Bronzefly

Nice fish! I had no idea that there were smallies in Hawaii???

I like zoom and gitzit tubes as well - green pumpkin seems to be a great all around color. I like mine on a tube jig head. Winter time seems to be the best time for me...

I love the crazy shad, but the splash tail has been a great producer for me. I've always worked it around cover with sharp twitches and long pauses with good success.

I like my Loomis BSR 852 GLX - it's super sensitive and a blast to catch smallies on. I also really love my SJR 722 GLX, too!

If you have a BPS around, I'd suggest some 8lb XPS FC line. Its a quality FC at an affordable price. Second choice would be some Berkley 100% FC - NOT VANISH - it stinks, but the new Berkley 100% - Either will be good line for your purposes.

Check out www.***.com - Great customer service and a nice selection.

hot summer nights can be fun with poppers, too!

MB visions, pointers, and rogues - there's one for every occasion!

Great story - and heck, whatever gets 'em to bite! I have some big pink spinnerbaits with pink blades, but it really makes those smallies mad sometimes!

I like norman deep little n's - they seem to be good cranks for smallies in the fall and spring.

I like the 1/4 oz jigs I make in the winter time and 3/4 oz football jigs I make in summer! Natural craw colors and watermelon/green pumpkin.

I thought lifting your rod forcefully was synonymous with setting the hook ;D Just kidding, that's a great tip!

It's really bad here in TN as well - especially below the dams...

today in TN qualified as crappy weather, and the smallmouth were very active, no doubt. no giants, but several quality fish - spitting snow, ice, sleet, and sometimes rain - wind chills in the 20's due to 15-20mph winds... perfect smallie weather

fly n' rind is different than pig n jig in my book, so I voted other!!

Yeah - I just received one of those, too. I marked "refused" on the front and gave it back to the postal worker. Too bad they're doing that, but I guess enough guys decide to pay for it to make it worthwile...

From Spring City to the fork of the river - all good stuff. You'll definitely find them that time of year! Good luck to you.

Yes - Watts Bar does have some very nice bronzebacks. They can be very difficult to locate at times, but you're going to be hitting at a pretty good time. I'd check out the mid-lake area and target primary and secondary points with a vareity of presentations until you find what they're looking for - You may run into some nice big green fish, too! Good Luck.

I fish Norris, Cherokee, and Dale Hollow specifically for smallies in the fall. My "trigger" for the most aggressive SMB action is 60 degrees. They can be much more finicky for me, but still catchable in the 63 to 68 range. I love the aggressive topwater :-X and shallow jerkbait : bite around 60 in the deep clear waters around here. Still wanting to make a trip up to the South Holston this fall - anyone who knows it want to take a fellow out there??? ;D

For me, so much of that depends on the water temperature and clarity. I have had success on deep clear lakes with the Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20 series, usually in the more "natural" colors. They have a slightly more slender profile than a Norman DD 22 and a much different action and sound that smallmouth seem to prefer. Another very nice deep crank is the Megabass Deep X-100. It is a smaller target and has fantastic action. They both have produced well on lakes like Dale Hollow, Cherokee, and Center Hill especially in the spring and fall. In summertime, I rarely target smallies with a deep running crank - but have caught them on Mann's 30+ cranks while looking for big Largemouth. Good luck!

Tru-Tungsten makes some very nice jigs that can give you some added weight without added bulk. I use them in many East TN rivers with current where there are some big bruiser smallies with excellent results. I've gone up to 3/4 oz. in swift water situations when fishing eddies and shoals. Dont know exactly how much or how little current you're dealing with, but the tungsten does offer a fantastic solution when you want to maintain a smaller size and still fish current!

Try to "wake" a smallish floating jerk bait - maybe a rapala jointed. If you like surface action, that would be GREAT. Also, try a 1/4 oz. Excalibur Zell Pop. Works great on clear water smallies!

Roadwarrior - I'm with you - "paper tournaments" would be great. I've seen so many beautiful smallies wasted after being taken from deep waters in summertime tournaments by idiots who have no idea how to properly care for their fish. Unfortunately, I've met far too many tournament anglers who don't care if the fish live past the time they weigh them in... With regard to the proposal, as an AVID Tennessee smallmouth angler, I do support TWRA in this venture. Hopefully it will cut down on the number of smallies killed in tournaments or used for "table fare" - :'( which of course, I can't comprehend. I do fish tournaments myself and often target smallies - so this is a double edged sword for me - but overall, I do think that it is a step in the right direction as far as improving the smallmouth fisheries in Tennessee. Now if we could just get TWRA to QUIT STOCKING NON-NATIVE SPECIES like Stripers into our waterways, that would be something!!