If you fish in the Northern parts of the US and southern parts of Canada around the Great Lakes, Ontario, etc, you will find the northern smallmouth bass fishing is incredible. Supposedly, bass in warmer climates grow faster because of longer growing or feeding seasons.
Northern Smallmouth Bass Fishing
If you take a look at the pictures of smallmouth bass on our Facebook page that come in from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Ontario, the smallmouth bass are consistently giants.
There is a suggestion in this article by Spencer Turner, that Northern smallmouth are a subspecies of smallmouth bass and are genetically able to grow larger and heavier than in other areas of North America.
I’ve caught one smallmouth longer than 18 inches legally and only a handful more than 18 inches sampling. Large smallmouths in Missouri are rare.
Another biologist older and wiser than me believes northern smallmouth, although considered the same species, are a subspecies. They grow larger and heavier. In many northern lakes, anglers catch smallmouth longer than 19 inches and heavier than 6 pounds.
He grinned as I dropped my first cast on the swimming float, pulled it off and let it sink on a slack line. Seconds later, I set the hook as a bass sucked in the jig. The bass dived deep and fought like a terrier worrying a rat. It didn’t give an inch for the first minute of the fight. It took line from my reel several times before I was able to force it to the surface to be netted. I’ve caught a bunch of smallmouth and handled more, but this was the fattest and largest I’d ever caught. It measured just more than 21 inches, and we estimated the weight near 6 pounds.
A football with a head. And it wasn’t the last.
What a way to start. Before the day was over, we caught and released 20 to 30 smallmouth between 14 and 21 inches. All weighed from 2 to 6 pounds and fought like there was no tomorrow. Source
Check out these Wisconsin smallmouth bass!
httpv://youtu.be/4NUjVMPZH-g
Northern smallmouth bass fishing is amazing and I hope you get the opportunity to experience it. The patterns and techniques are pretty much the same no matter where you go but the quality and quantity are what make northern smallmouth fishing the bomb!
