BC

I’d go straight to Kentucky Lake. Launch out of Paris Landing, and you’ll have all kinds of opportunities. Been several years since I’ve been there, but I miss it greatly. Don’t need a jet there, but be sure to have maps or a graph.

I grew up fishing the Susquehanna river for smallies, and here's what we used to do (I admit, I don't fish tubes often now). Take a texas rig weight/worm weight, insert into the tube, pushing up to the head. Take a small piece of old rubber worm, insert that into the tube behind the weight. Now tex rig with an offset or other hook of choice, making sure the point goes into (or through if you're texposing) the tube just behind or through the piece of old worm. Works great, and incredibly snag-proof.

I had a great time when I was there, wading the Little Pigeon for smallmouth. It was closer to June, but there was good action, and fun fishing. Also fished Douglas Lake and found bass and white bass on points and bars. Plum finesse worms and senkos did pretty well. I'm not from East TN, so didn't have much intel going in.

Great info, and thanks again! My only concern with pulling the pin out all together is that it may "imbalance" the spool. Sounds like it should work for close in and moderate work, but that reel is my big bomber for deep cranks, so hoping to max out my casting distance at times. I might just experiment to see how it works.

Sorry LMGambler...just noticed the reel is a righty. I'm a lefty! Thanks anyway.

LMGambler - PM sent. Could be an option.

Here's a question. Seems like I read that spool BNT1507 is interchangeable with BNT 1531, except that 1531 has a bushing instead of bearing. I would have thought that the bearing would perform better regarding casting, but I'm not a ***, so not sure about that. Anyway, kind of surprised at the cost of those spools! Then again, I've seen fly reel spools that cost > $100!

Thanks for the ideas so far. How much for the reel LMGambler?

I tried Shimano, and they're the ones that told me they didn't carry the discontinued parts. They referred me to Nutters in Georgia, but they're phones seem to be down. Thanks for the idea though! I was surprised myself that they couldn't help.

OK, so recently, my old greenie, Curado 201b5 started making that awful buzzing/grinding noise when cast big cranks. Opened the side plate checked my brake pins to make sure they were secure (not the brakes, but the pins). Low and behold, the housing holding one pins in is cracked, and the pin was coming out. Caused scoring on the brake case, and Shimano has discontinued the spool assembly. Is anyone willing to sell me a spool assembly for a 201b that's in good shape? Thanks! BC

Recently bought a used Curado 201b5. It says 201b5 on the sideplate, but not on the front of the reel. I thought they were all marked on the front of the reel. Am I wrong on this? Thx!

I fish Beech lake too. The one in Lexington, not the one in Montana ;-) I've just been learning the lake the last couple of years, and trying to get up to KY Lake more often. Launch out of Harmons usually, but looking to learn some new areas. Only problem is the drive, as I'm in Jackson and it eats up a bunch of time! The other thing is my young kids are starting to get into it, so I need to work on finding some closer places to fish other than Lake Graham, which frustrates me to no end.

Yup - it's crazy! Surely you need to put some gas in the boat or car?

Really sweet boat! Sounds like you guys are really into them down there. How are you fishing your dippers? Like swimbaits, weightless or t-rigged?

Another site with a wealth of info: http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/community/