AlabamaSpothunter

Love mine, and it puts a whole new meaning on the term silky smooth.

Yeah I do remember that, losing them right by the kayak is vastly more gut wrenching like yours. Yours were all but caught fish. I don't think the crankbait fish ever got hooked, it happened so fast. And the other one was still a bit away, far enough that I hadn't reached for the net yet.

Excellent info, thanks to both of you guys for such detailed informative replys. I played with it this afternoon. Yeah I'm gonna need a special setup, or throw it on a saltwater spinning setup I currently have lol. This thing is a real hassle to mess with it. Got it hung trolling the weed lines and deep cover near docks......about had a real bad day until I got it free. I'm on the perfect lake based on your info, however there is just way too many threadfins present right now. Everywhere you look seemingly.

Bump for the OP, and a big thanks to @MN Fisher You nailed it, and having the time work correctly now is so nice. It's the little things that annoy you sometimes.....this has been a dynamite unit, but that was my only complaint.

Sounds beautiful, and I think it's slow fishing for everyone on this forum right now. I know it is for me. Maine sounds like a remarkably beautiful place anytime it's not cold. Wimps like me from the South just can't tolerate snow, and freezing temps. 94 degrees today, just boiling hot, felt temp was close to 100. Almost no wind as well. I finally located and hooked my first big offshore LGM because of my sonar....have enough time to start congratulating myself on accomplishing something I've been trying to do for a few months, and this fish pulled the hook about 10ft from the boat. Had a solid 30-45 seconds of fight in open water, lots of jumps. I'd say it was likely in the 5-6lb range. Big enough to break my heart for sure. Then I tried a RC25 Lucky Craft in bluegill on some flats off the main channel and had another big 5lb+ fish hammer my lure about 2ft from the boat, one of those strikes that happens so close you see it all happen and it scares you a little or surprises you. I'm so mad about that one because I would have finally been able to justify having a hundred or two invested into beautiful looking LuckyCraft baits that I'm usually too afraid to throw when StrikeKing and Rapala baits get the job done ? Then finally right at dark I killed the skunk with a chunky 2lb Spot taken off a Chatterbait. I got a rod for these baits that has changed the whole game for me on them. Went from missing over half my bites, to catching 80-90% of the fish that bite it now. Bird of the day is a Blue Heron. Before TNRiver46 I had no idea the other types of fish eating birds on the lake. Awesome fish brother! Spotted Bass are just so exquisite to look at. That one was frisky enough to have bitten another angler's hook in the past. How can you not love a fish that gives multiple anglers a thrill How did I miss this earlier.....dude that's awesome! What a really nice fish that first one is.....wonder what it weighed?

How cool is that, what a small world it can be. It's a really fun canoe or float trip. Your friend did a great job, very organized and easy to get in and out.

Most excellent, will try that hopefully later today. I know it's getting the GPS fix because of the contour mapping.

Maybe @Chris at Tech can help you. He helped me a lot on my Garmin Striker 9sv. I still can't figure out how to change the darn time for the life of me though on mine ?

Yeah admiring a fellow angler who has figured out a way to make a million dollars in a year doing something we love to do as 5 year olds is weird......why can't these people just worship Lebron or Tom Brady like normal folks

Just wanted to update this thread for those kind enough to weigh in. I tried the main advice here in regards to bobbers, and much lighter jig heads than I was throwing. No dice, tried different colors, sizes, etc. They just won't hit anything else when they are blowing these threadfins up it seems. I get it though, it's hard to express how full this lake is with smaller threadfins right now. What I did find however is that you can catch them occasionally trolling a Chatterbait flashback, and then I think I found a place to catch them Yo Yoing the same bait over a big structure ball in deep water. Caught the only one not trolling by doing this. Who would have thought Crappie were such a formidable foe. Think I'll wait until it cools down, and try to pick them off once they herd up on cover better. Thanks everyone for your help. Learned some new stuff for sure because of it!

Hello friends, during the TW sale I decided to go ahead and buy my first A-rig, but being an idiot I didn't realize they don't come with the actual swim baits or jigheads. I couldn't find anything below 1/8oz for jigheads, and 3.5" is about as small of a swimbait as I could find locally as well. I have a few questions: 1.) Will five 1/8th oz + 3.5" rage swimmers on this "finesse" rig kill the whole point of it being a finesse rig? 2.) To the first point, can I just run the outside 4 swivels with baits, and leave the middle station open to save weight and bulk 3.) Thinking of mainly just trolling this thing in between spots for the most part, is that a bad plan? 4.) Finally, in the pics below, does this look like it's gonna be rigged right based on the one swimbait I've already put on it. This is craziest, and most silly looking thing I've ever attempted to fish with. However, I think my home lake is the perfect for this bait. My only concern is that right now the size of the majority of threadfins are in the 1" range. Thus my questions over the 3.5" swimbaits on a "finesse" designed A rig, and one I intend to fish in a more "finesse" manner.

Dang friend, sorry to hear about the hands. Hopefully the shot works, and you'll be hammering them in no time. Yeah waiting for fun stuff in the mail makes me feel like a petulant child ?

Heck yeah I am brother....spent many of awesome afternoons floating down that sucker in tubes drinking cold ones. I haven't thought about that place since you just said it, now I want to go tubing ?

