One Bass Question

[KSanford33]

If you had to catch the biggest bass amongst your friends, and you're fishing a predominantly smallmouth populated fishery (think Lake Champlain, St. Clair, etc.), would you target smallmouth or largemouth? 

 

 I have a feeling that just one big bass would probably be a largemouth still, but best 5 or something like that would likely be smallmouth.

[casts_by_fly]

Not sure how good your friends are, but if you're in the premier smallie places you mentioned (or st lawrence, menderchuck, etc) then a 5+ smallie is a very real thing and a 6+ isn't out of the equation.  If you are that far north, a 6 lb largemouth is possible but they start thinning out a lot.

 

Further south the equation might change   The lake will make the difference.  

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I watched enough MLF events this summer on those type of lakes to know the answer.....Smallmouth easily.  All of them were catching 5lb SMs, I can't recall a big LGM being caught though. 

 

Dudes were bringing in 19-20lb bags each day.....5 SM bags.     

[LrgmouthShad]

Think it depends on the fishery. I’ve seen tournament results from Oneida Lake where some of the winning anglers targeted largemouth, and there are only a couple well-known areas on the west side of the lake (South(?) Bay and Big Bay) where good numbers of largemouth can be caught. 

[WIGuide]

We need more specifics to answer something like this. Are you talking in a day of fishing or a season? As others stated, the actual body of water would make a difference as well.

 

When you're talking big fish many times you'll find a monster in a lake with a very low population of that species, simply because they don't have the competition for food and cover. As a great example, I caught my PB walleye on a lake not known for walleyes. I've fished it a ton and have been fishing it almost as long as I've been alive and in those 30+ years I've caught a grand total of 3 walleyes out of that body of water. Sure, I'm not targeting them, but if I was trying to beat out my friends for biggest walleye, I wouldn't head there and fish for them as it may take me another 10 years to catch one. I'd say only if there's a viable population could it be worth while. On a body of water where a 20+ lb. bag for one species isn't out of the norm, just playing the number game, you're better off fishing for the predominant species. You could end up catching 5 5+ pounders in the time it takes to even get a bite from the other species, and even then, you're not guaranteed that it's going to be a big one. 

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

If you had to catch the biggest bass amongst your friends, and you're fishing a predominantly smallmouth populated fishery (think Lake Champlain, St. Clair, etc.), would you target smallmouth or largemouth? 

 

 I have a feeling that just one big bass would probably be a largemouth still, but best 5 or something like that would likely be smallmouth.

The reason an angler may be targeting One Big Bass

has very little to do with the out come IMO. 

There are Giants caught every season.

Some had been targeted, other's were not.

Either way, both had to be in the right place,

at the right time and doing 'the right thing'.

So that doesn't change.

I say fish for brown bass and start well before they even think about getting on beds.

Oh, and dress warm.

Good Luck

A-Jay

[TnRiver46]

Easy for me, because I rarely catch big largemouth. I’d throw a 4 inch worm for SMB but largemouth like them too 

[KSanford33]

10 minutes ago, WIGuide said:

We need more specifics to answer something like this. Are you talking in a day of fishing or a season? As others stated, the actual body of water would make a difference as well.

 

When you're talking big fish many times you'll find a monster in a lake with a very low population of that species, simply because they don't have the competition for food and cover. As a great example, I caught my PB walleye on a lake not known for walleyes. I've fished it a ton and have been fishing it almost as long as I've been alive and in those 30+ years I've caught a grand total of 3 walleyes out of that body of water. Sure, I'm not targeting them, but if I was trying to beat out my friends for biggest walleye, I wouldn't head there and fish for them as it may take me another 10 years to catch one. I'd say only if there's a viable population could it be worth while. On a body of water where a 20+ lb. bag for one species isn't out of the norm, just playing the number game, you're better off fishing for the predominant species. You could end up catching 5 5+ pounders in the time it takes to even get a bite from the other species, and even then, you're not guaranteed that it's going to be a big one. 

Let's say the St Lawrence River over a long weekend, so 3 days. I keep telling my buddies that the biggest fish over the three days will be a largemouth, but like my wife always tells me, I'm probably wrong...

[Jar11591]

The St. Lawrence river was recently ranked as top bass water in the nation, and while I’m not too familiar with Larry, it’s my understanding that it achieved that ranking from its brown bass fishery. So if I’m trying to catch the biggest bass possible, I would be after smallmouth. The couple times I fished the Larry, I caught a bunch of smallmouth, and a few pike. Didn’t run into any largemouth or come across any good looking largemouth habitat. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

24 minutes ago, KSanford33 said:

Let's say the St Lawrence River over a long weekend, so 3 days. I keep telling my buddies that the biggest fish over the three days will be a largemouth, but like my wife always tells me, I'm probably wrong...

Yeah that's like the SM version O.H. Ivie for LGMs right now.

 

To me the hottest big fish lake for SMs is the SLR

the hottest big fish lake for LGMs is OH Ivie 

 

If I ever got a shot at fishing SLR, you better believe I'm targeting big SMs because of how great of an opportunity I have to catch one there.   I imagine the lake has big LGMs, but it seemingly has a ton of big, and bigger SMs.

