Asking The Crucial Questions | What I learned about SMALLMOUTH

Basically, it was your first time going up north to catch a smallmouth, right? So, you fished three, kind of just two smallmouth tournaments. Tell me what you learned. I basically learned that I should have been more realistic with myself. As far as the techniques, locating fish, it's all the same. I know how to drop shot. I know how to throw a crankbait. I know how to throw a jerkbait. I've done it so many times for largemouth, spotted bass, whatever. They get on isolated, hard stuff. Rocks, holes in the grass, isolated grass patches. That's typical. That's what an ambush point is, no matter where you go. The thing that I learned is, on St. Lawrence River, I kind of never got on the deal. I should have kind of fished my way a little bit more. I did have the bites on St. Lawrence to have a really good tournament. That one just didn't go my way, and I couldn't make up for it because I'm not super versed at knowing how to grind out smallmouth. I had a couple good spots. I really had to fish for the entire day. That's not my style. I like to hit a lot of spots. I like to go really, really fast. I like to hit a lot of isolated stuff. Champlain was obviously dominated by smallmouth. Almost everybody was catching smallmouth. Very few people were actually catching five largemouth every single day, which is what I committed to. I already thought that was my best chance to actually win that one. Then we go to Lake St. Clair, and I kind of feel like I got unlucky on that one. I really felt like I was on them to do really, really well in that one. Maybe made some mistakes as far as time and deals go, but for the most part, it's very standard. Fish get on stuff that you expect them to get on consistently. It's not random. It's not anything weird. Like St. Lawrence River, you've got to fish deeper than I've ever fished before. I think I caught a fish out of 55 feet of water, caught two back-to-back out of 55 feet, a few out of 50. That's deeper than I've ever fished before, but you've only got 70 foot of line out. You just reel them up. It ain't that hard. It's different, but at the same time, it's not. They get on the same kind of stuff. I really made some minimal mistakes in the two smallmouth tournaments, but at the same time, I really feel like they just didn't go my way. I don't feel like I'm that bad at smallmouth fishing. I talk it up a lot on YouTube and stuff because I don't want people to expect me to catch them or something like that, but at the same time, I'm really not that bad at smallmouth fishing. I know where they get. I can drop shot to them. I can catch them. I can land them. I'm using the best equipment. I've got the best rod, the best reel, the best line, the best hooks. The only deal is I didn't get the bites, so I feel like both of those really could have went my way. I don't know. I feel like I fished decent. I've been looking back, reviewing the footage. I feel like I fished decent. It just didn't happen for me, so I don't know. I don't really know what happened, but we didn't catch them. If you could change one thing out of the last month and a half, what would you change? Line. On day one of St. Lawrence River, I'd go to eight pounds instead of seven pounds because I broke off two dang diggings. I weighed in two pound-and-a-halfers. On the first day, we had 12 pounds. I had a two-and-a-half-pound largemouth, a three-and-a-quarter, and a three-and-a-half smallmouth. I weighed in two pound-and-a-quarter, pound-and-a-halfers on the first day, and I broke off one that was probably four, a little bit better, and then I broke off another one that was a really, really good one that I never even turned. If I'd have went to an eight- or ten-pound line, one thing I tried to do is I tried to get a little bit too technical with it and go to too small a line sometimes, and I wish I would have just used an eight- or ten-pound test and really landed the bites I would have landed. I did that on St. Clair, and on St. Clair, I only lost one fish. It was a four-pounder, but I only lost one. I really wish I would have not tried to overcorrect. That's a big deal in fishing is overcorrecting. I wish I wouldn't have tried to overcorrect, and I wish I would have just used an eight-pound line, and I believe I would have landed those other two fish. What do you think you did well that you didn't expect to do well? I don't know. I didn't spin out. I did have a rough time going on day one of St. Clair. I really had a rough deal going where I couldn't— I feel like every time I made an adjustment, I didn't get a bite, which that's usually whenever you start to feel rushed and start to feel like you're kind of spinning out, but thinking back on it, the decisions I made going through and stuff, I really don't think I spun out at all. Now that I think back on it, reflect on it, and I'm looking objectively at my analytical thought process that I was making, I feel like I made really good decisions for the entire deal. I mean, I really don't think I changed anything. I feel like if I could go back, one thing that I— I mean, I kind of did what I thought I would do, really. I didn't really surprise myself at all. I did fine, I believe. What was your favorite part of the month? Favorite part of the— Trip. It's definitely got to be whenever I found those largemouth up north on Champlain, and I went up there on day one, and in like an hour and a half, had 17 and a quarter, and I was like, they were actually here. They stayed for once. A school of largemouth stayed in two feet of water, so that was pretty cool. Champlain, the entire tournament school, we caught a bunch of fish, caught them the way I like to catch them, so that was definitely the most fun part. So what are you about to do now? Oh, rig this little dude up right here and go sling him around for a little while, or rig this little dude up and go sling him around for a little while. That's what I'm ready to go do. 7'6", point blank rod, 60-pound canine braid, big hooks. Let's go have some dang fun now. All right, guys, so basically that was just a little video Hunter decided to throw together, spur of the moment. Just a little kind of a recap of my New York swing. I really talked it up about how bad I was going to do for the smallmouth, and I did bad in those two tournaments, but I really don't think it was because of the smallmouth. I think it was really those are the two tournaments that I made the poorest decisions and I got the most unlucky in. So, I mean, it just happened to be those were smallmouth tournaments. But anyways, besides the point for that, I've been in New York, Detroit, up and up north for over a month now, just got home, and I have responded to very few YouTube comments. So if you have any questions over the past month or ever on my YouTube videos that I've never got around to, leave me a comment and I will answer all the questions. And another thing, leave another comment and let me know what you want to see in the next true series, because we're about to get that back up and rolling. So hope you guys enjoyed that video. It was a fun one. If you enjoyed watching me go up there to New York and catch some bass, leave a like, leave a comment, hit that subscribe button. We'll see you on the next one.