WADDINGTON, N.Y. — Hank Cherry said he had the best day of smallmouth fishing he'd had in his life on Thursday. So a limit weighing 16-12, leaving him in 45th place, was his best day of smallmouth bass fishing ever? Well, you need to hear the REST of the story.
"I had three 5-pounders that I couldn't weigh-in," Cherry said. "They were hooked outside the mouth."
The state of New York has a new regulation, intended to curb snagging, that states a fish must be hooked inside the mouth to be considered a legal catch. Several anglers knew that was going to be a problem when fishing jerkbaits this week. The notoriously hard-fighting smallmouth bass will frequently pull off one treble hook, but are often re-hooked on the other trebles of a three-hook lure like a jerkbait during the fight. It's not like they were snagged in the first place. And a few anglers decided to drop-shot and avoid jerkbaits because of this new predicament.
Cherry kept track during practice. He said the average during practice was 2 of every 5 smallmouth caught were hooked outside the mouth. But he'd found too good a smallmouth bite to ignore. What he couldn't foresee was the run of bad luck he had yesterday and, according to Dave Mercer, today as well.
Mercer was reporting from the water when he found Cherry, who said his first seven bass today were hooked outside the mouth. "I have boated enough fish to be easily leading this tournament," Cherry said.
The evidence is clear, according to Cherry, that the bass weren't initially hooked outside the mouth. There's a hook hole or a bleeding spot inside the fish's mouth and a bent front treble hook on the lure. But by the time he lands them, the bass are hooked only outside the mouth on the other two trebles.
And the rule is the rule. Cherry didn't even consider breaking it, even on one that was so close his marshal thought it was a legal catch. "I just couldn't lay my head down at night after something that was so close (to an lilegal catch)," Cherry said Thursday.