Skipping Over Milestones

On Wednesday I caught my personal-best smallmouth while fishing with Texas pro Keith Combs on a lake in the north that he and others would prefer remain unnamed. I know that it weighed 6.40 pounds because I weighed it twice on my Electro Samson scale and it eventually settled on that amount both times. As I’ve opined before, here and elsewhere, there are lots of people who’ve caught “10 pound largemouths” and “6 pound smallmouths” who’ve done nothing other than big-eyed a smaller fish or just flat-out lied.

What’s weird about this fish is that I came here hoping to catch a giant and I clearly accomplished that with this deep-and-wide-as-it-is-long tiger, but it feels strange because I still haven’t caught something in the 5-pound class. When Hanna and I joined Kevin and Kerry Short in Escanaba eight-plus years ago, the redheaded bride caught a 5.42 and a 5.24 but I could never push the scale to 5. Same on various media trips to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where I hit 4-12, 4-13 and 4-14 repeatedly, but no higher.

It reminds me of my largemouth tales. At one point my PB was an 8-13 that I caught as a co-angler in an Elite Series event on Falcon in 2008. Then in February of 2012, on my 42nd birthday, I skipped over 9, 10 and 11 with a 12-0 Boga-weighed brute. I’ve filled in the nines several times over, but still haven’t caught a legit, scale-weighed 10 or 11.

Mind you, I’m not complaining. Bigger is truly better in both of these cases and there’s a reasonable chance I’ll never top either mark – but I’ll have a hell of a time trying.