handyandy
Well-known member
Well I know my state has some bigger fish as I know of other avid smallie anglers I've fished with that have gotten some that went 20" and 21". But this fish was a surprise this past saturday for me. My biggest Indianan smallie to date has been one that was right at 18". I went on a float trip with the wife this weekend and a few friends from work. I didn't have any intentions of really fishing as we did a float through a near by campsite canoe rental place that shuttles you up and then you float down to there location. Did this cause it was intended to be more of a social trip that beers were flowing on. Me being me I couldn't be on the water without a rod. I wasn't fishing hard and wasn't expecting anything much on this stretch of river since it gets a lot of canoe/kayak traffic thanks to the canoe rental place. But to may surprise while drinking beer and casually tossing some lures I hooked into this guy when I first got him I thought he maybe was going to go 20" but not quiet he was right at 19". Still put a good bend in my pole, and managed to zing out some drag, wrapped around a submerged log limb thought I was going to lose him when he did that. I think I was fishing a rod with 6lb test so I didn't have much line strength to horse him, that and I had put down a few adult sodas. Anyways was caught a bps teaser tube in green pumpkin t rigged on a little ewg hook with a 1/8 oz weight he was hiding right behind a big root wad of a downed tree on a steep bank.
I have had a number of smallies this summer that have been decent 15-17", but this is the first this summer that broke 18" and my biggest Indiana one yet. Biggest smallie for me to date was a 21.5" I caught in the Detroit river back in 2012 when I spent a summer in Detroit as a intern with Ford. I'm still trying for a Indiana 20" smallie, in my time growing up in MO my biggest was around this size.
I have had a number of smallies this summer that have been decent 15-17", but this is the first this summer that broke 18" and my biggest Indiana one yet. Biggest smallie for me to date was a 21.5" I caught in the Detroit river back in 2012 when I spent a summer in Detroit as a intern with Ford. I'm still trying for a Indiana 20" smallie, in my time growing up in MO my biggest was around this size.