JDHoss

Never fished SoHo, and only Watauga that one time. Loved Cherokee and Douglas, although it was a pretty good haul to Douglas.

You fish the Tamiami any? We went on a February day in 2022 that was supposed to be partly cloudy and in the mid 70s, but turned out to be cloudy, upper 60s and windy.

Only been to Watauga once, with a couple of friends to walleye fish. We were going to night fish, but got out on the lake about an hour or so before sunset, so we did some bass fishing. I was fishing a blue & white spinnerbait, which they told me was useless on Watauga. I proceeded to catch 4 keeper size largemouth, including a 4.5 pounder, and a 3 lb smallmouth. When the sun set, we walleye fished up until around 2AM and one of my friends caught a nice 8 lb walleye, but it was the only fish we had, and d**n near froze to death. It was in the low 70 when we hit the lake, and in the upper 30s when we finished. Watauga is a nice lake, and very clean, but it's a good haul from Kingsport when Boone, Patrick Henry and Cherokee are much quicker to get to.

Can't stress this enough, especially if you are bank fishing with water in front and behind you. There's a canal in the Indrio Preserve in St Lucie Co I fish that also has water behind it. I keep my head on a swivel there.

Grew up fishing the Powell, Clinch and North Fork as a youngster and young adult from their headwaters to the TN line. A 2 inch Rapala, Rooster tail, Panther Martin, a "flat" lure like a Lazy Ike, and a couple of top water lures like a Tiny Torpedo and Crazy Crawler were pretty much what I carried in my small tackle box. In fact, I used that Heddon Crazy Crawler to catch a 3 1/2 lb smallmouth on the Powell River just below the 58 bridge in Dryden. I tossed it into an eddy created by a large fallen tree at the edge of some shoals, and as soon as it hit the water it was like a grenade went off. I'm an old retired man now, but I can still see that fish taking flight in those shoals and my dad watching with his jaw dropped and eyes wide. Those were the best of times.

Personally, I'm not opposed to catching any type of fish. The most fun I've ever had in a day of fishing was sometime in the 1970s during a locust hatch. My dad and I were fishing on Cherokee Lake in East TN and we were catching carp on topwater plugs one after the other. Many of them were in the 5-10 lb range too. We caught a few bass (smallies and largemouth), but the carp were everywhere scarfing up the newly hatched locusts. It was nonstop action.

You may already know about it, but this place is pretty good... https://bayouboysjctn.com/

Good point about the flooding possibilities, and if you're wading, it's a good idea to check the TVA generation schedule. https://www.tva.com/environment/lake-levels Always check the weather forecast too. I took a float trip on the Clinch in Virginia back in the day before we had the internet. The radio said there was a 40% chance of storms, but we got an absolute monster of a storm that dumped around 3" of rain in a short amount of time. It was really scary as we had to find a spot where we could land the boat and get it up out of the water before we got swamped.

I grew up and lived in the region for 58 years before retiring to Florida. There's lots of lakes, but obviously you need a boat to fish. You could use a kayak, but there's a ton of boats on the lakes at any given time. There are some excellent rivers to wade fish for smallmouth though. Closest to JC is the Nolichucky in Unicoi. Other good nearby rivers with smallmouth action include the Holston river in Sullivan and Hawkins counties, North Fork of the Holston in Scott and Washington counties of Virginia and the New River in Grayson, Pulaski and Giles counties in VA.

Absolutely. My dad had a friend who lived in Clewiston that we'd visit some when I was a teenager. I've seen big gators in the water and around our boat, but as a teenager, I thought it was awesome. Now as an old, retired man sitting on a kayak 6-8 inches above the water, it's pretty nerve wracking, even with the outriggers.

I was fishing off of 41, past the Miccosukee village area and just past the loop road turn. I'm looking forward to getting back out there once things cool down. I did see a guy fishing out of a kayak just to the east of the village. I have a 10 ft Pelican sit on kayak w/stabilizers, but I'm a little skittish about getting out there in that vs just bank fishing.

The two strikes I had were around a culvert pipe a few miles past the reservation stores and gas station. The area looked like it was heavily fished, due to the amount of trash left on the ground. I hate people sometimes...? Yeah, the NWS website had the area with a high of 76 and sunny that day. Instead, we had a high of 68, mostly cloudy and a steady 10+ MPH wind. It was downright cold.

I'm going to make an effort to fish the opposite bank from 41 next time because it had way more access.

Any advice for fishing the Tamiami canal coming in from the Miami side? I live in Fort Pierce, and drove down one day last February to do some bank fishing. It was abnormally cool and windy after a forecast high of 76, so I didn't have much action. I fished all the way out past the Miccosukee reservation with only a couple of strikes, using flukes and small crankbaits. I'd like to go back down when things cool down a little maybe in November. I came back up 27 to Belle Glade and stopped at Holey Land and threw a few, but no luck there either.

My favorites in TN and VA.... VA: Buggs Island/Kerr, Gaston and South Holston (VA/TN water) TN: Watts Bar, Douglas & Cherokee.