There is a huge difference b/t the two just based on the different ways you can retrieve a bladed jig. One of the biggest ways to use chatterbaits, is to Yo Yo them, you can't just rip a squarebill, and then let it flutter back down. A bladed jig especially with weedguard is essentially impossible to snag, I can still snag a squarebill with the best of them. Crankbaits run better at specific and designated depths. Both deflect off of cover/structure similarly and create monster bites.

That very cool, and off to the google rabbit hole I go....little Cahaba is 150yds behind my house ? Yeah that's crazy, had no idea they were behind me this whole time... " Alabama (AL), Mississippi (MS) Conasauga – 03150101, Coosawattee – 03150102, Oostanaula – 03150103, Etowah – 03150104, Upper Coosa – 03150105, Middle Coosa – 03150106, Lower Coosa – 03150107, Lower Tallapoosa – 03150110, Cahaba – 03150202, Middle Alabama – 03150203, Lower Alabama – 03150204, Upper Tombigbee – 03160101, Buttahatchee – 03160103, Luxapallila – 03160105, Middle Tombigbee-Lubbub – 03160106, Noxubee – 03160108, Mulberry – 03160109, Locust – 03160111, Upper Black Warrior – 03160112, Lower Black Warrior – 03160113, Middle Tombigbee-Chickasaw – 03160201, Sucarnoochee – 03160202, Lower Tombigbee – 03160203, Mobile Tensaw – 03160204 " Southern Walleye | TNACIFIN | Freshwater Information Network

Lol, if you told me a Loch Ness Monster lived in the TVA waters I'd buy it ? I actually caught a couple of those, I was thrilled. Likely the closest I'll get to catching a Walleye

Never even heard of that fish. Noninvasive hopefully?

Some stupid team owner is going to pay this kid 500mil/10 yr deal based on a true anomaly season. The chances of Judge hitting 60 again is highly unlikely, but you got to love the fact he bet on himself, and he won the mega millions because of it. All that said, the only players I know are/were clean were the ones that played before PPDs existed in the modern form of anabolic steroids. Tatis is a great example of how the top 1% of the game will and is in many cases still using high end boutique steroids, many of which are much harder to detect. Anytime a player hits twice as many HRs almost as the next best HR hitter, you have the question in the back of your head, or at least I do.

My water was 84.5 degrees yesterday, hotter than it's been in 7-10days ? I'm trying to plan a trip and hire a guide mid to late October up there, my best days fishing below the dams for bigger Smallies were always in October. TVA waters are just loaded with fish, all types too. Can't wait to fish it again!

I'm using 15lb PLine ultimate fluorocarbon. I really like it's sensitivity, and it's very abrasion resistant. I'm not ripping grass with them, and want them to run as deep as possible, so 15lb is about the perfect medium for my usage. One thing I've realized with this rod is that angle of attack and the way this rod was designed with larger end foam piece allows you to stick it in your side while retrieving in prep of a strike. Very comfortable rod to set the hook on, unlike a JWR rod that starts to hurt the top of my hand after lots of set hooks. I think a few other chatterbait rods have this end section design. Roland Martin has a great video on this, and some kind of widget he puts on his rods that assist with them. Just google Roland Martin Chatterbait, sure it will pop up. It's a great run down of setup, and how to use them, and when to use different weighted models.

As if we can't already take a guess ?

You the man, you really know nature. Thanks for all the help on the IDs

Edit....my bad I read the title wrong, wrong bait

It's so nice to hear kind words from somebody such as yourself Katie. Everybody likes to be understood in this world, fishing is such an intimate activity the way many of us do it. Thusly, it's hard to share the highs/lows, and beauty that is Bass fishing with anybody but those rare people in this world that "get it" in regard to the pursuit of these magical fish. I love the idea of going for LGM with night crawlers, and I'm envisioning some really nice Maine Bass. That's a great gameplan to me because it's nice to try things you don't have time to do when the bite is on. Good luck, looking forward to some pretty super green lunkers

Go figure I tried to repeat the same formula as last night tonight, same time, same place, same everything.....nothing That said, I didn't fish much after dark because I opted to go at about 4pm thinking I'd fish 50/50 Bass and Crappie. Ended up catching a lot of small Bass, including the smallest one I can remember catching since I was a kid. Caught the most uniquely colored Bass I've personally ever caught. A perfect blend of a smallie and LGM. Biggest fish was under 2lbs, most of the fish were pounders or below. Very unique day for a number of reasons, but catching lots of small fish is very unique for this lake. Caught 4 Species of fish today which was cool. 1. Alabama Bass 2. Largemouth Bass 3. Crappie 4. Rock Bass or Warmouth.....we've always called them Rock Bass mainly, but I think both might be wrong haha Figure as long as my normal routines and honeyholes are lockjaw for the most part, might as well take advantage of the gorgeous weather and fish/wildlife Lastly, if you don't own a Z-Man Chatterbait Flashback Mini - Tackle Warehouse , pick one up. Super cheap at 3-4bucks at comes with an extra swim body. This thing catches more Bass than it does Crappie, but it will essentially catch everything in a lake down south. I can see this being killer for those who pond fish as well. Mine is 1/8th oz in natural Shad color I believe they call it. The big key with this bait I'm finding is that a "Yo Yo" retrieve is irresistible to smaller LGM, Spots, and Crappie. They mainly hit it when you drop it after popping it. Even works trolling as I caught a few, and lost a few moving to spots trolling it. Fishing it over deep structure piles will absolutely produce smiles! Lastly, the bird of the day is........? I love how they all fight for this place. Perhaps just a juvie Blue Heron.