<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by flippindrew &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i know what ya mean jeff. its weird how many 5's you see caught at dale and c-land and the very few over 5's. but, to tell you the truth, im begginning to think that once smallies reach that size, they totally leave the banks and spend the remainder of the time chasing shad with stripers etc. i guess maybe thats why you see the striper fisherman catch the real monster smallies often times. then again most of the smallies ive seen over 21 are really skinny and maybe thats when their life cycle starts going downwards? either way, its weird to see so many 5's and so few 6's. anyone know how old a 21 or 22in smallie would be?</TD></TR></TABLE>

good fish young Jedi... I think your right about the big ones going rogue or joining bigger class of fish to feed. My question is since there are no stripers in the Hollow do they get together and feed or do they work with the birds or something esle?

Seen something on Sunday that really made me curious about that. There was a single ld oon frantically diving shallow chasing something arounfor about 2-5 minutes in the middle/mouth of a small main lake creek. Finally the loon stops and has a huge 6-10" shad in its mouth. We thougth it was a bass at first until we motored close enought to look. More than likely there were fish underneath those shad and that loon was on top and the smallies or whatever other fish big enough to eat bait that size were on the bottom working together. I know it happens but I think there is more to it than we know.