burleytog

I would love to take a guided trip on one of my area lakes, one lake in particular that is about 1000 acres and really spread out (river impoundment). But I don't know of anyone that offers guide service on that lake. I think there are guides on the northeast TN lakes, but I have no idea how to find out (other than ask around at a couple of tackle shops). I've taken one guided fishing trip and it was a trip to the Gulf Stream out of Manteo NC. It was a make-up charter and I didn't know a single person onboard. I enjoyed the experience of being 40 miles from land, but that was about it. If I did take a guided freshwater trip, I would go in order to learn more about bass fishing. I'm not the most adept at any one technique. I would gladly pay $200 or so for a day of teaching. The only problem with that is that the lakes in this area are quite unique (deep, clear water, very little in the way of vegetation, etc.). That doesn't translate well to the lakes in NE TN.

I don't see a map, but I'll offer some tips on lure selection. 3", 4" curly-tail grubs in white and pumpkinseed on 1/8 and 1/4 oz. jigheads. I generally use unpainted. Rebel crawfish work well, other crawfish pattern crankbaits as well. White spinnerbaits (3/8 oz.) with a white grub work well too.

I think you can buy suction cup attachments for pretty much any transducer. But the little PMax10 is a neat package. Very easy to move around. Easy to move around, I regularly take it on my friend's boat so I'll have something to look at in the back of the boat. Two additional tips. Buy a bungee cord long enough to stretch across the bench seat in your boat. Use that to secure the finder to the seat when you're fishing. It it pretty stable, but I like the added security of the cord. Second, buy a small bungee cord to wrap around the fish finder when the transducer is stored in the base. It has a little bracket for the suction cup, but it doesn't do a very good job of holding the cup in. I wrap the small cord around the entire package and it holds everything together quite nicely. It is a nice little package, don't know if you can beat it for $120. Pops, love that tip about the handwarmer. I'll have to give that a try this winter. I was going through a set of batteries every trip back in the spring.

I wonder what it would take to catch a peanut butter fish? A jelly worm? Or maybe some bread senkos. All I know is that I'd sure as hell not be fishing for bass anymore.

True, but why do you not look for it? I've found several lures this summer in the trees along banks. Found a brand new Pop-R in the back of a cove. I figure someone was fishing at night and couldn't spot the dark colored plug in the tree. Talking to the game wardens patrolling yesterday, they had found 5 or 6 almost new baits along the banks just yesterday. Lake is down about 3' and the stuff is everywhere. But if I hang a plug, I'm doing everything possible to retrieve it. Especially if it is a $15 plug. Took on water yesterday retrieving my friend's spinnerbait. Not worth capsizing the boat over a $3 bait, but there is no sense in not trying.

Twice this year I've gotten a dose of the 'hog the ramp' crowd. Both times I've been out with the same friend. Earlier in the summer we went to a 90 acre lake in the next county over. Neither of us had ever been there, but the photos on the state's website looked great (flooded timber, etc). We get there and the bank around the ramp is packed. There's a gramps/granny combo on the dock with their grandkids and they don't even bother to move when I back the boat into the water. My friend had to step over (the dock was about 4' wide) the kids to hold the bow rope. They're fishing in about 2' of water, only fish I could see were 2" bluegills. Fast forward 5 hours. We come in to take out. Granny and gramps are gone, only to be replaced by a man & wife and their two kids. Same thing happened. They didn't bother to move. Dock was so crowded we could barely even get out of the boat. I made sure I banged the boat on the dock a good deal when I was getting out. Then take Sunday evening for example. Nobody at the ramp when we put in. We motor by the ramp about an hour before we take out, just a kid fishing on down the bank, not in the way or anything. We stay near the dam for a while, then come back to the ramp to take out. I notice a bunch of people swimming ON the ramp. I throttle back to idle so I don't cover them up with a wake. They don't even bother to move as I idled up to the dock. So I go get the truck and trailer. As I start to back down the ramp, a family starts walking down the ramp oblivous to me trying to back down the ramp. I set there revving the engine for a bit, that got their attention and they moved. So I get the trailer in the water and back the boat out from the dock. The swimmers didn't bother to move when I backed the trailer in the water and didn't bother to move when I started the boat towards the trailer. At one point I was just a couple of feet away from them. I wanted to start up the OB and swamp them, but cooler heads prevailed. Same lake earlier this summer, had one guy swimming towards my boat (in 60' of water) yelling at me to give him a ride. Just ignored him and he finally turned back towards the bank after swimming a good 100 yards out into the lake. Cooler water temps can't get here soon enough. Maybe that will keep the swimmers and litterers home. Picked up several floating water and beer bottles yesterday. And that was with two state game wardens on the water patrolling.

How do you cut off a $15 lure? I'll break my neck to get a $3 spinnerbait back, never mind a $15 plug.

Well, I have to wonder if any of the fish in the lake eat them. Or if they sting. I was honestly so dumbfounded at the sight of jellyfish in the lake that I just sat there slackjawed for a while (some might say I do that all the time ). If they're really prevalent, there has to be some fish out there who eats them. If that is the case, the only problem will be keeping my snot sticky enough to stay on the hook. ;D Found this link via a Google search: http://www.jellyfish.iup.edu/ Seems they are more prevalent than I had thought. One of the lakes listed in VA (Flanagan) is downstream of the lake I was fishing yesterday, so I guess it is no surprise that the jellyfish were in that body of water. Always something weird when I'm on the water.

