TnRiver46

I have a picture of a finger on the rotor with a lipped fish somewhere........ found it! i always feel like I’m flipping the camera off but it works

If you are worried about drag on the spinning reel, click it over to backreel and fight the fish that way. When smallmouth finesse fishing I set the hook and hold what I’ve got to determine the size of the fish. If it feels big I click over to backreel because those deep water smallmouth will dive down hard every time it’s easier to handle them with the reel. I had never heard of backreeling until 5-6 years ago and the first time I tried it, it felt completely normal. Not really something I had to get used to except for: don’t let go of the reel handle at any moment, especially when boat flipping .

I think I’ve head horse creek (?) Marina is a good spot

Nice fish! I wish there were lily pads in my neck of the woods....... looks fun

Bass are good at spitting treble hooks! You’ll get em one of these days.

Thanks for the update

Never hook them in the first place! Sorry I couldn't resist . Putting your rod tip under water is all you can do. There is no sure fire way to "prevent" them from jumping, all you can do is keep the rod down and hope

I sweat through my pants and boots from 8-5 at work so I wear shorts and flip flops to fish from 5-9. Sunscreen never bothered me. When it gets to mid September the evening mosquitos are too bad for shorts so I leave my work pants on which are hand me down BDU from my game warden buddies pictured here (shameless excuse to show off big rockfish picture)

I would put a spoon on the other

"cold" front.... Hehehe

Most consider it in the southeast . I've also heard it called "mid south" as opposed to the "deep South." The university of Tennessee has played football in a conference with the name "south" somewhere in it since 1896. A school we have competed against in the same conference since that time is Auburn , whose mascot in addition to a tiger is a "was eagle." This is where @Tennessee Boy and I get our disdain for the name of the fishing lures, a rivalry dating back to the late 1800s..... Football is kind of important in the south, not sure if you've heard. Where Tennessee's identity in the "south" got confusing was during the civil war. They say our state was almost divided half and half with some young men fighting for the Union and some for the Confederacy. There were truly some families that had brothers on each side of the battles. As far as Maryland goes, I believe it was considered in the south when they decided to make the national capital in Washington DC

Agree on the name! But I do have one somewhere I hate a spinnerbait so bad it makes me mad just thinking about one. Yes I know they work but not during the countless hours I've thrown them

Mister twister zoom and kalins. White pearl and watermelon

You beat me to it. That’s the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the picture of that box

The entire state of Tennessee only has one natural lake so I really never fish anything BUT current . Even the cow ponds have some flow here! Fish tend to face upstream and wait on food to come their way. I don’t like for them to see me, so I usually cast upriver if I’m wading shallow water. If im floating downstream in shallow water I like to cast downstream (most consider this sacrilegious) or directly across, trying to get the bait to a fish that hasn’t yet seen me. Deep current, like the TN river, the fish usually can’t see me, especially the ones on the bottom. When it’s raging fast they tuck up against the bank or behind rock shelves. When it’s slower they spread out and get a little tricky but still eat.

In my area (only 4 hrs south of Cincinnati) the river smallmouth seem to bite best during the middle of the day, especially on topwaters. I don’t know why but they do so I don’t question them. And yes there will be fish between the two dams. Your first season of fishing in 40 years and you are successful with a whopper plopper? I’ve been fishing 30+ years non-stop and I still can’t catch a fish on that thing

Paddle tail swim bait

My buddy also got a 6 lb hybrid in some shoals the day before

Got a 42 or 43 inch river monster. Hard to measure those things . It was jumping like a swordfish boatside and taking the canoe all over the place

Awesome man! Thanks. We knew they were locked in somehow

We cut the heads off easily with angle grinder but they won't knock out . The second picture down is the rivets after we chiseled the wood away and cut the heads off

@Turkey sandwich, will you come fish out of my boat for a weekend?? Haha! Excellent analysis, I could learn a lot.

Only from the crappie fisherman that complain in winter when those big brown bass snap their bobber leaders! Haha

Awesome!!! Glad they turned on