How big do the smallmouth get there.

I can only speak from my own personal time fishing Lake Tapps, this being only my second year. But I did have a very gracious gentleman who has fished Tapps for years take me out on the lake and show me alot of his favorite locations, many of them being offshore humps and ridges. So I had a good jump start on where to go. Since then I've found a few other locations on my own. Anyway, alot of the smallmouth I catch there are 1 1/2 lbs and smaller, with a 2 or 3 sprinkled in from time to time. The biggest I've heard of caught there was a 5 lber caught last fall on a topwater bait. But for shear numbers, Tapps is hard to beat. During the summer and fall many of the smallmouth group up on steep edges in 20 to 30 ft of water, stumps being a favorite hangout. This makes them easier to locate and catch. 20 to 30 bass days are not out of the ordinary, but, like I said, many of them are on the smaller side.

Find the ledges with structure and drop shot I've pulled lmb looking for smb so just keep fishing the more you go here the more you'll learn

Can't put it any better than that, redneck. Any drop, whether it be out in the lake or a quick drop somewhere off a shoreline is what I look for. Add a stump or chunk rock to the location, and you have a smallie magnet. Like you, if I find fish stacked on a ledge in deep water, I like to get on top of them with a dropshot. But in all the hours I've fished that lake I've yet to catch a largemouth. I did fish with a guy this spring when he caught a 5-2 on a crankbait. And from the stories I've heard, when you do hook into a Lake Tapps largemouth they're usually pigs.

There are a ton of 2-3 lbers out there. Not many in the 5 lb class yet. I know most the bass guys are catch and release which is great but there are a ton of dinks out there. Less than 1 lb. Guys need to take a few home. I know its hard to do..but the state bumped up the limit to 10 a couple years ago with only one being over 17 inches. Need to start weeding out the tiny little guys. Then I think the smallies will be large. the largemouth I've seen caught are pigs true. But not many of them out there. Big crappies too. The perch are stunted and the suckers, there are tons of those too. I've personally caught a few 20 inch smallies out there. But also with the screwy spring weather we've had the last 2 years I think some of the smallies never spawned. So maybe the numbers of smaller fish might drop naturally. If the big girls didnt spawn and kept their eggs I understand that those fish could possibly die from not spawning. T he smaller fish that have spawn in them and didnt spawn can get rid of those dead eggs easier. Not a bio but that what a few that I know have come to figure out. Thats also true for the other species too..My 2 cents worth anyway. Ricky..when am I gonna see you out there on tapps?

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