 

I just want to hear your fishing report from the trip you and those buddies take ?

[TnRiver46]

Brock Mosley fished for largemouth on the Saint Lawrence and did pretty well once, top 10 I think. Only problem is I believe the biggest one he got was probably outweighed by a lunker brown bass. Your exact hypothetical scenario played out and there were bigger SM weighed in 

[WRB]

2 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

If you had to catch the biggest bass amongst your friends, and you're fishing a predominantly smallmouth populated fishery (think Lake Champlain, St. Clair, etc.), would you target smallmouth or largemouth? 

 

 I have a feeling that just one big bass would probably be a largemouth still, but best 5 or something like that would likely be smallmouth.

Lake Champlain or St. Claire are both good Smallmouth and Largemouth fisheries. Percentage for bass over 5 lbs goes to Smallmouth with Largemouth a close second.

The 2 bass species prefer different areas is both lakes so it comes down to your skill set. Structure angler Smallmouth, cover angler Largemouth. 

If it was a bet not a tournament I would troll structure areas for a big Smallie to cover as much water as possible to locate big brown bass. Fish weed beds with frogs, buzzers with a toad as Chatterbaits with small swimbait trailer for big Largemouth. Target Smallies on sunny days and LMB on cloudy days.

LMB hands down where I fish.

Tom

[Dogface]

5 minutes ago, WRB said:

 

The 2 bass species prefer different areas is both lakes so it comes down to your skill set. Structure angler Smallmouth, cover angler Largemouth. 

 

Tom

 

So right! The different areas, "structure" and "cover" stand out on the St. Lawrence. Fishing for either is easy up there, just look around. 

 

 

[WIGuide]

43 minutes ago, KSanford33 said:

Let's say the St Lawrence River over a long weekend, so 3 days. I keep telling my buddies that the biggest fish over the three days will be a largemouth, but like my wife always tells me, I'm probably wrong...

The St. Lawrence actually has a pretty decent number of largemouth although the percentage of fish big fish are probably of the brown variety it's not impossible for the biggest one to be a bucketmouth. Back in 2015 when the Elites were there, 2 of the top 5 finishes were almost exclusively green fish and pretty dang good weights as well. 
https://www.bassmaster.com/how-to/news/a-limelight-for-st-lawrence-largemouth/

[PhishLI]

I'm not going to dig for the stats, but I recall the Lake Cayuga event last year produced very solid bass from both species. Enough so that I'd definitely like to spend a straight week there.

[Deleted account]

19 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

If you had to catch the biggest bass amongst your friends, and you're fishing a predominantly smallmouth populated fishery (think Lake Champlain, St. Clair, etc.), would you target smallmouth or largemouth? 

 

 I have a feeling that just one big bass would probably be a largemouth still, but best 5 or something like that would likely be smallmouth.

Are we talking in one day, a multi day competition, a whole season, a lifetime? makes a big difference. Up that way, unlike in a lot of other places, smallies would certainly be in the equation.

[KSanford33]

3 hours ago, Deleted account said:

Are we talking in one day, a multi day competition, a whole season, a lifetime? makes a big difference. Up that way, unlike in a lot of other places, smallies would certainly be in the equation.

3 days. 

[WRB]

23 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

Let's say the St Lawrence River over a long weekend, so 3 days. I keep telling my buddies that the biggest fish over the three days will be a largemouth, but like my wife always tells me, I'm probably wrong...

St. Lawrence River The Smallmouth dominate do to the current. If you targeted Largemouth bass they would be located in and around weed beds and your odds go down catching a bass over 5 lbs because fewer LMB that size.

I would use the same tactics as the lakes.

Tom 

[Dogface]

I thought about your question a little more and let me offer this. Maybe ten or more years ago I would have definitely said the LM would most likely be the larger fish on average. But today the SM are trending bigger than they were ten years ago because of the goby invasion. 

 

I guess having 3, 4 and 5 pound both LM and SM bass is a good problem to have. 

[Dogface]

On 1/3/2023 at 1:57 PM, Jar11591 said:

The couple times I fished the Larry, I caught a bunch of smallmouth, and a few pike. Didn’t run into any largemouth or come across any good looking largemouth habitat. 

 

There is plenty of LM habitat in the St. Lawrence. Most of the bays on the south side like Goose Bay hold LM. There were many good areas for LM on the Canadian side especially just east of Rockport.

 

In addition, many of the individual islands were favorable habitats for LM. There are many islands that are rock with deep water on the west end that draw SM but the downstream or protected sections of those islands especially those with coves have low water with silt accumulation and weeds which attract LM. And there are many low areas between islands that have similar conditions.  

[TriStateBassin106]

I would love to catch a 10lb+ Florida largemouth one day but I feel like catching a massive smallmouth like that guy did this past year on Lake Erie would be more rewarding.  

[roadwarrior]

Don't know 'bout "more rewarding".  10 lbs green or brown is quite the fish!