TnRiver46

Didn’t you say you were moving to Douglas lake? I feel like I should warn you of constant wake boat traffic with crazy loud music. Sometimes on a weeknight well after dark! But it does all stop for the most part when they drop the lake starting in September

I usually listen to music while fishing, unless I forget my Bluetooth speaker. One time late in the evening a boat kept drifting closer and closer to me so I turned down the volume and asked the guy if he was having any luck fishing. He said "no, I was just trying to listen to that solid country gold you had playing!" I will turn down any music except for Willie Nelson. Them's fightin' words!!!!!!

Yes! Right in the teeth!!! But in all seriousness I fish around gators yearly in south Alabama and never had any trouble. Just keep minding your own business and you should be fine. As long as you don’t have a small dog with you, things seem to work out OK

Go bungles!!! Yes I’m a glutton for punishment. I like the titans as well but they weren’t around when I was young so the Bengals were my first love

I never catch crap on a full moon, probably because I fish in the day. Although it looked close to full last night and I did ok.

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/fish_parasites.html turns out bass resource has a good article on the worms sometimes found in bass. In my area the fish with the most parasites come from remote clear cool water fisheries and are mostly in smallmouth. Therefore I don’t feel like the temperature of the particular body of water is a contributing factor. More likely that , as with most parasites and larvae, they are just more prevelant in summer than winter. The parasite’s life cycle is extremely complex and involves certain species of snails and fish eating birds.

Found the white bass schooling good on surface, kept 8 and released several. Got some bonus fish, one small blue cat (on ice) and 3-4 short largemouth. Mosquitos got intense after dark so the catfishing grinded to a halt (not that it was working all that well anyhow)

We eat the bass we catch in a muddy swamp in south Alabama from 90 degree water, flaky firm delicious white meat. A lot of misinformation on this thread. Then again if you asked 30 people if bananas taste good you would get varied responses

Check out tva.gov , select a lake and click operating guide. It will tell you exsct yearly elevation and flow for each one . I believe most would consider Douglas better for fishing than tellico. The crowds will back me up on that, there can be several hundred bass boats on Douglas at any time and the amount of crappie fisherman there is a sight to behold

@BassNJake...... whoa! Is that up the Powell?

I don’t keep a boat there ever except kayaks laying up on dry land. The boat traffic will beat a boat to death if you don’t have a lift, which I don’t. My boat slip dries up in winter but there is still water close to end of the dock. I might could keep a boat tied up on a long rope in winter but The water can fluctuate several inches each day so I don’t risk dry docking it. Tellico is more of a pleasure boat lake with some fishermen. Tellico village is the most popular (and massive) retirement community on the lake

Awesome!

I don’t really want to follow up that beast of a sheepshead but somebody has to do it. My girlfriend’s mother loves catfish and we are headed up to their house next week so I’ve been trying to stock up. Thought about going fishing tonight but most of my friends were wanting to hang out at the local watering hole. Oh well, one night no fishing is ok. But alas! The watering hole is only 50-75 yards from the river so I set some hillbilly hand lines tied to a sunken dock and somehow we got one! Small frozen gizzard shad baits, actually had one line dragged up river but snagged and broke off

Well Boone is down 30 feet for a leaky dam and has been for years. Might get a killer deal! Haha I have a house on tellico, they only drop it 5-6 feet. It's connected to fort Loudoun via canal so it's levels are identical. Also, the winter drawdowns are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing but the fishing is better . The tricky part about it is a boat dock.

I've cut open some big rainbow trout that were bursting with insects. If they eat thousands of them it adds up. The thing a fish likes to eat the most is what's readily available the most often. The can't go into a store and pick what they want

Usually it's deepest where the water is slowest. Are there any other people where you are fishing?

There’s a whole bunch of lakes just like you described in E TN. Like probably 12-15! They only draw down the Tennessee River lakes 5-8 feet in winter, they draw down the tributaries 30+\- feet for flood control (it rains A LOT) so lake front property may be thick mud front property for 8 months out of the year. Also the tributary lakes are drawn down starting sept 1 and the main river doesn’t go down until December 1. Good smallie lakes: south holston, watauga, Norris Cherokee, fort Loudoun, tellico, portions of Douglas, Boone, Melton hill, watts bar, portions of chickamauga. These are all big rivers with dams but there’s a ton of smaller free flowing rivers with big smallmouth as well. Then in you include the cumberland plateau you have center hill, dale hollow, Tim’s ford ..... there’s a lot of water and a lot of smallmouth. You may want to choose which lake to live on based on other factors like proximity to town, weather, etc. some places are quite remote with crazy weather

I watched a little bit of the live. I saw Scott Martin catch a big chain pickerel or something like one on a jointed swimbait

Even my fat arse eats some popcorn every once in a while

The struggle is real! Like 20 years real. I’ve had a 5 year old outfish me severely with a spinnerbait. No joke

I know what to do with a spinner bait! Just keep walking by when you see them for sale and give away any that you already have

Kind of like bear hunting: sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you........ Ok maybe a little better than bear hunting

Too much rib cage and not enough meat! Willing biters though, would be great for kids