While I knew freshwater jellyfish existed, I had no idea they were in a local lake. Friend and I were out in the boat yesterday fishing a deep bend. I noticed some white blobs in the water, took a closer look and saw that the entire area was full of quarter-sized jellyfish. Simply amazing.

Humminbird PiranhaMax10 Portable. Runs on 8 AA batteries (buy 2 sets of rechargables), has a 15' cable and a suction cup transducer. I've been running one for the last 8 months, like it pretty well. It does the job. Battery life is very good in warmer weather. I've been running my current set of batteries for around 15 hours without a recharge. Probably enough juice there for another trip, but I've got them recharging. I also make sure to carry a spare set (or have raided my camera) because you never know when they'll crap out. Humminbird also offers the 535 portable, but it requires two 6V lantern batteries and I doubt you can recharge those. Cabelas offers several popular fishfinders in a portable package. They come in a carrying case with a rechargable power supply. But I like the ease of using AA's in the Humminbird.

No there isn't an excuse for it. Pure and simple laziness. If you carried that foam carton of nightcrawlers down the river with you, take it back with you. Same goes for that can of pop or bottle of Mad Dog. My workplace is situated right on a river. During the summer we have a lot of people wade by. They are constantly leaving pop cans, bottles, worm cartons, etc. lying everywhere. I saw 3 teenagers out one evening, kept an eye on them. They left, I went out to check the area they were fishing. They had sunk 5 or 6 pop cans in the middle of the river. Never mind that we have a huge trash dumpster sitting just 30 yards away. I just cannot comprehend the mindset of people that throw garbage everywhere.

I always try to pick up a plastic grocery bag of trash every time I'm on the water. I could easily fill my boat up just about every time I'm out. One good thing about carrying a net is being able to net all the floating beer bottles in the summer.

Sometimes I feel a tap, other times the fish is just there. Sometimes they just grab it and swim away. That worm looks good. I mostly use a Zoom finesse worm or a BPS floating worm. I have some Zoom centipedes and Super Fluke Jr's I'm going to try tomorrow.

Size doesn't matter. Bigger baits will catch smaller fish. I've caught 4" bluegills on 4" baits. Smaller fish will take bigger baits. I've seen 8" bass striking at a 10" swimbait. I too sometimes have reservations about fishing bigger baits. But when I fish a 5" stick worm in the small river here at work and see 6" smallmouths go after it with wild abandon, I realize that big baits catch all fish.

That rule just doesn't make any sense to me. But what do I know, I'm just a poor dink fisherman.

That interests me, esp. after just reading an article in FLW Outdoors about a guy fishing a football jig on the bottom like a C-rig. So just tie the jig on like normal with a palomar knot and tie a lizard or floating worm onto the tag end? Hmmm, I might have to try that tomorrow.

I've been watching a lot of BASS action lately, you never see any of the pro's use a net. But looking through the FLW magazine, just about every photo of a pro landing a fish shows them using a net. Does BASS prohibit the use of nets for landing fish? It only makes sense to use a net when you're landing a fish that might mean $10000 or more to you. Heck, look at Swindle during the American. Had he been using a net, that one big fish might not have gotten away.

I fish small (50-150 acre) lakes almost exclusively. Three lakes in particular. All are known to hold big (6-10 lb.) fish. Two of those lakes receive regular trout stockings and the bass know that means a feeding frenzy.

I think the term you're looking for is 'stank'. I like the 3" power grubs in white. Mainly because they're about the only grubs the tackle shops around here stock.

Launching my boat at my home lake a few weeks ago. About 5:30AM, just had gotten off work and hit the water. Water was down a bit and I had to back out a bit farther than normal. Boat finally floated so I jumped out of the truck to pull the boat off the trailer and tie up to the dock. Get the boat off the trailer and tied up. Left about 10' of slack in the line. Get in the truck to pull up and park. Move forward about 5' and hear a loud noise. Jump out and see that my trailer is now rubbing the dock. It was about 3' away before. Seems the boat had floated back over the trailer and took the slack dock line with it. Dock line got hung on one of the bunks and jerked the trailer into the dock. d**n near broke off my trailer plate. The way I look at it, those little slips make us better at launching and boating. Twice this year I've been in a hurry when launching and forgot to put in the plug. Thankfully I came to my senses just as I was backing the boat into the water.

Each excels in certain areas and lacks in other areas. You can't go wrong with either. I've been to seven or eight different BPS stores, always spend too much. My closest Cabelas store is too far away, so I've never been lucky enough to grace one of their stores.

A fillet knife.

LED's are worth every penny.

Can't find any prices online for these boats. Love the look of the Eagle 165, just like to know how much it is. Closest dealer is about 2 hours away and I hate dealing with people on the phone.

Baker is the problem when he continues to play tired old players who are unproductive. Yet they play pretty much every day because Baker is sweet on them. He refuses to play young players and has often said that he will go with an 'experienced' player over a young player. This season has been a wash for a long time, great opportunity to get some young guys in there. Yet he still sticks with hacks like Neifi Perez, Mabry, and Nevin. Look at the season Corey Patterson is having in Baltimore. Then look at the way he played under Baker. Baker and his staff suck. Not that the front office is any better. Yeah, let's trade two leaders for jack squat. No wait, let's pay the other teams to take them off our hands. Perhaps the losing is taking it's toll, but I am fed up with the organization. Trib doesn't care if the team wins. They know people will pack the place no matter what.