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Boarstalker
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02/14/2023 12:28PM  
I was up in Knife this past summer and caught, for me anyway, this huge smallmouth. No tape or scale, but that's not the point of this post. I caught her on a jig and leech fishing 35-feet down for walleye. I had no idea smallmouth stayed down that deep, but looking at her gut, I wondered what in the world she had been eating down there that caused her stomach to bulge like that. Didn't catch anything but walleye the rest of the day, btw. She didn't fight much at all, just sort of rolled around a bit on the way up.
 
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02/14/2023 12:46PM  
They love their crayfish but found them stuffed with small 3-4 inch tullibee or also called ciscoes. Never thought smallmouth would also key in on them.
Whenever you will eat what is on the table.
 
cyclones30
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02/14/2023 12:47PM  
Blown up due to being brought up from deep water?
 
02/14/2023 01:57PM  
cyclones30: "Blown up due to being brought up from deep water? "


That was my thought as well. You can see the bulging in the eyes too.
 
BWfishingfanatic12
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02/15/2023 09:33AM  
Looks like possible barotrauma to me (catching fish deeper than 30 feet) puts them at risk for this condition that is often fatal for fish. Their air bladder does not have time to adjust during the fight making their eyes and stomach bulge out a little. If this fish was thicker throughout I might think something else but in the one picture it does not look like a super thick fish throughout just inflated due to the extreme and sudden pressure change. All fish react differently and some are affected more than others with this. It has happened most often for me fishing for perch in the winter along a shelf that drops from 20 to 30 feet of water.

Curious that a Smallmouth would be hanging out that deep for sure. Not sure what they would be eating out in that depth other than the mentioned above ciscoes and other minnows.
 
Boarstalker
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02/15/2023 01:13PM  
Well, she was a very thick fish all the way around, my PB, but that does make sense considering how long it took me to revive her, about 20 minutes. She was just wallowing at the surface every time I tried to release her. Finally she was able to swim straight down and out of sight.
 
02/18/2023 08:40AM  
some smallies will carry their eggs , well into summer.
 
02/27/2023 09:24PM  
That depth…probably a combo of invertebrates/bugs and ciscoes. Big smallys love ciscoes.

You can sometimes site fish them chasing schools of ciscos out in deep water.

Ciscos create big fish.

My son caught this one in 100’ of water trolling a crank no structure anywhere We were looking for lakers. Coughed up a Cisco at the boat.

 
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