Greetings everyone! Long time, no post...

I was going through some old fishing photos today when I came upon this picture of my brother with a huge smallie that he caught while we were fishing on Basswood Lake on the MN-Ontario border in late May of 2004:



She was an absolute pig, coming in without much of a fight and just oozing eggs. We took a quick picture and measurements and carefully got her back in the water ASAP -- she swam away after a big splash in my brothers face

Looking back at our guide's notes, we had the measurements at 22" long and 17" girth. We called her "The Football" because of her shape and massive girth. I'm telling you, she was incredibly thick!

After finding the picture and reliving a great memory, I got to thinking -- how much did that baby weigh? We didn't have a scale and obviously weren't going to risk killing the big beautiful momma just to get an accurate weight on certified scales.

I Googled bass weight calculators today and punched in the length and width. A couple of them showed a weight of 8.06 pounds (others were between 7-8 pounds). I then looked up the MN State Record -- 8.00 pounds caught in 1943!

I remember at the time that we estimated the weight to be about 8 pounds. But we didn't give it much thought, because the guide and lodge owner mistakenly thought the state record was 9 pounds. Oops.

Anyhow, I wanted to share the picture and get everyone's thoughts about the fish's dimensions based on the photo. We wouldn't have any reason to fudge the numbers, but we were pretty excited (freaked out, actually) when we got the fish in the boat, so it's possible our measurements or notes of measurements were off...

Let me know what you think. In a sick, older-brother way, I love the idea of my little brother possibly catching a state record fish and receiving no recognition

Definitely an awesome fish but not totally convinced it would have made 8 lbs but it would be close.

I looked up some replica blanks below for some comparison:

http://www.mckenziesp.com/Smallmouth-Bass-C118.aspx

http://www.lakecountryreplicas.com/details.php?id=133

" In a sick, older-brother way, I love the idea of my little brother possibly catching a state record fish and receiving no recognition"


Brutality Rising!!!

This one was 22" even almost 19" girth and weighed 8lbs 1 oz. for reference. She was caught in the fall, so no eggs.

Whoa -- that is a beast!

Also confirms that my bro's fish was under 8lbs.

Where was that beauty caught?

You guys give us pondowners here that have smallies in their pond a goal to grow one as big. Bruce Condello can show/tell us how to do it with largemouth. See Jan-Feb 2015 pond boss magazine page9 for an example of one of Bruce's home grown LMB. Maybe we can get Bruce to write an article about his special bass growing technique in PB mag for getting our pond bass to state record sizes. I don't think Bruce has any pictures here on the forum of some of his extra big home grown bass or I would post a link to the pictures. Any help here with this?

FYI the standard weight of a 22" SMB is 6.38lbs (6lb 6oz). If this 6lb6oz female was full of eggs at 25% of her body weight that would make her 7 lbs 15.5oz (127.5oz).

Too few posts from Bruce these days. Maybe he's just obsessed with those discoid blue carp?

These are both outstanding fish! Fishman, I have fished Crooked Lake in the BWCA in my 20s on 10 day canoe trips. By best fish was 21" spawned out female, estimated around 5#. That's an amazing fish so far North, but your brother's is something special. Not taking anything away from SMB in Southern waters - while their growing seasons are longer and forage probably more varied and abundant, their lifespans are likely much shorter than Northern fish. I'm a sucker for a huge SMB, no matter where it was grown! Thanks for sharing, guys.

This one came out lake chickamauga in TN about 8 years ago.

They don't have to be caught during spawning time to be heavy for lenght. I caught one in Northern Wi the 2nd weekend in September from a public BOW that was 19" long and 19" girth....

I have nothing to add except my two smallies together didn't even weigh 8lbs...

Even 4 lb smallies are very nice fish - Dandies indeed.