jbcook

I copy and pasted this from the Indianasmallmouth site. There is water there for every type of boat. It's in three weeks so sorry for the late notice. It would be cool if some of the IL crew could make it. We will be staying at Beaver Ridge Campground on S.R. 4 south of South Bend. We will have easy access to the Yellow River, the Kankakee, The St. Joe and Elkhart Rivers, plus all of the flat water in Michigan. There is also Pleasant Lake, Worster Lake, Fish and Koontz Lakes for the greenie hunters. The rates will be $24.30 per night for full hookup or $19.80 per night for primitive. The primitive sites are secluded and seperate from the full service sites and we are allowed to double up on sites. I have reserved a block of 20 full service sites. If you are coming please call the campground and ask them to reserve your site with your name under the Indiana Smallmouth Club. The number is (574)784-8532. We have two weeks to reserve a site under the club's name, after that you will lose the 10% discount. Saturday the 19th of May will be the last day to call for reservations to get the discount. I told them some would be arriving on Thursday the 31st and some later, so be sure to tell them when you will be arriving. If you want to go Mapquest for driving directions the address is: 65777 Maple Rd. Lakeville, In 46536

That would be hickies Tim. Just a dark belly I guess, but I don't know might be a hoosier fan in broilerland.

Here is one from the 2006 Midwest Rodeo (Indiana) in June. After about 5 years of fishing for smallies in moving water this is the first 20" smallie I have actually got my hands on. There have been a handful of others but they all ended with a sad story. I caught it on a Bandit 100 crank in silver sparkle minnow off that concrete wall in the background in heavy current right under a drain tube. I caught my second 20" the following month (no pic) on my home water (small flow) on a 4" Hooked Up tube in natural craw. The water was up a little so the fish could go where they usually cannot and it was one of those spots where I caught it. I was casting downstream and bringing the tube up to the top of the water column and dropping it down, the fish hit it on the drop in ~2-3ft of water. I also caught a 19, 18, 17, and 2 16s that day. What a day it was.

Very good point here. I've seen a definate high water=big fish senario play out time and again. At certain flows the small fish are very rare and the big fish are aggressively feeding.

I've caught an 8in smallie and a 20in smallie on the same 4in tube. Hope that helps.

Cool thread. I found it interesting to see those smallies eating craws so huge relative to their own size. It's got me thinking about upsizing.