All I can say about this fish is WOW. Here are some more pictures of the fish.

What now " o ye sayers of nay"?

California: Home of the biggest largemouth, world record spots, and enough 8+ smallies to make you all warm and fuzzy inside.

I am glad you found more pictures! Well that pretty much clears that one up! Looks legit to me ;D

This reminds me of a post on another board. Sombody posted (the now famous) picture of the 25.1 bass. Then this other guy comes on and proclaimes him self to be a didgital photo expert and gave several reasons why the phot was fake. He even went as far as saying he hadn't heard of the fish so it was obviously a hoax. Then sombody posted links to the newspaper write ups and a link to the video of the weighing. It was halarious. The expert wasnt even man enough to admit he was wrong. He just didnt post anymore on that thread.

So whats it going to be? are you guys man enough?  

PS this post is all in fun dont get your feelings hurt, I have been wrong many many times too!  :-[

I need to move to California..

Nice fish fishchris. I love them 5+ smallies. I just cannot believe that a  lake in California has smallies like that. What a treat to live near that place. I am with RW. If I fished that lake you probably wouldn't see any largemouth tackle in my boat. I would have to spend all my time on the smallies. What a awesome place. California girls, big smallmouth, nice weather, what the he** am I doing here,lol. Send us more pics over the next year of those great smallies. I would love to see a ten come out of that place. I would bet they are there. Good luck.

That is just an awsome fish.  All I have to say is come on Cali leave something for the rest of us.  You already have the best weather the biggest largemouth now you wnat to take the biggest smallmouth too. ;D

I said all along I could very well be wrong. These pictures seem to prove that. I stand by what I said about the original picture though, something looks funny about it. In fact, I would say that second photo looks strange too, but the other ones don't have the same clarity issue and look normal. I don't know what caused it, but the fact is, the photo looked fake, I just guess it wasn't.

;D

I now see what I thought looked to be fishy was something on the guys shirt :

WOW...THAT IS SWEET LOOKING....I HAVE NEVER SEEN A SMALLY THAT COLOR BEFORE...IS IT A HYBRED OF SOMEKIND?

I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS.....FAT PIG.....PERIOD.  I SAW A 7.9 OUT OF ERIE, BUT WAS BRONZE IN COLOR...NOT SO MUCH GREEN LIKE THIS ONE.  I JUST WANT TO CATCH A 5lb'r...LOL

Thats a pig!!!  

Almost looks like its mixed with a spot... kinda like a poodle and a lab

In murray down here in s. oklahoma, mid and down lake smallies tend to be brown and the smallies that think they are LMBs and live up lake can be nearly solid green. I caught a 6+ last year that was real green like that and had a distended gut with about 6 in of a 14 in LMB hangin out of its mouth, as well as a belly full of eggs. Having said that, It does look an awful lot like a mean mouth (spot or LMB/ smallie hybrid). A big 1 (mean mouth) was caught out of texoma (mentioned earlier in this thread) as well as an 8+ caught out of a little mountain lake north of murray (veterans lake). The mean mouths can exhibit both smallie and spot/lmb markings just depending on the water and vegitation they live around. I have caught a bunch of these mean mouths, and I am kinda leaning in that direction due to the prominant horizontal markings. They tend to exhibit a hybrid vigor and grow faster are more voratious than either the smallie or the lmb/spot. The ok dept of wildlife has stated that they are unable to reproduce, and this could explain the seriously distended gut due to the fact that eggs are produced, but not efficiently expelled, and no successful spawn cycle is completed. Anyway you cut it that is still a serious pig!!

Well, if you go back to Mattlures' initial post and compare the picture to the ones Fish_Chris posted, I think you can see that the fish are very similar. I see NO REASON to question the validity of the catch on this thread.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1173943555/0

These are some mighty fine smallmouth bass!

What a monster smallie!  I am certain that's a true fish photo, especially after seeing the other photos and the coloration difference given by Fish Chris.

That is quite possibly the most beautiful Smallmouth I have ever seen.  Thanks for posting that pic...

who knows if it is real or not- these days a lot can be done with images- weird how his left hand is holding the fish's tail section- I have fished for smallmouth most my life and have never seen one that green before- cool looking fish though-

I totally agree, who is to say if it is real or fake. One thing I know for sure the Smallmouth Bass I catch up here in NH sure dont look like that. I have never seen a Smallmouth that green before. They are what their nickname describes them as "Bronzeback".

Fish_Chris has documented that this is, in fact, the SAME FISH he caught two days ago!

Folks, the fish is legit. No trick photography or Photoshop "enhancements" here.  I really don't understand why people feel the need to dump on anothers' accomplishments without any founded reason whatsoever other than the fact they cannot accept the success of a fellow angler.  Really shameful, and an embarassment to the bass fishing community, in my opinion.

I sincerely hope those who doubted will be adult enough to admit they made a mistake, if only unto themselves.

Folks, the fish is legit. No trick photography or Photoshop "enhancements" here. I really don't understand why people feel the need to dump on anothers' accomplishments without any founded reason whatsoever other than the fact they cannot accept the success of a fellow angler. Really shameful, and an embarassment to the bass fishing community, in my opinion.

I sincerely hope those who doubted will be adult enough to admit they made a mistake, if only unto themselves.

Yeah, I would have to agree.  No need for jealousy. If its that bad, pack up all your crap, move to Cali and post your own pics.

Wayne

          OK, I'm going to need some salt , pepper and maybe some ketchup to eat my words. I guess not have seen a "Smallie" of that size and color and the fact that "ALL" digital pictures look funny to me to start with (unless using a high end camera). Fishchris has put an end to my nay-saying ways. I did not intend to start a s#*t storm or put the guy down. For that I'm sorry. Nice fish and I'm green with ***!