Surpriser

Great fish, nice job. My PB smallie came on a swimbait this summer too.

Finding schools of largemouth that are busting shad on the surface has been the key for me the last few weeks. It can turn a 1 or 2 fish day into a 20+ fish day in minutes. One thing I noticed was that the fish get a bit weary of a lure after you catch 2 or 3 in a row. I've had to quickly rotate a handful of lures in order to keep a school fired up. I'll catch 3 fish on 3 casts with a popper, then they won't hit it. I'll switch to a lipless crankbait and catch 3 more on 3 casts, then switch to a buzzbait, etc etc. I end up just having 3 or 4 rods each with something different tied on and rotating those few lures, and that'll allow me to keep a variety of baits in the fishes' faces without having them calm down or leave. I haven't noticed that one certain lure catches a bigger bass from an active school. But I have noticed that schools tend to be made up of similar sized fish. I've left schools that were on fire to fish for a school of larger fish in the same general area.

Thanks. I stayed off the main river the first few months with my kayak until I felt completely confident being around other boaters. Wake from bass boats, barges, and pleasure boats are no problem for me; it's the yachts' wake that I have to be most cautious of. Surprisingly, heavy current has been a lot easier to handle than I thought it would. I approach fishing the main river in the 'yak much the same way a motorcycle does on the highway....as if you're invisible to all other traffic, requiring your head to be on a swivel, and make safety the #1 concern.

I have an Ascend D10T. I added an anchor trolley and the standard milk crate in the back and I couldn't be happier with it. Yeah, you said it...a kayak will allow access to fish that others simply have no way of getting to, and it's made for some fun days on the water for me.

I'm without a electronics on my kayak. I bought a contour map and tried fishing ledges that I identified on that, but without a graph to see what's underneath me, it's quite a challenge and my few ledge efforts have been unsuccessful. A lot of the better looking ledge areas also equate to a super long paddle for me. I can't complain though; my limited water access forces me to spend more time in an area and really pick it apart and get better at reading the water.

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to introduce myself. I've been reading the forums for a while and thought it'd be worth my while to sign up and get in the mix. I've been fishing all my life and was lucky enough to cut my teeth on some TVA lakes (Pickwick/Wilson/Wheeler). When I was living in Southern California, a back injury forced me to quit surfing and opened a door for me to [re]discover bass fishing. After 2 years of fishing SoCal reservoirs, I moved back to Alabama with a little beginner's knowledge. I was fishing from the bank until I purchased kayak in March 2014, and have since been blown away by the amazing fishing at Pickwick and Wilson (I was even lucky enough to visit Lanier, too). Currently, I fish 4 to 6 days a week, mostly on Pickwick, always from my kayak. If you see a guy sitting in a 'yak in front of 7-mile island, it's probably me. I love digging through the forums and reading all the great info and stories, and hopefully can contribute to the discussion of this wonderful sport. I'd especially love to hear from or read about any TVA lake anglers and kayakers. Cheers, y'all.

April through early July was excellent fishing for me on Pickwick. The last 4 weeks have been much more challenging but I'm noticing some bigger bass are starting to move into shallow places for the first time since Spring. There's still plenty of Summer heat on the way so I'm curious to see how the fish behave.