You're comparing a life or death situation to eating a 5lb bass.....i'm the only one that see's it that way? Either way you've proved my point about you being an argumentative person! And you being such a smart feller i'm sure a lot of your posts will go over my head. And as for our argument, when TWRA decides taking a 5lb from our lakes is bad for the fish then I will believe it...but then again you being the more intelligent person you probably know better than they do.
Tims Ford Smallmouth - even bad anglers get lucky
- Thread starter donberry
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You're comparing a life or death situation to eating a 5lb bass.....i'm the only one that see's it that way? Either way you've proved my point about you being an argumentative person! And you being such a smart feller i'm sure a lot of your posts will go over my head. And as for our argument, when TWRA decides taking a 5lb from our lakes is bad for the fish then I will believe it...but then again you being the more intelligent person you probably know better than they do.
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NOPE. I was comparing educating a person about preserving our fisheries to educating a person about electricity. Education should be something that we share ... not criticize. </p>
Do you have nothing to add to this conversation except continuation of the insults? emoRolleyes </p>
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With your many ironic statements and insinuations.</p>
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Just for your information:
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Irony is considered by most cultures as an <u>insult</u> conveyed in the form of a compliment, insinuating the most galling satire under the phraseology of panegyric.
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Have a nice lunch. emoThumbsup
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finbully
Well-known member
Hey guys it's a fishing report - keep it in perspective.
whenwegoin
Well-known member
True, but sometimes it is so hard to do!! Why? Because there is nothing wrong with keeping a bass to eat every now and then. Regardless of size.
SpurHunter
Well-known member
Good grief guys, go argue in private, this is getting out of hand.
The guy caught a great fish and did what he wanted with it, it was legal, ethical, and that's the end of it.
The guy caught a great fish and did what he wanted with it, it was legal, ethical, and that's the end of it.
shsimons
Well-known member
Well, nice catch. As long as you don't mess with the huge Nickajack catfish you and I are friends! 
mallardecho
Well-known member
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- Jan 11, 2008
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I am still waiting to see a 5 1/2 pound smallmouth on this thread.... emoBigsmile
aw, come on now. I don't tell to many fish stories, else I wouldn't be telling anyone how bad I have been doing
It measured out exactly 21" from the bottom of the lip to the tip of the tail. I believe I usually underestimate the weight of my fish and when I first brought it in the boat figured it would be around 4 lbs. I did weigh it on one of the cheaper mechanical spring type weights you can buy for like $18.00 - a digital one is in my future. I just bought this one mainly because I was just getting started back to some serious fishing and it had a tape measure on it so I could insure if I kept any they were big enough.
The marks on it are pretty small and I did not examine the heck out of it, but the pointer was like a mark below 5 1/2 pounds.
Need to look at the pic because as you can see, I am not really holding the fish way out like most do to make the fish look bigger, As you can tell by my elbows, I am holding the fish pretty much right by my body.
I was never much for "enlarging" my fish.
For a comparison, here is one of the 24" largemouth I caught. It actually looks smaller in the picture, but it measured out to 24". If someone is really bored, they could put the picture in photoshop, cut the cigarette pack out and paste them back on placed so it can be used to measure the fish. I will save you some time tho - it comes out to 24" emoAngel
I caught 2 of these within a half hour of each other - released both. As you can see if you compare the belly's, the smallmouth has a lot more mass. Seemed to me the largemouth still had quite a bit of weight to put on yet - I want to catch it when it has a big old belly not full of eggs.
I did not weigh these as i wanted to get back in the water asap as I was catching a fish every cast (feeding frenzy). I was thinking it probably only went around 4 lbs, but after weighing the smallmouth, who knows. It was skinnier, but it did have 3" on the smallmouth.
To be honest i really didn't care how much it weighed and only measured it for my own benefit. Only thing I cared about was it was a good fighter and brought me quite a bit of pleasure. is the same with the smallmouth. To be honest, while it did put up a great fight, I probably had more fun catching the 12-14" ones. This one stayed deep. Blast catching him on the ultralight, but it still stayed deep, never jumped once.
Those small ones I lucked into were a BLAST and is what hooked me on smallmouth. I was catching one every cast (except the 2 largemouth) and each one was a high flyer, jumping numerous times. Just something about watching a smallmouth jumping wayyyy out of the water, shaking it's head trying to get free. they were pretty much jumping all the way to the boat - as soon as they hit the water they would take off again.
Was right there i decided I really needed to learn how to catch smallmouth.
Tho i don;t mind a few 5+ pounders that don't jump.....I'll take those 2.</p>
mallardecho
Well-known member
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OK......you got me I don't know what I was thinking.
