What do you think is the equivalent to a 10lb Largemouth when talking about Spotted Bass or Smallmouths? Why? Keep in mind the rarity of catching a double digit trophy Largemouth in comparison to some of the lakes in the country where you have the ability to catch several 5-6lb Smallmouth/Spots on any given/every trip.

I was having this discussion with an outdoor writer earlier this morning.

Well according to an old friend who taught me how to drop shot fish years ago out on the west coast, a trophy spot would be anything over 6-7 pounds. He caught one over 8 while on the west coast. I can only imagine it was like bringing in a tank

7 lb

yep

Clark if it's the spots in Rayburn a 16" would be a trophy. Do spots get any bigger in Texas?

Used to be huge spots in possum kindgdom and whitney

Yes. But not as often as lmb reaching 10 lb.

I caught a 4.13 spot on Houston County back 10 years ago or so. Tried to get it certified for record but Marina wasn't open and didn't want to kill it to get it to certified scales. We were in a 14' aluminum boat.

I tagged a spot for the Bass Cash Bass the other day at Rayburn that was pushing 3lbs. It was the biggest I had ever caught on this lake. I've also tagged a few other 16+ inch spots over the past month.

across the board I think 10 pound largemouth, 6 pound smallmouth, and 5 pound spots are "trophies". There will always be outlier lakes that are kicking out big fish after big fish. There are definitely places in the country a 10 pound largemouth isn't getting the locals attention. Think about those pioneer swimbait fisherman in Southern California during the hay day, they were after world records, they weren't fishing for a 10, they were after 20+ pounders!

I live in an area where you can go catch 2-3 pound smallmouth all day, but a 5-6 I would say is fairly rare, obviously going to mille lacs, st.lawrence river, st.clair, sturgeon bay, bay de noc, etc. ups your odds at those 5-8+ pound bronzebacks.

Going to Bullards Bar, Shasta, or the Coosa and its' impoundments is substantially going to up your odds at a 5+ pound spot, but fishing in TX, OK, MO its' going to be tougher...and a 5 pounder I think is "trophy" caliber.

I think if you half the World Record weight you get a pretty reasonable trophy range.

Largemouth - 22 lbs 4 oz - 10 lbs is close enough

Spotted Bass 10.48 lbs - trophy class 5 lbs

Smallmouth Bass - 11 lbs 15 Oz - trophy class 6 lbs

It sure would be a good day on Texoma to hit those marks for all three.

Good to hear that some of them are getting bigger. I've caught hundreds of spots on Rayburn and just can't understand why they don't get any bigger with all the forage available.