1. Today's post - New Personal Best Largemouth - 2/20/16
2. River Bassin' 2016 Kickoff Event - Crawfordville, FL
3. KBF National Championship
4. Nite Ize Field Staff Announcement/Testimonial
5. Etowah River 3/30/16
6. Reel Krazy Season Opener - Brushy Branch - 4/2/16
7. Carters Re-Reg 4/3/16
8. Etowah River 4/13/16 - Doomsday for Big Spots
9. Redfish with Scales N' Tails Kayak Charters, Choctawhatchee Bay, FL
10. First Smallmouth and First Shoal Bass Within Four Days!
11. Reel Krazy - Rocky Mountain PFA
So there's a lot of good content coming hopefully sooner than later. Fishing season is in full swing and I don't want to get too far behind like this again, so let's get started...
As mentioned in an earlier post around New Year's, one of my resolutions was to add a smallmouth bass to the list of black bass species I have caught. I was staying with my folks in Tennessee, so I decided to go back where I went for the Chattanooga River Bassin' tournament the previous summer. I caught largemouths and spots in the tournament, but several nearby anglers caught nice smallies. My plan was to launch at the North Chickamauga Greenway Park, paddle down below the locks and around the barge tie-offs, railroad bridge, and jetty below Chickamauga Dam, and try to get that elusive bronzeback.
It was misty with rain threatening much of the morning, but the temperature was mild for the season in the lower 50's. The morning started off well as I made my way down the creek, occasionally casting into some of the numerous brush piles and rock outcroppings. The place just looked fishy that day. The water color was perfect, hardly anyone else was out, and I couldn't ask for a better situation.
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| North Chick Greenway Launch |
It didn't take long to hook into a couple of small largemouth as I ran my chatterbait parallel to a blowdown for the first one, and swam a grub by a dock for the second.
When I got out close to the dam, I was in for a big surprise. It had been a while since I had a bite up in the creek, and I was almost to the spot where I was going to target smallmouth. I casted a soft plastic to a piece of structure, worked it back a few feet and felt something very heavy. Like a log, but it moved. For the next 45 seconds (it's on GoPro but the footage is a little embarrassing), I was going head-to-head with an absolute hog that weighed in at 6.23 pounds and measured 21" in length and 16.5 in girth. It was my first fish over 20 inches and my first over 5 pounds, by far. It took several minutes for me to calm down enough to get photos and measurements, but I managed.
I made my way out to the lock area and downstream structure, and marked lots of suspended fish but was unable to catch any. At that point, it didn't matter. I was getting tired and my phone was dead, so I couldn't let anyone know I was okay. I paddled back up the creek, and caught a nice 3 lb spot along the way measuring 17.25". So my best 3 for the day were 14.5", 21", and 17.25" for a total of 52.75" - not bad for February!
17.25" spotted bass
