Monster Smallmouth Caught, Released
Christy Goudy celebrates her 22-inch plus smallie taken with Max O’Neil just prior to release.
By Max O’Neil
I recently had a gigantic smallmouth bass in the net while fishing Pewaukee Lake with my girlfriend, Christy Goudy. The evening trip was planned with night crawlers and bobbers as opposed to throwing for musky. She had caught a nice sized musky with me on a previous trip but had a few no show trips after doing so and I wanted to keep her attentive on the joy of fishing. Live bait fishing was an easy choice.
We fished a few early spots with just a few small gills while I threw musky baits with no action. The wind was blowing strong most of the day on the east shoreline. I repositioned the boat off a heavily wind- blown point that was bombarded with baitfish. I locked on to the point in 14 feet of water with my Terrova and we began to fish.
She threw her bobber set up while I set up a dead stick rod with a simple split shot rig with a crawler. I continued to work the point with various musky baits knowing that fish were present. No action with Mr. Musky. She pulled in bluegill after bluegill and was having a blast. I was feeling good about this set up. After some time I reset the dead stick rod and put it back in the holder.
A few minutes later, I noticed the line move position rather awkwardly from where it had been casted. I grabbed the rod and handed it to Christy; who amongst a crowd of boaters, fought in this unknown fish. The fish made a giant leap from a distance and I noticed its dark color and round girth. I assumed it was a giant carp and instructed her on battling this fish. Minutes later and it was close enough to scoop with my giant musky net.
I gasped as I realized it was a smallmouth bass. The net slid under and I high-fived her and explained to her what this size of fish meant. She was ecstatic! This fish didn't look out of place in such a giant net. Once it was unhooked, we took a few quick pictures and put it back in the net for some revival before measuring the length.
Catch, photo, and release is such an instilment in my fishing practices that I dare not keep such a fish. A measurement of 22.25 inches, with an estimated girth of around 18" or so. No scale to measure the weight. A whopper! I told her the slim chances of ever seeing a smallmouth this big ever again. So much excitement! The fish was released to fight another day and so were my fishing trips with my girlfriend who was really hooked into the experiences of fishing.