My first smallie!

[daviscw]

I have been consistently fishing my local river, but I had only been catching different kinds of fish as big as my hand. I had also been going out in muddy water with not much luck. Today the water had cleared so I decided to fish. I hooked into this little guy with an X-Rap. I caught several more smaller ones on Rage Tail Craws. I felt like a little boy catching my first fish again! In all the excitement I dropped my reel into the water, so if anyone as any recommendations on how I should care for my reel now I'd love to hear them. Also, is muddy water a turn off to smallies? This is the best day I've by far, also with the clearest water yet. Thanks for reading!

[Cyork]

Congrats on your first smallie, that's a nice looking fish.  I haven't really seen them with coloring that light before.

[NewScreenNameAdvised]

Congrats on your first smallie, that's a nice looking fish. I haven't really seen them with coloring that light before.

Agreed...almost looks like a lmb

[S I G M A]

The smallmouths in my area look like that as well... there are ones with that coloring and ones with a darker coloring with a bluish-purple hue

[lineman711]

Congrats man.  Smallmouth, IMO, are by far the funnest fish to catch.  Your reel should be ok, I know mine are in the water quite often.  Regular maintenance on them is a good thing though.  I would recommend using the manufacture's guide.  One tip I would give you, is that if you don't already, keep a good fish log.  Try to record all the data you can from every fishing trip.  I started doing that about 2 years ago and it seems my fishing has greatly improved.

[Doc Smallie]

Congratulations on your first smallmouth. I'm kinda partial to the smallies myself.

[sambrochill]

nice smallie, the coloring looks kinda light

very interesting, i like it.

[roadwarrior]

Congratulations!

8-)

[doublest]

Congrats on your 1st! It's a beaut to me.