south side and we go up cause it’s only an hour-hour and a half drive but it’s a tough lake to fish. Never had great success 

I LOVE fishing largemouth in the weeds. That moment when you detect the bite and then set the hook on a heavy one, the braid squeals and the heavy rod buckles is a visceral feeling that needs to be experienced to understand it.

 

With that said. I have NEVER had a big largemouth send my adrenaline through the roof the way a giant smallmouth jumping and thrashing like crazy to throw the hook(s) has. It's truly unbelievable to me how adept they are at throwing a mouth full of hooks seemingly at will.

 

The short answer: Big smallmouth are just gnarly fish. They WILL break your heart and haunt you with feelings of being "that close" to landing a trophy which makes it all the more special when you finally do get one in the boat.

Put your leather gloved finger into a 5 pound S M B mouth  THey can bite hard. Setting the hook is not always done as easily as a L M B in my opinion. They can bite & race to you with slack line . Then release the lure.  Pike will do the same thing. It is like they are conning us all the way in. I have had 2 or 3 DIFFERENT S M B hit the trolled lure before I get the rod out of the holder. I am sure they are having fun doing quick test bites.  Then saying.

 

Old 1 eye Loses again.    

2 hours ago, The Maestro said:

I LOVE fishing largemouth in the weeds. That moment when you detect the bite and then set the hook on a heavy one, the braid squeals and the heavy rod buckles is a visceral feeling that needs to be experienced to understand it.

 

With that said. I have NEVER had a big largemouth send my adrenaline through the roof the way a giant smallmouth jumping and thrashing like crazy to throw the hook(s) has. It's truly unbelievable to me how adept they are at throwing a mouth full of hooks seemingly at will.

 

The short answer: Big smallmouth are just gnarly fish. They WILL break your heart and haunt you with feelings of being "that close" to landing a trophy which makes it all the more special when you finally do get one in the boat.

You have to know I can totally relate to most everything in your post until I experienced Lake Baccarac in Mexico.  Those fish haunt me.

And I'm referring to the ones I lost.  Just Insane.

?

A-Jay

All this talk about tossing 6 to 9 hook points ????  HA  HA  HA

 

And we are equipped with every tool & advantage POSSIBLE  ??      HA  HA

 

The S M  have a FAR FAR better schooling .

 

Than we will ever have.    

 

 

I perfer florida starin lmb to smallmouth, because while they don't fight as hard p4p they get much larger and are more challenging to catch imo.

Smallmouth -- they're just too much fun because they're so aggressive and curious, it's easy to get a bite, and once they do, LOOK out!  Also, there's little vegetation around the rocks I like to fish, so I'm not pulling weeds off my lure every cast (not that largies only live in weeds [or smallies live only in rocks]).

 

Habitat access close to my house is mostly riverine, and I just find fishing current a lot more tactical and engaging than fishing lakes.  If I have a bad day, I can walk to the creek and let my cares drift away with the current!