I've always wanted to fish for small mouth bass! I'm originally from Texas so I grew up fishing with my dad and brothers...lots of large mouth bass, little florida's, white bass, stripers, hybrids....but never caught a small mouth! And what nice one this is!
We live in sw ohio and go up to the Port Clinton area on Lake Erie about 4-5 times a year, camp on Kelley's Island. We take our annual walleye trip in early May after the thaw out right when the wally's are heading out the rivers after the spawn. Then through the spring and summer catch perch, large mouth bass, white bass, sheephead, smallies, which the one in the picture is about average size when you're out on the the reefs north of Kelley's. When the perch are schooled up you can bring them up three at a time on crappie rigs, average size is about a half a pound, great fillet size.
Fishing up there can really spoil you tho, we hardly fish around home. If you own a boat it would be worth the drive from Georgia for a weeks worth of fishing up there or go up and take a charter, that and the peacefulness of camping on the island it's awsome. I know from reading here that the big thing at the Fort is riding the golf carts around, on Kelleys Island you can ride them around the whole island, for the people who live there that is their main mode of transportation, same for Put in Bay, an island about 5 miles west of Kelleys.
We also go up New Years eve for the Walleye Drop
http://www.walleyemadness.com/, instead of the ball at Times Square they drop a 600lb. fiberglass walleye at midnight. We stay in Sandusky at
www.kalahariresorts.com, it's a resort with a 173,000 sq ft indoor waterpark, kinda kewl to be standing there in your swim gear watching people ride by outside on snow mobiles.
But now that the little ones are getting bigger...it's time to start again! I really miss it. Oh yeah, and especially since dd2 has the knack for catching the biggest fish in the pond...you remember this pic!
