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"I had caught smallmouth before in Virginia rivers and the thing that impressed me about them was the fact that they just would not give up." Jack Gaither

Related Resources • Secret Weapon Spinnerbaits • ROFB NEW Tournament • G & S Guide Service  • Lakelink  Pictures • My First Smallmouth - ROFB NWC • My First Smallmouth - Weekend X Up North

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All my life I had read about smallmouth bass and dreamed of catching one.  There are none in the area of Georgia where I live and very few in the whole state.  I really looked forward to the trip to Wisconsin and catching my first one, but I was a little disappointed when it finally happened.

I drove the  1200 miles to Rhinelander, WI in two days and did not get to fish the first afternoon there.  The second day I had planned on fishing with Bob Rickard, inventor of the Secret Weapon Spinnerbait, but he was having some health problems and could not go out that morning.   At lunch I hooked up with Warren from Pennsylvania and we headed to Boom Lake where the Recreation Outdoors Fishing Bass newsgroup North Woods Classic was being held.

Boom Lake is a fairly shallow lake with lots of shoreline weeds and stumps.  It was chosen because it has largemouth and smallmouth, and very varied cover.  On a map I had seen an outside bend on the river that I liked, and Steve Huber, local guide and host of the event had said a flat across from it was weed and stump filled.  It looked like a good place to start so we went there.

The water looked like spinnerbait heaven but nothing bumped our blades.  Warren soon tried his two favorite baits, a Texas rigged Zoom Little Critter Craw and a Senko.  He got bites and quickly caught a rock bass.  I tried a Drop Shot worm and something hit it but I missed the bite.  A short distance later I started throwing a jig and pig near some wood cover and soon caught my first pike, but that is another story!

Warren was much more familiar with weed filled lakes so he took the front of the boat.  We went across to the flat and started fishing the weed edges.  I looked down into the 6 foot deep water and saw a stump and quickly picked up a Texas rigged Baby Brush Hog and dropped it beside the underwater wood.  A thump told me it was the right place.

When I set the hook there was only about 10 feet of line out and I was using my  heaviest worm rod and 15 pound PLine, so the fish pretty much was jerked out of the water to the boat.  It really did not have a chance to fight, even tho I lowered it back when I saw it was a 12 inch smallmouth.  

After releasing that throwback we fished some other areas and ended up at the small dam on the Wisconsin River that backs up Boom Lake.  The riprap there looked good and I caught a 13.5 inch smallmouth off the rocks on the same Baby Brush Hog.  This fish fought a little better, but again the heavy outfit did not give it much of a chance.

After fishing some more spots we ended up at a bridge with some riprap, again one of my favorite places to fish.  I caste my Brush Hog to the rocks and realized my line was still moving, not hitting bottom.  When I set the hook a 15 inch smallmouth came to the top and quickly to the boat.  It did not fight at all and when I lipped it I saw why.  The 5/0 Gamakatsu hook was in its gills and it was bleeding badly. 

Those were the only three bass I caught that day and all were on heavy tackle, so they really did not have much of a chance.  They did not fight any better than largemouth and maybe not as good as some spotted bass the same size that I had caught on the same tackle.  

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