Potential New Michigan Smallmouth Record Caught on Hubbard Lake
Especially when the event moved to Hubbard Lake, a spot where Johnston privately told MLF reporters covering the event there were only few spots better to catch a tank of a smallmouth.
Johnston wasn't kidding as the 8,850-acre water body – named in the 1860s after a prominent Michigan geologist, Dr. Bela Hubbard – produced some great bronzeback bass action that week as the General Tire 2014 Summit Cup was contested on area waters.
With the Summit Cup eventually won by Kevin VanDam, the visits to Hubbard Lake showed the world just how good the northern smallmouth bass action could be amidst a mixture of rock piles, boat docks, underwater humps, large grass flats and a whole lot more superb fish habitat.
But apparently, as good as the MLF action was that particular week, it was only a drop in the bucket compared to what it can be.
That seems obvious in light of the news that local angler Greg Gasiciel has landed a huge Hubbard Lake smallmouth, a smallie that appears to be a new Michigan state record.
Fishing on Hubbard on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015, during a local tournament, Casiciel reportedly landed the fish on a grub.
Said to be a 24.5-inch-long specimen, the fish is reported by various media outlets to have weighed 9.33 pounds ... on three separate certified scales, mind you.
Why such caution and so many certified scales? Because the weight is very important given the fact that the current Michigan state record smallmouth – ironically enough, caught on nearby Long Lake, the very lake where KVD won the Summit Cup Sudden Death Round in Alpena – checks in at 9.25 pounds.
That current state record bronzeback bass, caught more than a century ago in 1906 by W.F. Shoemaker, is listed as a 27.25-inch long smallmouth bass.
Stay tuned to WorldFishingNetwork.com to see if Gasiciel's huge catch this past weekend on Michigan's Hubbard Lake passes muster and is eventually certified by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as the new Wolverine State's new smallie benchmark!
The Alpena Major League Fishing Summit Cup is currently airing on World Fishing Network. New episodes air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. Check the schedule for additional air times.