SWVABass

@Darth-Baiter unfortunately I have to very a short stretch to get out of the garage and to the jeep other than that not really. Try to avoid it as much as possible. Hence why I was looking for an idea for a homemade cart. Most of the lakes around me have a launch where I don’t have to pull it on the hard stuff. @Koz thanks for the tip!

@casts_by_fly I have a hobie pro angler. Fully rigged I toils say somewhere in the 170ish range. Not looking to make one for long hauls but tired of dragging it across concrete and such.

Has anyone built their own kart for moving their yak? I don’t want to spend the roughly 300 for one from hobie or the other after market folks. If you have what did you use to build it? Thanks for any info!

@Robnkey to be a boater on the Toyota series is a huge investment. If it were me I would fish a couple of different BFL circuits to learn the lakes and such. Once your comfortable with that take the next step. Johnson city is a close drive to Douglas and Cherokee lakes, both usually have good fishing. Douglas I believe is where true TN river ledge fishing gets started and Cherokee is smallmouth heavy. I had fun fishing both in May. I have not been on watagua or Boone which are a good and a skip from JC. Also right up the river is south Holston which I’ve fished a hand full of times and can’t complain about the fishing there. Heavy smallmouths and plenty of large mouth to go around. Love the weather here deff get all four seasons. Johnson city seems to have more going on than the it’s sister cities but yea no income tax but hell TN loves their sales tax.

Look into the volunteer BFL division. I just started fishing it this year. Seems to pull in about 200 boaters every tournament . All three times o fished they were short on co anglers. I chip in about 40 for their fuel cost. I’ve had two good draws and one bad. But even he wasn’t horrible just hadn’t kept up with what this fish were doing and wanted to run a dead pattern. Hit me up if you have specific questions. Btw I live on the TN/VA line and I’m about 4 hr drive to all lakes they fish. Where in TN are you moving?

Franco brings up a good point, really the only way to know is trial and error. I simply ask how my boater plans to fish, and will do as @Bluebasser86 said, cut down on multiples and make sure I have a diverse selection to fish.

Same as @softwateronlysaid the mh’s

6’6” med fast - 6.4:1 - 10lb floro cranking 6’6” mh fast - 6.6:1 - 40-60lb braid topwater 7’ mh f 8.1:1 - 40lb braid to leader of your choice trigs and Carolina thats how I would get set up if they were mine

This might even help during the prespawn spawn when looking for areas that might be over looked and could be a hidden gem, or for folks new to a body of water too. I don’t think it’s a waste of time at all.

I fished it last year around Abingdon and Mendota in April. Water was up and fast. I fished a tournament and caught some through there. Talking with folks in the summer places will be so low that you will have to wade. also somewhere below saltville is a set of rapids I was advised not to run on a sit on top. If your around Bristol stop by just fishin and talk to those folks. They can deff fill you in more on the river. I do know access to the water is somewhat limited too, maybe they can give you some put in spots. Poppers deff work this time of year

I have thought about the auto inflate and decided against it. I want to know without a doubt that if and when I hit the water I’m going to float. Like @Bankc said things have already gone wrong, I don’t want to rely on something else that has the opportunity to fail as well. I have a NRS Chinook vest, right around the same price point as most inflatables, is it warmer most likely but I dress to fish hot anyways and something designed to save my life is worth that.

When you say Holston are talking about in TN or VA?

I wish I could complain about the heat and fishing. But alas I’m I. The SW dealing with wildfires counting down the days to go home and spend time with the family and if I have a moment maybe wet a line. If given that opportunity heat wind rain snow or sleet won’t stop me. But lightning and my family’s sad eyes will!!!

MLF BFL’s don’t have any limit. But more than 6 to me is over kill

@scaleface you bring up a good point. From now I will pick known sandbaggers then if they aren’t my hopes won’t be high at the end of the day

I would start looking in the areas you caught them before the spawn. Middle to the first 1/3 of a cut, secondary and main lake points. If you have shad top water before the sun gets up too.

Well sounds like you had better draws than me. My boater at Douglas said he had a hot top water bite that was lasting all day. Come to find out that pattern was almost a week old. Only had two there and was way down towards the bottom. cherokee I had a much better draw but my boater was honest and said he had not been able to prefish. We started shallow working the shad spawn, had one flop all over my spook but missed it and wouldn’t hit a follow up bait. Ended up cranking up two in 18-20 fow and had one come unbuttoned on a wobble head. Was pretty slow fishing for me. Congrats on cashing a check though!!

I figured with as much rain as we had going into the weekend it would rise, wish it had been full pool two weeks ago ha

Columbia makes some nice slip ones, I wear them in my yak. I did just see grundens (spelling) has come out with a boat shoe as well. Walmart sells “water socks” for cheap as well, wore the hell out of them as a kid.

I would go visit Walmart/hobby lobby/Michaels. They have tons of clear storage bins with no dividers. The one above that @MN Fisher showed you I picked up at Walmart. personally I keep mine in Plano boxes sorted by style/running depth. Then I can grab and go and not need to move baits around. Saves time keeps me organized. BPS sells cheap Plano style boxes

Not sure how the folks in the top 10 caught them. I caught all my fish cranking. I had a poor hook set on a wobble head with a tube. Pretty sure it was a smallmouth. Also had a good fish swipe at my spook first thing during the shad spawn that morning but missed.

I’ve been fortunate as a high schooler to fish Champlain, 1000 Islands and Lake Ontario in June was absolutely amazing. my dreams- to fish South America from the mountains to the ocean for anything and everything that swims. I would love to go to Australia and fish there as well while touring the country. I want to take two weeks and inshore fish the keys from my kayak. I’ve had a couple one day outings but I want to put serious time in there. I want to go to my grandma’s home country and experience European fishing as well and make a short hop to experience fly fishing in Ireland.

Feel for this kids family, it’s sad that this happened. Thoughts any prayers to those affected.

Sweet, well sounds like I just need to go ahead and sign up for that BFL then. The non-boater success level had me really thinking hard about not fishing it. Though I have out fished my boaters in all but one tourney this year. Was one poor hook set away from a check at Cherokee last weekend.

I was wondering how tough it could. Seems like the past results show non boaters in the mid twenties only catching one fish. I’ve read about the grass, is it still recovering/expanding or does TVA still try to kill it off?