# GMR Report 7/7/12 - Two 19 inch smallmouth



## QueticoMike (Sep 25, 2008)

I was suppose to go canoeing this morning but my buddy from out of town never called me last night so I got up early and went wading by myself. I wanted to start early today because of the 100 degree temps forecasted for this afternoon. I head to a stretch up north and start fishing at about 6 AM. I had the Zulu tied on first and I catch a couple of decent fish, one was 14 inches, but I am seeing lots of topwater action so I decide I should make the switch over to the silver shiner Super Pop-R. I get one about 15 inches and then another small one right after that. So I know this lure is going to work today. I head upstream a little and dont get any hits. For some reason I decide to make a cast long downstream. A couple of pops and a big blast by a heavy smallmouth. I decide I should head to shore to land this fish. As I am walking towards shore I trip over a rock in waist deep water, I cant see down into the water that early in the morning, and I fall into the river. Everything gets wet except for my head. My rod and reel are fully submerged along with my hip sack that has my phone in it. I stand back up as fast as I can and reel in some slack and the fish is still hooked up. I get over to shore soaking wet at 6:30 AM and land a nice 17 incher. Check my phone and other stuff in my sack and it is all mostly dry. The phone still works. I can still take pictures. That was an early unplanned bath. I kept cool for the most part the rest of the morninghaha. I move up to the next hole and the first fish I catch is a nice 16 incher that hits about 5 feet from the end of my rod. I catch bass on the next two casts. I almost caught 4 in a row but just missed the last one. I continue upstream picking off a few here and there. Some decent 14 inchers are caught. When I get to the next hole I make a bunch of cast before my first hit. Wow what a first hit it was, this bass just exploded the surface. After I saw that I hoped like heck it was hooked up and it was. At one point I thought it wrapped me around something because I couldnt move it, but it wasnt. It was just digging in right out in the middle of the river. Once I got the fish to move it came towards me. I didnt mess around with this fish and more or less horsed it in once it got close. It measured out at 19 inches. That matches my biggest smallmouth out of the GMR this year. That makes 8 smallmouth this year 18 inches and over for me. I pick off a couple of more decent ones and then move up river picking off a couple here and there. The next hole is disappointing, I have caught some nice fish through this rocky fast moving water but not today. I move into the last hole and I get another hit right behind a big rock, it doesnt feel that big and the hit wasnt real impressive, but when it came out of the water I could tell I had another big one on. It was running towards me after the hit so I had no idea it was that big. Another 19 inch smallmouth. This turned out to be my best wade of the year so far. That makes 9 smallmouth this year 18 inches and over for me. That was fish number 20 for the day. I ended up catching 23 total. Two 19s. a 17, 16, a couple of 15s and more than a few 14 inchers. I was done fishing within a few hours. So I was averaging about 8 fish an hour. Not bad for fishing during a heat wave. I wish I could fish mornings more often. The day started off wet with my unexpected swim but the day turned out pretty good!


Fish on


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## jsm197 (Mar 11, 2010)

That's awesome man, you are on a roll with those big GMR smallies! 

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## DLarrick (May 31, 2011)

great day on the water for sure. 9 18inch plus in a year is unbelievable....most guys dont have that in there life.


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Nice fish and nice report! Great lookin bass


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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

What a great morning of fishing. Nice report. One of these days I'll be halfway there.


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## streamstalker (Jul 8, 2005)

Excellent work! I haven't had a day like that in quite some time, but it was under conditions like we have now.


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## CincyFisher (Nov 12, 2010)

What a great trip! Sounds like a blast.


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## steve113535 (Feb 7, 2012)

Nice job Mike, I am going out tomorrow evening for the first time in awhile hopefully the bite doesn't slow down.


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

Very impressive day indeed, I may have to get up a bit early tomorrow.


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## yakfish (Mar 13, 2005)

19 inch! What a couple of pigs! Nice.


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

Amazing!!! Way to go Mike!

Not sure the growth rate on these river Smallmouth but, those are for sure some old fish. Next year they should both be pushing the 20" mark.


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## bigbassturd (Mar 25, 2008)

This might be a silly question but here goes. What is a zulu? I love fishing for smallies in the Tusc river but have never tried anything called a zulu.


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

bigbassturd said:


> This might be a silly question but here goes. What is a zulu? I love fishing for smallies in the Tusc river but have never tried anything called a zulu.


It is a soft plastic fluke.


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## bigbassturd (Mar 25, 2008)

any certain way to rig them? thats new territory for me, im a small crank and spinner guy.


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## QueticoMike (Sep 25, 2008)

bigbassturd said:


> any certain way to rig them? thats new territory for me, im a small crank and spinner guy.


Send an email to - [email protected] - in the subject title put " ZULU " and I will send you a copy of an article I had published concerning Zulu fishing. In this article I describe how to rig a Zulu among other things. A Zulu (or Z too, forked tail version) is a 5 inch soft plastic jerk shade made by Strike King. It is made out of a new soft plastic called Elaz-tech. It lasts a lot longer and works a lot better than a fluke IMO. I have caught over 50 smallmouth on one Zulu many times in the past.


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## autogyroenthusiast (Oct 25, 2007)

awesome outing and report. way to go!


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