New Personal best smallie...odd though!

[Basshole18]

The other day I was out on one of my favorite smallie ponds down here on the cape. It happens to be where the old state-record smallmouth came out of. It was real cold and the largemouth were not biting at all so we decided to go for smallies. They were biting very scarcely also. Well anyway I was drop-shotting a zoom 4" meathead in green pumpkin. We were off a long point right on a break where the water depth dropped rapidly from 5 ft. to about 17feet. I was casting along the drop off and I was really dazing off just talkin to my buddy when instantly i felt like I was hooked into a volkswagen driving away from me. I didnt even have time to set the hook,  it was instant. I knew it was something gigantic and my buddy seemed to be able to tell also because of the look on his face and the bend on my rod.  I've caught a lot of big fish but this one just felt incredibly stronger I was actually questioning if it was a snapping turtle or something. Then the fish jumped and it was absolutely incredibly and absolutely a BIG fish. When I finally got it to the boat,  we were seriously questioning how close it was to a state record. I have a 5lbs, 10oz. smallmouth that I caught when I was 11 "stuffed" on my wall and this fish completely and utterly dwarfed it.  We got the scale out and in my mind I was saying 7lbs, 2-4oz. or somewhere around there. My buddy Keith said "that's EASY 7lbs". But I was the one holding it and it really did not feel that heavy. When I looked at it's belly it was skinny. Anyway,  I put it on the scale and it was 6 pounds even. I was SOOO surprised because this thing was just so much bigger than my stuffed fish and Keith had caught a 5lbs 4oz. fish earlier in the season and this one was way larger. The length and height from dorsal fin to belly was utterly incredible,  but the girth was SO small. As the day progressed we saw tons and tons of dead and floating fish,  mostly smallmouth but largemouth also. (Probably just because this pond holds a SM to LM ration of probably 3:1).  This made me nervous because this particular pond is part of a VERY productive chain of lakes down here. They are all connected by very small creeks but I am worried if there is something wrong with the water quality that it will spread to all of these lakes. I spoke to another guy who loves to fish these same lakes and he said one of the other ponds in the chain has been producing very strange looking fish. He said they all seemed incredibly and ridiculously thin and their color was way off. These ponds are known for their awesome growth rates as they are fed by alewife/herring runs that produce an amazing forage base. Is there anyway I can find out if there is something significantly wrong (i.e. contact enviro' rangers, etc.)? And does anyone have/had any similiar situations? And does anyone know what it could be?

[Marty]

I'd definitely contact your DNR, and SOON.

[Pike_Master]

I agree!Id contact em ASAP!!!Sounds like a virus or something got into the waters or some kinda stuff!!!NOT GOOD!

[xjma99]

How close to the MMR were you fishing???  Wouldn't hurt to share your findings with MA Fish and Game.  

[Bassnajr]

CONTACT ME A.S.A.P!!!

[HOIST-N-HAWGS]

Wondering how you made out? Did you contact Fish & Wildlife?

[jig]

well what did you find out? im not sure ,but it sounds like your describing the ponds that i fish so i am a little worried.