Tuna Posted January 15, 2021 Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 This fish was caught using a regular sized Rebel Craw, gold back (molting) in August of 1990. That's why I entered this into "Hard Baits". Took my two sons wading in a river I know well in NE IA. They were only 9 and 7 years old. To prevent complaining we all used Zebco 33's mounted on some light casting rods. We were all throwing the rebel. When I hooked it I thought I may have snagged a carp. Whoa! Got so excited I didn't trust the drag and backed out of the river onto the shore to land the fish. Using a Zebco De-liar it scaled slightly over #5. The fish was mounted on Tennessee driftwood by a well-known taxidermist in eastern Iowa. This isn't a foam body. Hell, it was my first big mountable fish so I didn't think about that. The fish resided in a deep frezer for about a month prior to mounting. I took it off the wall for an annual cleaning and now looks like the day it came out of the water. A question for the guys: what is the diameter (mm) of the eyes on a #5 smallmouth? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Epp Posted January 15, 2021 Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 5lb smallmouth is pretty good! I've only caught one that big, and it was up in Canada. No idea what the answer is to your question, but that's a nice fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastman03 Posted January 15, 2021 Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 Very nice! 16mm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuna Posted February 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2021 Sorry for the delay, for some reason I didn't get notification of replies to my post. The red of the eyeball is is just under 11/16" so about 17mm. Darn good guess. Probably an educated one, right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastman03 Posted February 16, 2021 Report Share Posted February 16, 2021 ohhh so close, I've been lucky enough to guide for several years in a smallmouth paradise at Eaglenest Lodge, Manitoba. Nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
