8lb Brownie out of Dale??

[dcbasser]

Man thats a very nice fish. My best was 7.03 smallie out of dale a couple of years ago. Hoping to break that mark this year at laurel. Them smallies are really growing out there.

[elnutsmalljaws]

Heres the article on the fish with a picture also.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...=2007703250539

First of all real nice fish. I never met Gary Garth the reporter on this story but he has no clue as to what he is talking about. Read the text below the picture, he said the man was planning on fishing for Stripers at "Dale Hollow" with Randall Gibson. I am no expert and never claimed to be but there is no way in hell that he was fishing for Stripers at "Dale Hollow" for there are NO STRIPERS IN DALE HOLLOW. He may have been targeting Stripers at Cumberland where Randall has caught his fair share but if Gibson and this guy was going to drag a Striper out of Dale Hollow then I am going to hire Mr. Gibson myself for he is the best fisherman on this planet. I guess anyone can be a reporter no matter what the skill. Maybe I can get Mr. Garth to write an article on the 6lb Smallie I landed at Guist Creek last week or the 30lb Striper I caught out of Cedar Creek yesterday, those fish don't exist either but?????

[biggw]

First of all real nice fish. I never met Gary Garth the reporter on this story but he has no clue as to what he is talking about. Read the text below the picture, he said the man was planning on fishing for Stripers at "Dale Hollow" with Randall Gibson. I am no expert and never claimed to be but there is no way in hell that he was fishing for Stripers at "Dale Hollow" for there are NO STRIPERS IN DALE HOLLOW. He may have been targeting Stripers at Cumberland where Randall has caught his fair share but if Gibson and this guy was going to drag a Striper out of Dale Hollow then I am going to hire Mr. Gibson myself for he is the best fisherman on this planet. I guess anyone can be a reporter no matter what the skill. Maybe I can get Mr. Garth to write an article on the 6lb Smallie I landed at Guist Creek last week or the 30lb Striper I caught out of Cedar Creek yesterday, those fish don't exist either but?????

WoW Elnut i did not know Cedar had stripers wtg lol

[mhall]

Will do, but please, leave the bells at home. Be veeery, veeery quite, I huntin strwipers

Andrew

I will be so silent you won't know I'm in the boat.......

[Tim_T]

First of all real nice fish. I never met Gary Garth the reporter on this story but he has no clue as to what he is talking about. Read the text below the picture, he said the man was planning on fishing for Stripers at "Dale Hollow" with Randall Gibson. I am no expert and never claimed to be but there is no way in hell that he was fishing for Stripers at "Dale Hollow" for there are NO STRIPERS IN DALE HOLLOW. He may have been targeting Stripers at Cumberland where Randall has caught his fair share but if Gibson and this guy was going to drag a Striper out of Dale Hollow then I am going to hire Mr. Gibson myself for he is the best fisherman on this planet. I guess anyone can be a reporter no matter what the skill. Maybe I can get Mr. Garth to write an article on the 6lb Smallie I landed at Guist Creek last week or the 30lb Striper I caught out of Cedar Creek yesterday, those fish don't exist either but?????

Elnuts, I think I can clear up why it says that. If you read the article written by Gary Garth it never says they were going to fish for stripers at Dale Hollow, it says the dates were for striper fishing, but he was talked into going Smallmouth fishing. Here is my educated guess on what happened, having worked in the newspaper business for several years.

The trip was originally booked for stripers, but Randall talked him into Dale Hollow Smallies. Since they weighed the fish at Strange Bait and Tackle in Burkesville, I would guess that the striper trip was originally planned for the river instead of the lake.

When a writer for a newspaper supplies his article, he only identifies the person in the photo and in this case, the species of fish or game. A copy editor in the sports department at the C-J does the page design and adds the caption with information from the article. I am pretty sure the copy editor made the mistake, not being a fisherman and not realizing the difference in where they were going to fish and where they ended up fishing.

I won't defend Gary Garth on his qualifications, because his resume` speaks for itself. I am just trying to explain how a mistake like this could happen.

[biggw]

Alright the rumor mill has it that a 8lb brute was caught out of Dale. There goes my 8lber, LOL, man what a absolute pig. One of these days fellas, one of these days. I actually dream at night of catching my eight pound smallmouth. A fella I know said he saw this in the paper Sunday?????

Hey man -why? didn,t you say the fish was caught on live bait-i would have stopped reading when i seen it---lol lol

[Tim_T]

Elnut, after reading my post I realized it sounds a little like a bad attitude, I did not mean for it to come across that way, so I hope you don't misunderstand my point. I was only trying to explain what could have happened. I don't know for sure if that was the case, but I thought it might be.

