Okay...I'll do it then...

[nofearengineer]

I guess Woodrow is very modest about his latest achievement, so I'll go ahead and brag about it for him.

At our Patoka get-together, the dude caught my dream fish! We were having a very slow day and decided to fish a submerged weed patch a bit off of the shore. We were both chucking everything we knew to chuck, when Woody finally tied on his BBZ1 swimbait.

Well, he sets the hook and misses on a really good fish not long afterwards, so it continues to be disappointing, but it starting to look up. I even switched over to the closest thing I had to the BBZ1, a jointed Rapala minow...(seriously, that is the closest I have LOL). While I'm making a mess of it, I hear Woody say "there he is" as he grunts and sets the hook into a fish.

His rod is bent prety nice, but there's no way to tell how big it is just yet. Then it jumps out of the water about 15 feet from the boat, and though we can now tell it's definitely a bass, it's not really big...maybe 1-1/2 lbs. So no big excitement yet. Then the thing gets close to the boat, and it simply refuses to come up. It is diving down so hard, he's about taking Woody's rod tip under water. I half-joke to Woody "what is that thing? a Small-mouth?" He finally lands it, and to my astonishment, it is a pretty little 14-1/2" Smallmouth Bass!

I have always heard that there are a few Smallmouth Bass in Patoka. It was a small little river at one time, after all. But in 30 years, I have never seen one from there, much less caught one. I've always dreamed of it, and now Woody did it right in front of my eyes. Congratulations, Mark!!! I wish I had pictures. It was raining a lot that morning, so I decided not to bring my good camera. Of all the luck. Oh well...now I've got to start figuring out how to catch one for myself.

[MallenManson]

Aw, I wish you'd had a camera! Love those Smallies!

[WaffleJaw]

Man Ive always heard those smallie's put up one great fight!
The funny thing is,Im told we have smallmouth's in my home lake.(Ray Hubbard)..Ive never seen one,or heard of one being caught for sure.A novice friend of mine said he caught two ''brown'' bass on the connecting lake (Lavon) ...I asked if it was smallmouth's,but he didnt know...No pics either...God I hope they were,that would make my day knowing I could catch smallie's here...I know lake Whitney,TX is full of em,but thats a long drive for a bank fisher.
Anyway,great job Woody!!..That one fish makes the day worth it

[BigBassin144]

Congrats on the smallie Woody. Now, are we talking full size BBZ1 or the BBZ1 shad? Cause if Woody caught a 14" smallie on a full size BBZ1, I wouldn't hesitate so much to throw my BBZ1 Shad, lol.

BB

[woody]

Thanks Fellas.

I caught the smallie with the 4" Natural Shad colored fast sinker.

Thanks Kevin


~Mark