09/29/04

"It's kind of interesting, that some folks might think there is a way to target big Smallmouth."

"Catching big Smallmouth comes from flat out working hard to find an area that has the bigger fish living in it.  Up in the North, we have some awesome Smallmouth fisheries.  Lake Erie, Champlain, Lake Sinclair and the Detroit River all hold excellent populations of big Smallmouth, in fact if you are going to win a tournament, you know that you are going to have to find the areas with the bigger fish."

"Smallmouth tend to be cookie cutters, that is the fish that you catch on a spot will tend to be the same size.  You can pull up on a spot and begin catching 2 1/2 fish, almost every cast.  That is the size fish that lives there, and to expect a fish any bigger is more of a wish or a hope.  So in getting ready for a tournament, you keep practicing until you find the areas where you are catch 3 1/2 and 4 pound fish.  That's how you catch big Smallmouth.  It's not anything magic."

"There are really three situations you might encounter.  You might find a spot with nothing but 2 1/2 pounders, really fun fish to catch, but not the ones that will win.  You might find a spot with all 4 pounders. That's the spot you want to return to.  Then you might also find a spot where you catch three small ones then get a really good one.  That is the tricky spot.  How do you harvest only the good ones."

"When I get on a spot with mixed sizes, I work hard to figure out the subtle differences that make the big ones bites.  Suppose I am getting mixed bites on a jerk bait.  I might switch to plastic fluke or some other soft plastic rip bait and fish it slower.  Sometimes that's what the bigger fish want.  Another way to do it is just to challenge the area.  By that I mean, I will fish a bigger, more aggressive bait, one that the smaller fish will ignore.  There is no secret, you really have to work hard to find out what the bigger fish want."