Carl Guffey
Well-known member
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Dang! I can't believe I have missed all of this. Smallmouth are my favorite fish so I spend most of my year chasing them.There is some information missing from this discussion so let me interject some information into this educational situation. </font></p>
<font size="3" face="Georgia">First some general background: This particular area of the country is on the far southern range of Smallmouth bass. They tend to get as large as they possibly can because they are able to eat and grow with exception , year round. As a result they also live a life span of approx. 6 to 8 years. In most Tennessee reservoirs Smallmouth will attain a weight of 5 lbs. in 4 to 5 years depending on forage and it's availability. </font></p>
<font size="3" face="Georgia">In fish we see capable reproduction following much the same line as human beings. They will go through a juvenile and youth period followed by a robust period of reproductive capability. The younger and stronger fishhavethe capability to produce and protect large numbers of offspring. But much like humans the older the source ismeans a lesser number of viable eggs. Add this to a larger size gained with age and you have an individual that requires more from the resource then it is capable to produce.</font></p>
<font size="3" face="Georgia">Now, go back to the first paragraph. We know that Smallmouth generally take up to five years to reach 5 lbs. These fish are swimming with their great-grandchildren. Meaning that the genetics that produced that particular fish are alive and well and being reproduced. In addition the removal of that particular fish allows some of the lesser sized fish an additional amount of feed tolet them grow larger.</font></p>
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">On another note: A five pound smallmouth is not a trophy fish. It is a good fish, but a trophy is 8 lbs. or over. There have been three over 9 lbs. caught within 2 hrs. of me over the last few years. Numbers of quality Smallmouth have to be sought out, not lucked into.</font></p>
<font size="3" face="Georgia">First some general background: This particular area of the country is on the far southern range of Smallmouth bass. They tend to get as large as they possibly can because they are able to eat and grow with exception , year round. As a result they also live a life span of approx. 6 to 8 years. In most Tennessee reservoirs Smallmouth will attain a weight of 5 lbs. in 4 to 5 years depending on forage and it's availability. </font></p>
<font size="3" face="Georgia">In fish we see capable reproduction following much the same line as human beings. They will go through a juvenile and youth period followed by a robust period of reproductive capability. The younger and stronger fishhavethe capability to produce and protect large numbers of offspring. But much like humans the older the source ismeans a lesser number of viable eggs. Add this to a larger size gained with age and you have an individual that requires more from the resource then it is capable to produce.</font></p>
<font size="3" face="Georgia">Now, go back to the first paragraph. We know that Smallmouth generally take up to five years to reach 5 lbs. These fish are swimming with their great-grandchildren. Meaning that the genetics that produced that particular fish are alive and well and being reproduced. In addition the removal of that particular fish allows some of the lesser sized fish an additional amount of feed tolet them grow larger.</font></p>
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">On another note: A five pound smallmouth is not a trophy fish. It is a good fish, but a trophy is 8 lbs. or over. There have been three over 9 lbs. caught within 2 hrs. of me over the last few years. Numbers of quality Smallmouth have to be sought out, not lucked into.</font></p>
good info there, thanks. I will only add that at no time did I ever mention I thought this was a "trophy" - to me it was just a nice fish. But as mentioned, I am happy catching those 12-14" that jump like they are on a trampoline.
Food or trophies are actually not that high on my list - tho i did find out I like smallmouth more then grouper. For me it is the catch itself and hopefully, slowly learning how to do that much better. Don't get me wrong as I will be eating some bass , but even if I couldn't eat any, i just love to be on the lake fishing - tho when i do it it is more like watching than fishing lol
Love your sig line also - is a good line
Food or trophies are actually not that high on my list - tho i did find out I like smallmouth more then grouper. For me it is the catch itself and hopefully, slowly learning how to do that much better. Don't get me wrong as I will be eating some bass , but even if I couldn't eat any, i just love to be on the lake fishing - tho when i do it it is more like watching than fishing lol
Love your sig line also - is a good line
bent rod
Well-known member
Verbose? JK Nice report and nice fish. Welcome to the forum. emoToast
Buoy-Master
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2006
- Messages
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Great Report! If I wanted to eat it...I would!
emoLaugh nah, I know I am. In my defense - I am a disabled vet (peacetime, nothing heroic here) and I am normally posting AFTER my medicine has just kicked in, and I take some pretty strong medicine - morphine and adderall - and obviously get very, very, very "talkative" as the only people I normally see thruout the day are my wife of 32 years so we never have much to say to each other and my 4 year old and 2 year old grandkids. Here is a pic of my granddaughter I took a while ago when I got a new camera....she is a beauty, not that i am biased or anything - see, my medicine is just kicking in and here I go again</p>
elwestb
Well-known member
... your right about the little beauty! And it ain't the Meds! Congrats!
WOBBLE HEAD
Well-known member
Looks like maybe we all have been inside to much already this winter .... We still have several months to go before warmer conditions and spring. Let's just have a good time untill then.
wjhfish
Well-known member
Regardless of what happened to the fish, great fish donberry. Eat it, mount it, or whatever, I would like to be lucky enough just to catch a fish like that. Congrats....
