TnRiver46

Interesting. Unfortunately I think the answer to your last question is yes

Ouch! Registration (taxes) is enough of a pain. Thankfully I’m old enough to where I didn’t have to take the class, although I’m sure it couldn’t hurt. I’m one of the lucky people on this planet that has been driving a boat since I was about 7 yrs old. I would recommend taking the plunge but I totally understand that it’s not in the cards right now. Plenty of fish to be caught from the bank or wading

I think y'all need one with metal pontoons and a 90 horsepower!!! All kinds of fun.

Hahaha. Pontoon boat!!

Canoe!

15 lb 2 oz from chickamauga. We have the world record smallmouth and walleye

On mine the 2d is called sensitivity and the 3d is called contrast.

I’m sure you are familiar with the yellow eagle claw fly rods, they are pretty durable and the flex of the glass allows you to play big fish without breaking the line. I never get the fish on the reel when Fly Fishing unless it’s for a brief second When a fish takes all the spare lack. If you can keep a clean enough boat (which i can’t) you can leave enough line laying around to play a large fish without the reel. Although I sometimes imagine my feet getting lassoed and a Striper dragging me overboard. I always keep the drag super loose in case a fish makes a long run and use my pinky as a brake when stripping off line quickly to make longer casts.

From my experience the smaller the hook the better. Yes bass gear with land them just fine, keep the drag loose

I love watching them jump! Thanks for the post

Carp are waaaaay too smart for a fish that hardly anyone targets. They get huge by eating tons microscopic stuff. Where I live your best bet is to get them around a marina where people feed them. They also hang out right under trees and eat berries and seeds that fall off, you know a fish is weird when it’s consistently eating carbs. Fly Fishing and Fishing with sweet corn/berry/oatmeal type baits seems to be most effective if not bread Fishing around a Marina or dock

I was going to reply but @mrmacwvu1 pretty much covered it all. To get started with inline spinner, just buy some panther martins and start throwing them. As long as the blade is spinning trout will eat it

Sounds like a blast

That’s a sweet boat and a sweet Fishing spot!! Wish we had some lily pads in East Tennessee

Congrats!!!! Is that a spot in your left hand on the last picture?

Things that go bump in the night keep me safely locked up at home all night! I’ll get frogs out of pond after dark but a big stumpy reservoir seems too much for my scaredy cat rear end

Well the mechanic has found me a lower unit! fingers crossed...........

@Catt, no way in this lifetime I’m going out on your 120,000 acre mosquito infested stump field in the dark!!! Bluuuuuh. Forgot to comment on the OPs question about the wind. I have 2-3 different ways I like to deal with it depending on what kind of area I’m fishing. When I was in Michigan fishing for a week, the wind blew hard every day after lunch and I had a kayak to fish out of. The lake I fished seemed to have grass everywhere I could find within paddle range so I would just cast the worm out, let it settle into the grass and let the wind and waves blow the kayak. The lure was constantly jumping ripping out of grass and falling back into it, and the fish were eating it. Another way is to just position yourself with the wind directly at your back, if possible. If you can combine the wind at your back and parallel a bank, you will have good feel of your bait

Sounds like Mother Nature just carrying out some of her cyclical variations. 5 -6 years from now you may be wondering why the largemouth fell off and the smallmouth increased. And you will probably never know the true cause/effect, in which case we blame the weather

Mine does

I go with a $30-$50 fly rod and $20 Fly reel. I ain’t catching any pike and musky though haha. The Fly line is usually one of the most expensive parts of my setup. That and the waders.....

Nice fish @N Florida Mike, looks a bit windy on the Home waters

Water water everywhere. Since we don’t have true “lakes” our water doesn’t warm up quite so fast. Some smaller rivers without dams can warm up quickly but nothing like what seems to happen in natural lake country. From the perspective of someone who has only fished the top half of the USA a handful of times, I have noticed one thing. That long period of cold water makes those fish feed with reckless abandon when it’s warm. Our southern fish gorge all winter on shad so they can ignore a fishing lure whenever they want. I’ve even had tough days in perfect conditions with big live shad. I still wouldn’t trade it for that icy cold weather though

When I read this thread title I thought “this is impossible.” But then I read that you catch fish with trick worms which I would consider a stickbait (in fact I would consider it the best lure ever). The muddy water shouldnt have any effect on them biting a trick worm over a Senko in my opinion. a lot of the places i fish are gin clear and highly pressured so the slow fall of a thinner worm is very effective

Hahahah. Exactly