Just wanted you to know that I was not trying to ruffle your feathers or anything, sometimes it is hard to inflect tone and attitude on a 'puter.

[hartmacw]

Nice fish... too bad the line that says, "The fish is now with the taxidermist".

Now the real question - I started fishing the hollow about 20 years ago. At that time a 7 lb. smallie didn't raise a lot of eyebrows, especially at the dock where locals saw these fish all the time. Getting over 8 caused some stir. The picture is of a nice (awesome, actually) fish, don't get me wrong, and better than I've ever caught, but does it say anything about the quality of fish at Dale when we're publishing articles of 7½ lb. fish? So, are fish over 8 still in the Hollow? Elsewhere? Is the record 12 lb'er swimming in the Hollow? Elsewhere?

[mhall]

Nice fish... too bad the line that says, "The fish is now with the taxidermist".

Now the real question - I started fishing the hollow about 20 years ago. At that time a 7 lb. smallie didn't raise a lot of eyebrows, especially at the dock where locals saw these fish all the time. Getting over 8 caused some stir. The picture is of a nice (awesome, actually) fish, don't get me wrong, and better than I've ever caught, but does it say anything about the quality of fish at Dale when we're publishing articles of 7½ lb. fish? So, are fish over 8 still in the Hollow? Elsewhere? Is the record 12 lb'er swimming in the Hollow? Elsewhere?

You make a point, however a smallmouth not largemouth over 7lb is a bohemeth and always has been. Take guys like Randall Gibson, Bob Coan, Fred McClintock and even the late great Billy Westmoreland didn't and don't catch 7 plus smalljaws all the time. Call and ask one of them how many they have to their fishing career over seven pound and you may be surprised at how low the number is. I'm not trying to be argumentative here just stating that a brown bass at seven is a totally different customer than a seven pound largejaw, it's just a way more impressive fish. Yes I'm sure there are double digit bronzebacks in Kentucky lake, Cumberland, Dale, Laural, but catching one is a whole nother ball game.

[hartmacw]

Oh, I absolutely agree about the distinction between a smallie at 7 and a large over 7 - not even comparable. And I also agree that the legends of the lake over the years didn't catch a gigantic number of smallies over 7 - Billy's book is very clear about that. He says several times that he turned down guide trips because the person calling wanted to catch a 9-10lb'er and he knew the odds of putting them on a fish like that were nearly zero. I've seen probably 8-10 smallies in the 7 range brought to the scale (none by me, lol) and I'll never forget one incident about 10 years ago. A guy from Ohio caught his bass of a lifetime and had raced into the dock to get it weighed (dead). He weighted it at around 7-2 or 7-3 if I remember correctly, turned to the dock owner, and asked if that was close to the lake record. The dock owner flat out laughed in his face as did everyone else standing there. How someone could come to Dale and fish for smallies and ask that question is beyond me - and he was dead serious, I was there.

But here's my point, stated in a different way. I think maybe one of the hardest things to do is put a 7lb smallie in perspective when you know the same lake produced an 11-15. A 7 smallie is a catch of a lifetime, and one I've still never made (6-15, dang it) but to me there's just something weird about a 7.5lb Dale smallie making headlines. I dunno.... I just know if I had caught that exact same fish I'd have taken a few pics measured the length and girth, and got that baby back in the water as soon as possible. I'm glad the guy got his pic in the paper, good for him, but personally I just don't see it as news worthy - in TN/KY.

BTW, I'm from VA and location has a lot to do with my point as well. Even though our record is over 8, a 7 is VERY news worthy for VA. I guess I just expect a little more out of TN because I know the quality of the (smalljaws) fisheries is far beyond what we have in VA.

....BillH

[tacoma]

7.5 lb officially weighed on certified (not merley digital) scales in front of witnesses is still pretty rare for smallmouth even at Dale. Story's of such fish are abundant. Fishing from the 1970's to the 1990's at Dale were more legend than fact. The new size limit has done wonders for Dale but there are a lot more fisherman with much better equipment after them now than in the day when Mr. Hayes was trolling a crankbait. There is a Billy Westmoreland mount labeled as a 9# hanging on the wall in Celina fishing store(one stop I think).

[BigSmallie]

I talked to another guy Friday that said he caught a 8 lb 1 oz Smallmouth. It was not the guy in the article. Myself, I caught a 5 and 5 lb 9 oz smallmouth friday.