Monster from the Sturgeon Bay Open

[6 lb Smallmouth]

8.45 Pounds

http://www.wdor.com/sports/8-45-pound-smallmouth-highlights-sbobt/

[markgoetsch]

There was also a 7.24 and 7.54 weighed!

[djkimmel]

Fishing for smallmouth bass during the spawn apparently makes smallmouth bass a LOT bigger!

[HellaBass]

I think those fish are pre-spawn

[djkimmel]

Some of them I'm sure. The year I fished the spring SBOBT, tons of bass were caught off beds sightfishing or by people who didn't know they were on beds. We found lots of beds in several different areas - not 10 or 20 but hundreds. We also found prespawn fish roaming outside the bedding areas. We caught our first few fish off beds in the middle depths and then moved out to prespawn fish when we were swarmed a couple times in a row.

Some of the past winners also told me about how they found and caught bedding bass in various situations including those bigger bass you need to find if you actually want anyone to remember your name later. One of the persons who talked to me is a multi-time winner. No one will remember our names from the year I fished it though it did teach me a lot about how many more bass can be on beds than you think there are, and how many more can come onto new beds real fast when conditions improve. It was an eye-opening week for deeper bedding bass and shallow bedding smallmouth bass in weird places.

I was really making a sorry joke about the number of years they have gone out and caught all these bass during prespawn/spawn, and yet, the bass just keep getting bigger. Maybe all those studies about bass fishing during the spawn having nothing or little to do with bass population recruitment success are actually right? Great Lakes bass, and even many inland bass, just keep getting bigger. Some of those same giant bass caught this year were probably caught last year and even weighed in. Or the year before. Or the year before that.