TnRiver46

Well, how fast can you run hurdles??

As useful as the Google machine can be, I prefer talking directly to individuals with real life experience. There’s a lot of misleading info out there now if google takes you to bassresource.com, you’ve done it right!

His gas motor died and he trolled nine miles with a lead acid battery 12v troller

Sorry just now seeing this and I would guess you are correct, northern banded water snake (nerodia spp.)

The mesh is to breathe

Wow!

Oh man, sending our condolences your way. Good boy Teddy

The legal limit on walleye is 16” so it was that walleye’s lucky day. Water temp 66-67, making a cool looking fog

I don’t even like traveling 1 hour away, I hope I never see Japan haha

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Them biguns just know how to get away the typical knee jerk reaction is to claim the brand of hook/rod you were using was garbage and never buy that brand again. I prefer blaming the weather!

No I’m in TN, mostly very small streams choked out with rhododendron so rod is typically not super important because you are usually fishing very close quarters and not casting far

June bug is what I always call purple

That should be normal , although a doozy can turn it to chocolate for about a day (the river that is). Fontana stays clear no matter what

When is this fishing going down?

I’ve never actually fished the sections of river in question so I’m far from the authority on the subject. Finesse worm Rigged somehow weedless would be excellent about anywhere though

Drag a tube/grub along while the wind blows you around, it should end up in a smallmouth at some point ! I always like fishing rock cliffs when casting for smallmouth

Spankey back in the shallow water game!!!!

Now they say the big G has too much grass, I say hogwash! I love fishing milfoil

There are companies around here that will kill it for hire, maybe there’s some in your area. They are very legit with all their govt permits because bass fishermen have been trying to shut them down forever

Red cranks were working over the weekend, trolling

I should add, I forgot where you are coming from. An 18” smallmouth around here is typically 2.75 maybe three pounds (with occasional outliers on either side of course). A 20” has a decent chance at touching 4 lbs. Up north those length fish are going to weigh a lot more , I’ve seen an 18” 5 lb smallmouth from somewhere in the Midwest (forgot the location)

I just throw them at the wall and see if they stick

That’s wild, my river is 67 degrees

I’ve always heard about the tuck in reference to trout but 16-20 inch smallies are not uncommon anywhere around here. 8lbers only occur in a place or 3 and I wouldn’t imagine that’s one of them. Then again being connected to the big lake it’s always possible so they can make that claim I suppose. I would expect a lot of aggressive bites from river smallies in summertime but size is typically a wild card. You can usually count on a few shots at a nice fish but sometimes they jump off or break your heart one way or another.