# Erie trib smallmouth trip!



## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

haha, fake out  this was my first fish of the trip so I thought I'd show it. I was stalking around for smallies and saw him in a hole, looking fresh and ready to spawn. Late to the party? Sure! But oh well, haha.

Anyway, most of day 1 was spent figuring out how to catch erie smallmouth, which is a whole hell of a lot harder than what I am used to with the steelhead. Once we got em figured out though, and figured out where to look (NOT 6 miles from the lake, for instance) it was on! Pics below.









My first one, and what looks like an endorsement for TFO rods (it IS a sweet rod btw, but I swear I'm not selling it. You couldn't buy it from me )









We worked our butt off to get a pic of my dad with a fish, but they kept cutting and spiking him annoyingly. Lost the 16-18" fish he was holding, so we got this one since it was behaving.


















I dunno what that was, but it ate a fly, soo it got to have its picture taken 

In short: They're here, go east!


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## skippyflyboy (Jan 5, 2010)

Great pics....congratulations on a successful trip


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

Thanks! Day 1 was really a bear, and all we ended up catching were a few rock bass, that carp-y thing, and the steelhead at the last second. Seriously, we stopped at a spot near our hotel that we had seen steel in one other time EVER, and there was a pod of them there  So I suited up and went and got one!

Day 2 was much much better. Erie smallmouth behave so much differently than I'm used to in smallies, they never seem to hold on cover! Well the big ones don't anyway  They were just kind of cruising around looking for things to kill / chase / eat. And fighting with each other, a lot!


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## BigDaddy300 (Nov 1, 2004)

That "carpy thing" looks like it might be a quillback.


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

After looking at pics of a quillback, it indeed is. They'll eat sucker spawn patterns and prince nymphs.


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