Was July 5th, very hot calm day. I took the boat just a short ways across the reservoir to other shore and we fished the bank a bit, caught maybe a few dinks, like 6inchers. So we went to move to next spot, and big engine was just slow cranking and wouldn't restart. This is with brand new Walmart cranking battery, left it on charger beforehand like usual. I wasn't to worried about it so we just used my Lithium battery jump starter and it cranked right up, off we went.
Made it to the next spot, small inlet and we fished around that still catching 5-6inchers. I was driving the boat, trolling motor up front with foot control. Besides fishing I was maneuvering the boat around a lot to retrieve snagged lures
So I was partially paying attention to my fishing and partially to theirs, helping my mom with tips for fishing. This is only like the 2nd or 3rd trip out for her bass fishing so plenty to learn.I tossed out, let the crawfish shaped jig sink until it stopped and felt that slight weightlessness, pulled a bit to feel that weight and then set the hook. It was almost like setting up on a snag, that heavy weight, except it pulled back this time. It was coming up fairly easily and made it out of the water one time. That's when I YELLED to get the net LOL. I kept it in the water the rest of the time, it was digging a little bit, but not a huge fight. The weight was really what was keeping it down.
New PB Smallmouth, 20" and 5lbs? (we'll discuss that)
My old PB was 18" and 3.75lb
As for weight, I have a $4 scale that I've had for about 20 years and used to weigh the fish and it showed 3.75 lb. So I bought a new scale to test against my cheapo garbage scale, a Rapala 50lb High Contrast digital scale. I can get the Rapala scale to show anywhere from 4.2lb to over 5lb when pulling against my garbage scale depending on how gently you pull against it. Wish I would have got a girth reading but I had that fish back in the water quick after the length measurement and then held it for a good minute or more letting it recuperate. Took off strong so I'm sure it was fine, bass are tough anyway. These fish are like dinosaurs though, to get to that size takes many years in our reservoir.
Side story on size of these fish below if interested.
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Again... I was NOT expecting that on the first trip out!
