Smallies in Big Marine?

Anyone know if there are Smallmouth Bass in Big Marine Lake? A few were reported on Fish Brain. The DNR doesn’t list them for the lake but the lake has the right habitat in places.

Fishing here has gone downhill big time. Beautiful lake though!

Agree Wojo, always thought the lake was very pretty, ever since they put in the new very nice park on the west side the lake has gotten very busy. Bass dudes love the lake and their are MANY tourneys out there and sparkly bass boats with people pre-fishing all the time, very hard to get a big bass out there but I guess they like the structure-they fish structure i fish for fish! Not sure what SMBs need to spawn but the structure should be good for them if the DNR stocked them, that said anything stocked in there unless it is a full sized game-fish would probably get gulped by the swarms of small pike in there-same issue with walleye, great structure for them too/ pike eat up those fry in that lake.
Anyway I fish a couple of lakes in Wright Co. that remind me of BM back in the 80s & 90s so I guess thats good enough, just a bit more driving.

I used to fish Marine back when the only access was in the south-east corner. It was so shallow I’d have the whole car in the water before I could haul the boat off the trailer. That kept a lot of traffic off the lake and it was great. Lots of Bass, lots of big Bass and all Largemouth. But things always change and I haven’t been back up there in a long time.

My father told me that in the old days there was actually two lakes, Little Marine and Big Marine. “Little” was the north arm, and it seems to me there’s a shallow 4 foot deep across the mouth of that bay. In those days my Dad and my Uncle would rent a boat and frequently caught Smallmouth. But that was long ago.

SR

We fished a tourney out there a few days ago we had a bag with 4 fish over 4 pounds and 1 fish at 5.2 was our biggest bag of the year. never seen a smallie. I personally don’t like the lake very much but it produces good fish. I don’t fish out there unless I have to

My buddy and I were on the lake last Thursday. We each caught 8 bass. The biggest was 14 inches and most were in the 12 inch range. We didn’t fish real deep. Pulled some out of 12 FOW. I think the big ones are either deeper or in the lily pads.

Steve Root wrote:

I used to fish Marine back when the only access was in the south-east corner. It was so shallow I’d have the whole car in the water before I could haul the boat off the trailer. That kept a lot of traffic off the lake and it was great. Lots of Bass, lots of big Bass and all Largemouth. But things always change and I haven’t been back up there in a long time.

My father told me that in the old days there was actually two lakes, Little Marine and Big Marine. “Little” was the north arm, and it seems to me there’s a shallow 4 foot deep across the mouth of that bay. In those days my Dad and my Uncle would rent a boat and frequently caught Smallmouth. But that was long ago.

SR

There’s a mid lake hump that divides the north and south sections of Big Marine. Fishing off that hump can produce largemouth bass. But there is definitely structure in the lake that would be suitable for smallmouth. And other area lakes have smallies.

A 5.2 out of BM-wow-

Oh any pics of that 5+ outa BM?

Here’s that 5 lb bass I caught in Big Marine last year. Got it on a Z-Man rubber skirted jig with a plastic craw trailer.

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_20220505_120537201-scaled.jpg
   

Nice!

tim hurley wrote:

A 5.2 out of BM-wow-

Only in the livewell.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot_20230726_102044_Gallery.jpg
   

2. 

   20230605_184410-scaled.jpg
   

Jay Tegeder wrote:

I think the big ones are either deeper or in the lily pads.

All the big fish hang under the Lilly Pads, I watch a local YouTuber that fishes tournaments and all his big fish come out of pads or the greenest most nasty looking stuff the rest of stay away from.

Jay were you out there late fall? Cold water girl either way, slow retrieve on the jig?

It was actually late Spring last year when I caught that 5 pound largemouth. The water was still cold. I worked the jig very slowly. My biggest out of Big Marine this year was a 17 1/2 inch bass. The average size bass in Big Marine is still pretty small. But I think the DNR should stock smallmouth bass in the lake. At this point I’m guessing more people in the southern Minnesota fish for bass than walleye. It would be nice if the DNR did a better job of managing them.

17 as a large one sounds right-20 as a rarity sounds right, great catch nice color on that one.