Smallmouth activity

I caught over 40 smallmouth last Sunday, all in the bay......

Yup...... so many bass boats with so much power propelling them through the water that they think they can drive right through the perch pack in the lake doing 40 - 50 mph. and not go around.   With that kind of speed and power it wont take long to drive around the pack. Have just a bit of courtesy please. Its not just me either , heard a few others near by complain too. Just Sayin'

Thanks for the info. Maybe I should get a different hobby.

The last two weeks I had many bass boats around me but observed very few smallmouth caught. This led me to think the bite was slow.

I suspect I may be getting on the water too late, usually 8:30-9:00 AM. Sun pretty high by then.

Jerry

Stillhead,
 
The largest one I caught was 4-4.5 lbs. The vast majority were 2-3 lbs. Couple of my friends that were also out said same deal, a couple 4's and most 2-3.
Earlier in April I was catching much larger fish.
 
I suspect that the larger fish are more concerned now about spawning. As you probably saw, there are males on beds everywhere (least it was that way last weekend). The females are just hangin' waiting for whatever triggers them to get it done.
 
As far as alot of bass fisherman, the internet and frequent publicity in print on PI has made it that way.
It's a great fishery, plenty of places to stay, eat, socialize, launch, so all that makes PI a easy place to pick for a trip and that's basically what all the articles in the magazines say.
 
Back to the smallmouth size........IMHO it's good to see the smaller fish. For a long time it was tough to find the smaller fish in the size class you mention. Maybe the fish are on the rebound from the goby invasion. It seemed that for several years all you saw was larger fish. Now there is a large mix again, small, large, in between......

if you guys don,t mind me asking what is the bait of chioce in the bay for the smallies