TnRiver46

Congrats! I love watts bar. I got a big walleye there Sunday

Nice one!!

Hahaha! The one I lost was a storm twitch stick

When they are strung literally all the way across the TN river just before dark and I’m hugging the bank at idle speed trying to avoid them and one is amongst all the bushes, I have to almost hit them. It happens every Wednesday spring summer and fall. My boat goes 25 mph max, I think you’ll be alright. I’m not the guy that’s going to run you over , see picture of orange boat in trees above

So many rules.......and rounds....... and talk of rules and rounds........

I loooove fishing through mascot . We used to drop canoes in at Clift Rd and float to Asheville highway before there was a ramp at the bridge. Tough drag up that hill! I used to launch my shallow boat there but broke a trailer wheel.

Be ready for crowds. Right now the shallower the better and rattle trap seems to be king. This could all change by April, right now there 100,000 cfs flowing through it and it's muddy. Again, crowds. Be prepared for thst, I have never seen anything like it. There's a lot of folks that live on or near that lake that won't even fish it

Sounds like a largemouth! They have red eyes sometimes . There's also a rock bass (ambloplites rupestris) that people call red-eye but gets nowhere near 4 lbs. Then there is the true redeye bass (micropterus coosae) that only exits in and around the coosa river watershed, but it also wouldn't be 4 lbs and lives nowhere near Ohio

I have seen that lake, some competitors might get lost!

Always remember: you are armed at the very least with a paddle!

I too prefer my canoe to my kayak. Unless it's super windy

Well buying stuff is never better than fishing but maybe the tournament and weigh in will be worth the drive!

Yeah man! I can hopefully answer any questions you might have. Most of the guys/girls I graduated UT with work for the state or the fed. Lots of game wardens, a handful that deal with nuisance animals for Uncle Sam (airports, dams, etc), one that deals with fire management at a refuge in FLA, one who is still a top notch carpenter (he did this all through school to pay tuition), one that works for TVA, one that works for UPS, and 6-8 out of the 25 that I graduated with I don’t really know what they are up to (no Facebook haha). Most of the jobs in wildlife/fisheries don’t pay well but they won’t let you starve either. Several of The guys, law enforcement, can work private security as well. A side job isn’t 100% necessary but most of us seem to have one

Tube, grub, pop r, worm, spook, rattle trap, buzzbait, swim jig, fluke, senko, frog........ those boogers eat anything!

Congrats!

I’ve never got a striper from a kayak but my cousin has and it was 42 lbs!!!! Looked like a farm pig . I also have another buddy that catches them from a gheenoe. That has to be awesome. Like water skiing without gasoline. The biggest striper I have caught was in kayak type water in shoals. I hooked it in a 14 foot v bottom and went for a ride!

Yet smallest in size. Oh the irony........

My boat at idle will certainly not pass a kayaker paddling. I know this very well because I join a big float group on Sundays in summer with my motor boat if i don't have time to run shuttle. When all my buddies launch and start paddling, I can't keep up unless I give it some gas. I have a 50 horse that idles about 1.7-1.9 mph on calm water. The scenario @Log Catcher presented happens literally every time I try to pass one. I just have to laugh at the fact i can't idle faster than a canoe or kayak and hammer down . Where as when I'm the guy in the canoe or kayak, I pull over out of the way and wave hello. Once again, a little logic goes a long way. there a law that says pedestrians have the right of way but I don't walk in front of dump trucks

Update: nuisance wildlife control not so fun today. I stink.........bad.......

There's a lot of days on chickamauga guntersville wheeler Wilson Pickwick and Kentucky lake where it's not safe to drive my 18 ft center console. The moral of the story is use good judgement. Don't fish where you might die . I've had a friend/coworker drown while kayaking and I have lots of buddies that work for the state and they don't enjoy having to tell your mother what happened. That is after they spent a week or more trying to find your carcass

I do! Not flies but they would be without the jig head . I them on a 6 weight once, got the pump knot to prove it

An encounter with the sheriff is a very good ending compared to what happens about 20 times a year on my local water.

Sounds like we need to organize a BR campfire Riverside catfish meet up/fish fry.

Haha gotcha. I need to keep up with the latest lingo

I have boats and kayaks. I have accidentally almost hit a kayaker a time or twelve while driving a boat. I have never even come close to getting hit or in an altercation when I was in my kayak. Some folks just don't understand how to fish and where to drive which boats. If someone in a bass boat tells a kayaker they don't belong on an offshore ledge on the TN river, the bass boater isn't being mean . He is trying to save the kayakers life. We have double decker party yachts, paddle wheel dinner cruises, 20 something year olds running wake boats into the tops of living trees (that happened last year, I think a girl died) barges carrying massive loads and bass boats capable of 90 mph. If theres anyone's opinion that is worth it's weight in this thread, I'm siding with the retired coast guard man who fishes from a canoe as well as a 55 mph boat . I have the right to ride a bicycle on the interstate but that doesnt mean I should