What's y'all's biggest small mouth and where was it caught?

Mine was trolling huntersville dam tail waters in 2003. Hot summer. Caught it on a deep diving crankbait. Weighed 6.75lbs. I still can see it jumping outta water. I threw him back.

0.00 pounds, never caught one.

Same

6.9

3.7, Pickwick

Old age strikes again!! My biggest smallie was 4.5, not 5.5! Got to thinking about it and realized I had fudged a little. I was wade fishing a little creek and using a Quick reel on a ultralight Fenwick rod. Bait was a big ol' nightcrawler, with no weight, and on a light wire hook. I still have the rod and reel.

Several 5 pounders and two over 6, I think my biggest was 6lbs 5oz

Maybe a pound

That's one of my bucket lister fish....... I've been to Pickwick three times , I thought the third time was going to be the charm... I was throwing a Chug bug in Shaw hollow just above Panther creek, one particular retrieve I paused it as usual and let it sit a little longer than usual,,, I barely twitched it and this big small mouth leaped clean out of the water over the chug bug by three feet and was gone, never having touched it. I thought these Sm bass are supposed to be mean, seems like some of em may have been a scaredy cat...

6lb Wilson, several 5’s from there and pickwick.

Around 5 pounds. Anderson ranch reservoir in Pine Idaho.

Never weighed it. Length was about 18”. Caught on a crawdad. N Fork Hughes river in WV.

Yep

Bout a pound and a half

Went to Wilson on a quest to catch a smallmouth back in November and caught this one:



Caught another one a little smaller and counted the trip a success.

Probably a 1.5lber while floating the Saluda River in an inner tube. Also caught a 4lb blue cat and a 2lb trout all on the same float... All caught with an in-line spinner. Neither of the other species fought as hard as that smallmouth. Will be going again in a couple of weeks to try and best that personal record. If I hook into one more than 2lbs it’ll be one heck of a ride before I get it landed.

Largest was just under 6…caught in decatur. Several since between 4 and 5lbs all in wheeler, wilson and pickwick.

6 3/4 on Wilson. Bunches in the 4-5 lb range. Had one on one trip that was a sure enough good one. It got the best of me and finally broke the 6 lb line. I would guess it was well over 7.

Biggest was 5.57. A bunch in the 4-5 pound range on Wilson. Anyone that has small mouth on the bucket list shoot me a pm and we’ll try to go this next spring

I don’t fish at all. What size is the best frying size tho ona smallmouth?

Yep, same here

I’ve never fished a body of water they were in I don’t reckon. They are definitely on my wish list.

What about this fall....

We can try but it’s just easier for me to catch them in the spring time

Couple of pounds in the boundary waters years ago

Maybe a 1lb'r at Pickwick when I was 10 on a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, crawdad color.

6.4 Wilson

They are getting plentiful in wheeler it seems.

Tims Ford has a lot of small mouth too

About 5. Live threadfin shad in the Guntersville tailrace, late 1990's. Put it back - made one of my buddies sick.

I've stood on Flint river bank and caught small mouth, large mouth, spots and redeye all in one trip.

Any of em taste good

Between 4 and 5lbs don't go to where they live much but they are fun to catch. Guy I fish with caught a 7.30

Monster I caught on a fly rod Gatlinburg TN.

David

That's a rock bass (aka blackperch) not a smallie

Cool. I've yet to catch one then.


David

About 2 lbs. guntersville years ago

We got to get back up there

Me too.
Panther Martin spinner in a trout stream.

Haven't ever weighed one, we catch them pretty regular around the Guntersville dam. My buddy caught a 5 plus pounder sauger fishing this past winter we released.

7-10 on certified scales. Fish released alive and well, got a replica mount in my office. To give you some reference, she was basically 2 ft long and the girth of gallon milk jug. And while I'm bragging, we had 5 tsmallmouth hat day that weighed 28-08. It was 29 degrees and sleeting all day, you could see your boot tracks in the boat carpet, I bet we caught 40 or more. Just below the Horseshoe on Pickwick.

3-4lbs...boy smallys are purty fish...even purtier in some grease

Probably 1.5 lbs. smallmouth up here have same length requirements as largemouth to keep. Doesn’t make sense but I guess that’s the government at its finest

Dang!!

What year was this? That had to be a fun day.

Sorry, been away for a while, just saw this. It was March 2009.

Same here!

That was a sho nuff football

Got to do a guided trip on the Snake River . We caught 2-3 lb fish all day . Our guide said he caught 4-5 lb fish the week before . Don’t know if we could of handled those bigger ones ! Man the water was cold and they were fighters !

2 7+ on the same hump at about 2:30am on Pickwick(Waterloo) back in the late 90's, mid July. Both on a Bumble Bee Spinnerbait head with a 4.5 Hildebrandt Colorado blade, old brown and orange vinyl skirt and an Uncle Josh #11 black pork frog trailer. My best bass ever, even bigger than my biggest largemouth. Berkley fire line, Abu Garcia Black Max reel and a 6'6" Bass Pro Bionic Blade rod. The first one came in like a stick of firewood. No jump or anything. The second one came out of the water at the boat by the black light. It looked like a country ham with scales. It was the only two bites we had all night.

Thump thump thump wham

5.8 Pickwick

Never had the privilege.

If you're looking for one, now's the time. Brent Crow had a 24# bag of brown fish this weekend to win that big tourney on pickwick.

I was there 3 days before he caught that, in the same area. The surrounding environment has to be perfect to catch all of that in one hour. It took him 3 days of fishing and he got it all in an hour.. it only takes a minute for things to go the other way.. 😁

Caught one weighed 3 lbs on a cane pole on elk river in in '72 when I was 10. Caught another 3 lb and a 2 lb largemouth at the same time on a red spinnerbait with a trailer hook. Only felt one hit. Don't know how that was possible. The rest I ever caught were half that. I did catch 30 in one day in 3 hours under some floating trash close to wheeler dam. But they were all between 1 and 2 lbs.

Strike King / STREN pro staffer Roger Stegall had 28lbs (5 fish) in a tourney on Pickwick years ago. He guided me and a BP buyer later and we didn’t get a bite all day. 🤷‍♂️

Leon Tidwell used to win about every tournament they had on Pickwick and Wilson. i can't count the times he'd bring in 25 to 28lbs of smallies.

Steve Hacker has pictures on his website of a 5 smallmouth that I think was 33 pounds.

I knew Leon’s grandson. He told how they use to find shell beds. Some good stories about Leon.

The bite is still really hot on Pickwick when the current is running. Fished upper Pickwick two days last week and caught 2 4lb+ smallmouths, along with a ton of smaller ones. On Friday we caught at least 75 fish between two of us without covering much water at all. At least half of those were smallmouths.

Do you remember or know how much water wash flowing?

Not sure exactly, but on Friday while we were out there (9:00ish until 3:00ish) I'd say it was on the upper end of the average discharge, especially during the middle of the day when the bite was hottest. The bite absolutely died right before we left so I'd say it dropped off significantly mid-late afternoon. That day we caught a lot more fish below McFarland than above. On Sunday the flow was definitely less while we were there (12:00ish until 4:00ish) and the closest I can see on TVA's website is from 6:00 pm - avg hourly discharge 44,399. The bite below McFarland was dead and all the fish we caught were above Patton Island bridge.

Thank you sir

I’m gonna say 80k and above is just to much for how I fish up there…

Actually, it's ma'am 😉



That's too much for how a lot of people fish

In today’s world I’m just thankful that you know for sure😁 thank you mam

I fished the Tenn River above 231 bridge last week and caught a one pound smallmouth. All dink fish that day but the dinks were biting.

😂😂