10 lb Erie smallmouth

[gim]

11 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

A fisher at Minnesota's Mille Lacs recently broke the state length record for muskies. He released her and speaking the catch, he thanked all who had caught and gently released her over the years and said he looked forward to her being caught again and again. I love that guy. 

That's the one I was referring to in my previous post.  They caught it on opening day of muskie season here in June.  That lake has now produced 2 state record pure strain muskies in the the past year, by weight and by length.  Right now the ciscoes are spawning on the rock reefs and I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more giants caught soon.

[jitterbug127]

I think would’ve released her, but I’ve never caught a state record fish either. Hard to say unless I was put in that position

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

A fisher at Minnesota's Mille Lacs recently broke the state length record for muskies. He released her and speaking the catch, he thanked all who had caught and gently released her over the years and said he looked forward to her being caught again and again. I love that guy. 

 

I also love how respectfully you guys disagree. For the record, I side with Alex. Protect the exceptional genes. 

I agree Katie about respectful disagreement on this subject.   All the regular members I see post here have a great respect for Bass and seeing them thrive including the Braided Bambino @T-Billy ?      

 

 

5 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Do you think that's the case? I'd bet there's hundreds if not thousands of SM that size swimming in the great lakes. Plus that fish has passed it's genetics on multiple times already.

I'm not sure, but I see your side easily just in regard to trophy Whitetail Deer management.   

 

Nobody in this thread is advocating killing large Smallmouths, so I think we are likely debating over a unique case that doesn't happen very often.   

 

Perhaps if I'm just being honest, it just makes me sad to see such a magnificent specimen die.   Death however is part of life, whether natural, or through a predator's hand which was the case for this fish.   

[gim]

8 hours ago, T-Billy said:

It's a bass, not a sacred cow. My hilljack taxidermist would have ate it and made me a beautiful mount.

I understand the point you're making here, but neither of these statements make much sense.

 

Cows aren't sacred here lol.  This isn't India.  We eat them.

 

Second, if the taxidermist eats the fish, he can't make a mount.

 

[TnRiver46]

15 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I understand the point you're making here, but neither of these statements make much sense.

 

Cows aren't sacred here lol.  This isn't India.  We eat them.

 

Second, if the taxidermist eats the fish, he can't make a mount.

 

Sure you can, the meat doesn’t go into the mount 

[T-Billy]

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

Second, if the taxidermist eats the fish, he can't make a mount

He ate my 6-4. If I ever get a LM over 7# he'll eat and mount it too.

 

[T-Billy]

6 hours ago, gimruis said:

Cows aren't sacred here lol.  This isn't India.  We eat them.

Same goes for bass. I was just trying to make the point, these guys did nothing wrong or illegal killing that fish, and don't deserve to be shamed or disrespected for it. I'll leave it at that, I don't want to paticipate in taking this thread any further down this road.

[Deleted account]

On 11/5/2022 at 11:42 AM, roadwarrior said:

SPECIES	WEIGHT	LOCATION
Bass, Smallmouth (c)	l0 lbs 8 oz	Wheeler Dam tailwater
Bass, Spotted (b)	8 lbs 15 oz	Smith Lake
Bass,Striped (landlocked) (a)	69 lbs, 9 oz	Bankhead Reservoir

Now we know where Lance dumped his PEDs when the UCI was closing in on him....  

16 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

If you listen to the chief of DNR later in the interview he said it is possible that the fish caught is a male.

If that fish is male, so was my grandma...

[Dwight Hottle]

2 hours ago, Deleted account said:

Now we know where Lance dumped his PEDs when the UCI was closing in on him....  

If that fish is male, so was my grandma...

 

Well that would help explain a lot of things?

[gim]

17 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I was just trying to make the point, these guys did nothing wrong or illegal killing that fish, and don't deserve to be shamed or disrespected for it.

I agree.  I just thought your analogy of a sacred cow was off.  Maybe you meant sacred coon and kept the pelt for that hat you wear!

17 hours ago, T-Billy said:

He ate my 6-4. If I ever get a LM over 7# he'll eat and mount it too.

I can't figure that out.  If he eats it, it's gone.  How can you mount something you've eaten lol

[TnRiver46]

13 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I agree.  I just thought your analogy of a sacred cow was off.  Maybe you meant sacred coon and kept the pelt for that hat you wear!

I can't figure that out.  If he eats it, it's gone.  How can you mount something you've eaten lol

That’s why they call it a skin mount. The delicious white flaky meat is not included on your wall, like i posted earlier you can eat a fish and still mount it. They substitute a foam body and use the fish’s skin for the mount. Gonna be covered in flies and a little stinky if you used real meat on the wall 

[gim]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

like i posted earlier

I didn't see that post until now for some reason.

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I didn't see that post until now for some reason.

Sneaky………

 

Im not exactly sure if it’s foam but they make a body to fit the skin. Silence of the lambs style……..

[gim]

4 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sneaky………

 

Im not exactly sure if it’s foam but they make a body to fit the skin. Silence of the lambs style……..

I've got a 21 inch largemouth from 2006 that I had a skin mount of because it died in the heat of August when I hooked it.  I tried reviving that fish for 15 minutes and then decided to get a mount of it since at the time it was a PB.  I still have it and its now starting to fade in color and the fins are deteriorating.

 

I also have a tiger muskie graphite replace from 2020 that will last much longer I'm sure.  The replicas cost more but they last a lot longer too without any signs of "aging."

[Bdnoble84]

I am honestly not sure what I would do in this situation. I will never see anything like this unless I travel. living in illinois, a 5lb fish would be a rare trophy around here. I cant fathom catching a monster like that. 
 

One silver lining to the fish being harvested. The dnr is going to gain a ton of information on giant smallmouth from this fish. Realistically, its a very old fish and it didnt have alot of reproductive years left. The knowledge gained could be very beneficial to understanding giant smallmouth. Or they could just discover its a freak of nature that wont be duplicated. Regardless knowledge will be gained for this fish.

[king fisher]

I heard from the cousin of a friend of a friend, that Idaho fish and game biologist electro shocked a new world record small mouth a couple years ago, somewhere on the Snake River.  Has any one else heard this story? 

[ghost123123]

Heard the same story, no one at fish & game will confirm the rumor and it was at Dworshak Reservoir near Orofino, ID. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was/is true as there are some big bass in that body of water. I guess we’ll never know unless someone catches it.

[Bdnoble84]

Does anyone know what lure he was using. I never caught that.

[Dwight Hottle]

10 hours ago, Bdnoble84 said:

Does anyone know what lure he was using. I never caught that.

 

Drop shot from the interview but they didn't disclose the actual bait. 

[Bdnoble84]

Ok. I was more wondering technique. Thank you.