It is noteworthy that my favorite fish these days is one I had never caught until I had already logged more than a dozen species on my catch list.

Toward twilight on a long, hot early July day, I tossed a tiny Roostertail spinner toward the head of a long run on a wide creek, engaged the reel and retrieved the lure a few feet before it came to a dead stop. I gave the instinctive jerk and was rewarded with a showery leap of a fish silhouetted against the sun setting toward the hills.

I was no stranger to fishing that day. I’d been an angler since I was a youngster, enjoying family vacations in northern Michigan where Dad and I puttered around for walleyes and northern pike. At home, I was a frequent fisherman in the pools and riffles of Yellow Creek in the Poland Municipal Forest.

My early scorecard had checkmarks for walleyes, crappies, bluegills, yellow perch, northern pike, channel catfish, chain pickerel, largemouth bass, rock bass, white bass, creek chubs, suckers, carp, bowfin and chinook salmon. All worthy catches.

The list is more extensive today thanks to a few trips to saltwater and the big-game experiences with Lake Erie steelhead and lake trout, plus muskies at West Branch, Chautauqua, Pymatuning, Berlin and Milton.

But until that twilight outing on Little Beaver Creek near Gretchen’s Lock in Columbiana County, I had not enjoyed an encounter with a smallmouth bass.

The fish leaped several times and bulldogged for the boulders that broke the current. What it lacked in size, it made up with sheer stamina.

It’s not so remarkable that my hook-up with a 10-inch smallie was so memorable. I’ve boated dozens of 10-inch walleyes, largemouth bass, crappies, perch and white bass, but none stand out in my mind.

That smallmouth bass, however, was the first of hundreds of amazing catches in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. It was perfect in color, proportion and the glaring red eye that shouts, “Dare me!”

It all began in rolling Appalachia south of Negley. I had learned from Salem News Editor Harry Stewart that the Little Beaver Creek had a healthy population of smallmouth bass in the stretches flowing through Beaver Creek State Park. Stocked with small spinners and ultralight spinning tackle, I set out with friend Gary Day to hike in to find pools far enough from the parking lot to provide us with a sense of unpressured wilderness.

We made several trips that summer 50 years ago. We always caught a few. The real success, however, was the unquenchable fire it lit in my soul and which burns as bright as ever even to this day.

Smallmouth bass grow big and brawny in Lake Erie, where I’ve boated specimens approaching six pounds. I’ve caught and released hundreds of Ohio River smallmouth bass, every single one fighting with gritty determination. I have whacked big smallies on the rocks at Berlin and the upriver reaches of Lake Milton. I have been thrilled by topwater explosions by Shenango’s feisty smallmouths and yanked trophy-class fish from the weeds and docks at Chautauqua Lake.

Smallies on surface lures, crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, tubes and drop-shots on flipping sticks, spinning rods and buggy-whip ultralights. All unforgettable.

I believe I remember more smallmouth bass catches than any of the other great species I have been blessed to experience.

And it is all thanks to that 10-inch bronze beauty that muggy July evening on the Little Beaver.

Jack Wollitz enjoys writing about fishing for readers of the Tribune Chronicle and Vindicator. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.