Why Are Bronzebacks Special?

In case you didn’t notice, we are all about smallmouth bass so we are always on the hunt for the latest articles about our favorite species.  So, why are bronzebacks special?

Stephen Headrick is an avid smallmouth fisherman and author for BASS and he describes the lure and mystique of the smallmouth bass.

Why are bronzebacks special?

I suppose that started long ago at a time when the smallmouth population was limited. The early writers made them seem like something other than a bass, maybe something other than a fish. They were given qualities that weren’t given to other species.

It was popular in those days to believe that smallmouth bass were somehow more cunning, more savvy and more cautious than other species of fish. We all believed that you needed light line and tiny lures to catch them. Fly tackle was all the rage back then. You had to be sneaky to catch one. Going after them was more like hunting deer than fishing.

Things have changed. Thanks largely to better conservation and management techniques the smallmouth’s range has expanded dramatically to include some of the largest freshwater lakes on the earth. And thanks largely to organizations like B.A.S.S. our angling skills have improved. We now know that smallies will bite big baits and that we can use 20-pound-test line without running them off.

Now I don’t have anything against largemouth bass. I’ve caught thousands of them and had a lot of fun doing it. But I’ll tell you that some of the fishing trips I remember the most are the ones where I hiked up a small stream and caught smallmouth that weren’t much bigger than some of the swimbaits that are now popular in trophy largemouth waters.

You see those trips weren’t about making money. I wasn’t fishing a tournament, selling fishing lures or guiding clients. I was fishing for fun. It was me against an adversary with a brain the size of a pea. On the few occasions when I defeated that adversary all I got out of it was the pride of success. No one witnessed my victory and no one cut me a check afterwards. But I did go home with a smile on my face. That was enough. That’s still enough. Smallmouth bass rule!  Check out the full article here:  Source

When I see a largemouth bass being reeled in, it looks strange to me now, after catching and watching so many smallmouth bass.  Sometimes its almost as if they are just laying there, saying, lets get this over with.

Let me know if you agree!