1. St. Lawrence River (Thousand Islands), New York
[50-mile stretch, plus eastern Lake Ontario] This unrivaled smallmouth fishery appears to be getting even better. It took 105 pounds to win the four-day Bassmaster Elite Series tournament here in late August 2023. Each of the top four finishers tallied over 100 pounds. On the first two days, the 102 competitors weighed in an astounding 48 five-bass limits over 20 pounds. Day 3 saw 39 of 50 anglers sack more than 20 pounds. The final 10 all had over 20 pounds. We aren’t seeing that sort of production out of many largemouth lakes across the country right now, much less smallmouth fisheries.
2. O.H. Ivie Lake, Texas
[20,000 acres] OK, y’all. Let’s face facts — O.H. Ivie is a straight-up freak show! What more can you say about a fishery that produced 35 Toyota ShareLunkers (8
