My buddy that guides on Smith Lake and I were fishing next to each other and he had a last minute cancellation. We talked from boat to boat and decided to fish together that next day and try it in the dark before the sun came up. We met at my dock at 345 and had lines in the water by 4 am.

We got on fish right away and I ended up catching 12 stripes and one GAR!

Heck of a day fishing and a lot of fun.

Best part I was home early and got to eat a good breakfast at the Arley Diner too!

Your buddy is a nice guy to allow you to be photographed with his fish!

Fine day of fishing for sure right there!!

Oh he caught some too Larry....




My cell phone cam is broken so he had to do selfies with his..lol. I just posted the ones I reeled in.

We had a freaking blast. I should have gotten a pic with that big old gar. Those things have some nasty teeth.

That lake is as fine of a striper fishery as you could ask for. The day before I caught 4 and a GIANT bass. I guess it was a spotted bass. Heres a pic. I have to use the selfie cam on my phone so its hard to see what Im taking a pic of.



I thought it was a striper reeling it in. It surpirsed me.

i had doubled on both at the same time. I let them both go but got this pic before I did.

By the way you old fart..Id even carry your arse if you ever want to go. See..I am a nice guy.....

I mean Ill carry your old arse out...Im not promising Ill carry it back. Better bring a life preserver if you come....

👍🏻

Nice!👍

Unreal. Great day

Congrats

Looks like a great day.

I want to try that with a guide one day

Thanks yall!

The worse part was..I had to reel them in with 2 broken ribs!

When I grabbed the rod on one of those first big ones the butt end of the rod slammed up under both of those dang broken ribs the fish was so heavy..I almost dropped the dang rod it hurt so bad. I am still sore from it.

I busted 2 ribs two weeks ago and man you feel it reeling those big fish in.

I broke them 2 weeks ago cleaning my boat.

I was leaning over the side of my boat from the dock cleaning it and a dang wake boat screamed by and my boat came up hard and the side caught me as i was just getting up and broke my lower 2 floating ribs. I just about passed out and fell into the water it hurt so dang bad. The crack was so loud it sounded like someone breaking a big limb .

If you do look at Mike , Mike Perry. He runs Stripemasters guide service. Hes the premier guide on Smith Lake for sure

Outdoor, that is a nice spot. What do you think he weighed? A lot of people forget unless I am mistaken that Smith had the world
Record until they sent some from Smith Lake to California and I think they have world record now.

It was Justin.

It was cool going out at dark like that too. Looking to see what we were missing by getting there before first light instead of after. Temps were a lot better too. I had to wear a sweat shirt because it was chilly when we drove off.

I thought it was around 8 to 9 pounds. It was a slob for sure. Biggest bass Ive ever caught for sure.

I caught it on a 7 inch live shad. We usually only catch big bass as our baits are big. Big baits = big fish!

shoulda hung that joker on a scale

does that mike guy do trophy striper trips? i catch some 20-25lbrs pretty regular on big swimbaits and topwater baits but id really like to catch a 40+. i watched a school of monsters eating grown skipjack this morning but they werent interested in what i was offering

See, that's a good reason not to clean a boat!

That looks awesome. I've got to try that one day. My son would have a ball with that. Are you using live bait?

Nice

Yes. In the early spring we catch a bunch of monsters over 30 pounds. He will get you on em for sure then. 30 to over 40 pounds then.

Give him a call and let him know I sent you. Hes liked all the aldeer guys so far a lot.

I was trying to keep em alive and not hit anyone...or shore ...lol. Ive never kept a bass yet. One of those tournament guys can have him! Maybe a little smarter but still there....

Thanks Bud!

i love this stuff to be honest when I cant shoot any thing!

Very nice!

You are dialed in my friend!

What an awesome day!!! I can't imagine trying to reel one in if I had broken ribs. I've never caught a very large one but they are unbelievably strong. I did hook into one near Guntersville dam that stripped drag like it was nothing and when I thought it was going to take all the line off the spool, I used my thumb to try and slow it down and it snapped brand new 17 lb test line.

They literally bend our rods over into a big "U" sometimes. And they will run hard and strong. Thats why we love catching them. They fight like crazy.

Yes Shad. 6 to 7 inch long mostly.