My Biggest Smallmouth

I was fishing October 23, 2011, with my friend, Mike Ozinga, on Manistee Lake in Manistee, Michigan. This lake is a drowned river mouth of the Manistee River, a well-known trout stream. We had fished farther north on Saturday, October 21, but found the bite for Smallmouths difficult. The next day we decided to drive to Manisteee Lake. The bite was good, with us catching many smallmouths and a few largemouths as well. My biggest that day was caught on a tube bait, weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces and was then released. We caught a few over 4 pounds that day as well. We came back the next day and there was a cold north wind in the morning and the bite was tough. After several hours, we found some fish on a steep drop-off near the bank. after catching several smallmouth and largemouths there, we move to an area of old submerged shipping docks. I had been fishing a tube most of the day, but switched to a texas rigged creature bait because I was losing so many tube jigs. i was catching quite a few on a smallie beaver, but switched to a 410 size to try and catch a bigger fishing. I casted the gobie colored lure out and when I set the hook on the bite I new I had hooked a big fish, but wasn't sure it was a smallmouth. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a salmon, it was so wide. After getting it into the boat, we both said"that is a big smallmouth!". Mike casted to the same spot and caught a 4 pound 14 ounce fish on his first cast. We took pictures, after we weighed and measured the fish and released them, hoping the next time we fished there they might both be a little bigger.