TnRiver46

I cast net bait and fish it all the time. People that say live bait fishing is boring and just sitting around waiting have never tried cast net and pitching shad. Its everything BUT boring and there is no waiting involved

Good gracious those are fat smallmouth! Watts bar is clearish right now but it can be a mud hole when it’s rainy. And it’s never as clear as the tributary lakes. South holston and watauga are almost always clear like DH. Norris is another good one like DH

Funny timing on this thread, I bought some larger tube jigs yesterday for tossing into heavy milfoil around docks for some bigger largemouth. Launch the boat after work and head to that area, immediately start catching tiny smallmouth and spotted bass, go figure. We have them about anywhere, the ones in the areas with current (even massive reservoirs with current) behave differently than the ones in the deeper tributary reservoirs that don’t move as fast. The slow water spots follow baitfish in open water. The fast water spots eat everything they see and like heavy cover . The ones in the Alabama river down south are like 3-4 lb piranhas that cross bred with the tazmanian devil. When you get on a school of these, your hands will be ripped up and it’s definitely something to “write home about” (do people still say that)? Since you’re in Cali I would follow the advice of @NorcalBassin who always posts pictures of nice spotted bass on here. I’m guessing you are chasing them in deep clear lakes??

That certainly seems to be the case, those northern SMB are way fatter. If you fish TN for throphies, go from dec- Feb and dont forget Pickwick

Watts bar is a great spot for them, theres also some great big ones in watauga and south holston .

I would rather dead stick a senko than cast and reel crankbaits and spinnerbaits, some people like to fish slow. Jordan Lee won the bass master classic skipping one weightless under docks on Hartwell so i wouldnt call it inefficient. He won the previous one slow dragging a jig, letting it soak for quite some time. I would consider driving around casting and reeling more inefficient than soaking a worm, to each his own

Ironically, our very own @Bluebasser86 recently uploaded a video using a blue texas rig. He throws a lot of blue vibrating jigs too

Ive got it bad! Cant wait til quitting time

Thats the secret that reel manufacturers dont want to get out! Ive had different experience than most of the other responses, ive never spent over $80 on a reel and all but one of my baitcasters are pre 1990. I dont treat them well either, they all live outdoors.

I just use whatever worm is ripped up and laying on the floor of the boat. I feel the chattering is more important than the trailer

Don’t know much about KY but from what I hear Cumberland and laurel are good spots. Fort Loudon where they just had the bassmaster Classic this year is full of smallies but then again I guess every lake in east and middle Tennessee is full of them. I don’t fish topwater much in November but I bet it would work. October is usually still hot so topwater would better in that month I would think. Our lakes fall fast that time of year (except the main river lakes) so the smallies like to suspend a bit offshore and follow shad

Round ball jig head and curly tail grub .

I grew up next to a field like that. Shew buddy you could smell it at the gas station, the school, and the church! Haha all about 1-2 miles away

I’ve launched myself into the water hitting them with the trolling motor. I was standing up there looking over the edge for stumps! Haha. I’ve also wedged my boat on top of them where it took several minutes to spin off. The simple answer to your question is “very slowly and carefully.”

Nice fish! My girlfriend can’t tell a largemouth from a smallmouth. Normally I can’t understand why but those two fish make me understand. Let’s see a pic of this jig/spinner. Like an under spin?

@keagbassr, you are a machine.

Funny you would say that, the stench stays in leather longest when one fires off. My boots, belt, and wallet always smell the worst. Ive had to replace a lot of wallets! Already caught one skunk so far this morning, he's riding around town with me calmly so far

In my line of work, dead skunk smells like cash money!

Nice fish and cool video! That boat extraction was wizardry haha! I’ve tried that with regular bunks and no dock before, no bueno. We don’t have many floating docks at our ramps because of the massive water level fluctuations . There’s a few of them they attempted to build still drifting around out there somewhere ......

Got the top one with a popping frog in milfoil, fun fun