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3. Not a Trout, Salmon, or Grayling

One of many large smallmouth caught over a three day period last week.

Matt,

That's not a hog its a HAWG! Whoa! What a healthy looking fish...

Thanks for letting us take a look!

Spence

Matt, the fish in your neighborhood must quake when they realize you are out fishing! This one must of not got the message. :)

That's one nice smallie. That must have kept you busy for a piece!

That's a beauty, Matt! How long did it take you to subdue him? I got one almost that big - 19.5", but yours looks fatter - this past summer on my 3-weight and I was certain I was gonna lose him, felt like I had hooked a mule! Took me a good fifteen minutes to bring him to the net...

May I inquire, what fly?

Jonathon

P.S. Glad to hear that Bob Clouser's home waters are still producing great big fat smallmouth!

The river has been fishing very well the past three years in the Fall. During the June - August period I can't buy a smallmouth but in the Fall they come in near shore busting shad and shiners and feeding up for the winter.

The big boy took an honest ten minutes to land - it jumped repeatedly and ran much line on a drag that is quite tight. There is a strong current and a loose drag would have a fish that big 200' down river in no time.

I went out again today for four hours and landed over a dozen to 20" most were 15" - 18".

Spence - The fish actually take pity on an old man like me so get on my hook as a favor.

Wow. Really impressive. Surely, no photoshopping involved... :}

Anyone who knows me, or visits this site, will have seen pictures of large trout, bass, and steelhead that I've caught. I'd never resort to photoshopping when the real thing is just so much better. Here is another example of a recent successful outing.

You might be able to see the Black stone fly still in the upper right jaw.

Matt, I had the benefit of NO current when I landed mine, as it was off of my friends' dock in a lake - in which I had never caught any smallmouth of any size, and it was in fact the biggest fish I have yet landed from this lake, besides my largest flyrod-caught smallmouth (by far, next biggest was 16" from 2007) and in fact largest smallmouth of my life on ANY tackle!

What rod and fly were you using? Just curious if it was in fact a Clouser Minnow...

Jonathon

Matt,

If this is the case they must be feeling real bad for you old-man because they are sending their big boys out to smack your offerings!

I think it's more likely they have seen you so many times that they know you will land them properly, ASAP in other words, and after posing for the camera will be returned to the stream no-worse-for-wear. I use to joke, being a vegetarian, that they drew straws when I was fishing and they reassured the "loser" that he had nothing to worry about..."He's going to let you go...Trust us...No trip to the frying pan." :) They would then be able to sit it out until everyone else had taken their turn. Kind of a Russian roulette of the trout stream.

I was in to "schooling" the fish...I would pat them on the ass and say, "Better be a little more careful next time kid-o! The next fly you see may not be attached to my leader! You will find yourself floating in some warm butter instead of a cool clear trout stream."

The sections of the Au Sable we fish are in Crawford County...My fishing buddy and I would let out a war cry when we passed the County sign on the highway on our way up and someone would shout out that all the Brown trout in Crawford County somehow knew we were back and were tucking themselves a little further up under the undercut bank...Hey! We were younger then and a great deal more excitable.

Nice job though Matt showing the young whipper-snappers on this site that we old-timers earned that gray in our beards and those monster fish. It's all about time-on-the-stream, eh.

Spence

Awsome fish man!