loudcherokee

Awesome. What about the reel though? I'm thinking high gear ratio to pull em out quick but is a reel with a flipping switch or button necessary? LC

Mostly laydowns, docks, and thick grass. I'd love to find some pads but I've yet to see any in the lakes where I fish. LC

I'm thinking of expanding my arsenal to include a dedicated flipping/pitching setup. What reel type/ratio would be ideal for this? I'm thinking of going with at least a 7' MH Fast action rod, or a "flipping" rod, but not sure what reel would be ideal. Do I need a reel with a flipping switch? If not, what reel from the Lews lineup would you suggest? I've already got a BB1 in 5:1, a Tournament Pro in 7:1, and a Tournament MG in 6:1. I really like the Lews reels and would like to stick with them. LC

I use the Alberto as well. Quick and easy once you get the hang of it. I watched some videos on the FG knot and got scared away lol. I thought about a swivel but sometimes I will use a fairly long leader, and don't want a swivel slamming through my guides when I cast or reel in. LC

That is a possibility. It has happened a couple of times where the bottom treble hook wraps around the line on the crankbait. LC

Thanks for the tips flyingmonkie. We're planning another trip soon and I should probably be able to talk him into beaching the boat lol. Norris lake is pretty cool, but intimidating for me. When I bank fish, I have one spot to concentrate on. This lake on the other hand is huge. While not known for its LMB fishing, it does hold a decent population of LMB. The lake is more known for striper and i think waleye and catfish. There's rumors of Volkswagen sized catfish near the dam, but I think that rumor exists for all resovoirs across the country with deep water lol. I've been looking up several videos and things on fishfinders. It looks like we'll have to play with the settings a bit to find underwater structure. LC

Hmm. I've never had sensitivity issues before with my setups. Or, at least I didn't think I was. I wonder how many bites I've missed! The crankbait was thrown on a 6'6" MH Lightning Rod Shock Series, with 12lb Trilene XL, and the spinnerbait was being thrown on a 7'1" MH Black rod with 30lb power pro. LC

So I got to try out boat fishing the other day. When doing so, I noticed some odd behavior when fishing a crankbait or spinnerbait on very long casts or when I let the bait sink way deep. It seemed like when the bait was out very far, I could not feel the action of the bait until it got much closer to the boat, like within about 30 yards or so. I've never had this problem fishing from the bank. Is this a line issue, rod issue, or just typical behavior for this kind of the cast or fishing? LC

The pontoon is an 8 passenger with two fishing seats up front, but currently no trolling motor. I did kind of feel like we could have been spooking the fish. It was windy yesterday and we kept drifting into the bank and had to fire up the outboard to pull back out. We did find a nice cove that had plenty of lay downs and a stream feeding into the lake, and anchored down to fish and eat our lunch. We tried fishing that spot for a couple of hours and still got nothing. He even threw out a minnow under a bobber and not even a nibble from any other species. I had some catfish bait I tossed out on bottom and had nothing. We're both multi-species fisherman I guess you could say. I primarily fish for bass but at the end of the day I'm happy to just be there with a line in the water and will often times go to live bait and just relax with a bobber or fishing bottom for cats. LC

Hey guys, I've been a bank fisherman all my life and have only been out on a boat to fish maybe twice. Today I got the chance to go out on the boat with a buddy, and while we had a great day on the lake it was a disappointing day for fishing. Not a single bite. Not a nibble. Not even a little tick on the line. The only fish caught was a 2lb largemouth from the dock as we were leaving. I saw her suspended about 3 feet down and dropped a senko in front of her nose and she inhaled it. The lake is Norris Lake. I tried to find a good map online but realized I don't know how to read a lake map. I'm assuming the bass are suspended as the water temp was 55 degrees all day. I don't know how to find points, drop offs, rock piles, etc. We had a fish finder, but no idea how to read it or know what it is telling us besides water temp and depth. it's a hummingbird 385ci. We basically went all over the lake looking for trees that have fallen into the water and threw all kinds of stuff around them, on them, under them, and in them. The water is way down, about 10 feet down, and the banks are steep. Even only about 50 feet off the bank we were seeing depths as much as 70 feet in some places. Out further the deepest I saw was close to 180 feet. It's even deeper in other places. The water is crystal clear and visibility is about 10 feet I would guesstimate. Basically, I learned today that I know NOTHING about fishing from a boat. I've been pretty successful on the bank but I've been wanting a boat, but after today I'm thinking of keeping my feet on dry land. Can someone offer some tips or hints or something to point me in the right direction? Where would you fish on this lake? We launch from Norris Dam Marina and it's a pontoon so we would like to stay somewhat close without having to boat to the other side of the lake. The boat only goes about 22 mph and guzzles gas. We're planning another outing in a couple of weeks and would like to be more successful so any help would be appreciated, especially with knowing WTH we're looking at on the so called "fish" finder. More like rainbow colored water finder haha. LC

This is the one I have. I just switched to this bag from a 3700 sized Plano shoulder bag that held 4 3700 boxes. I still had to attach a worm binder and a smaller Plano bag to it with carabiner clips so I could take along all my plastics. Switching to this backpack has been great. I've got 10 3600 sized boxes, including two 3600 sized spinnerbait boxes. I've moved all my plastics and my worm binder into the big Plano bag and I've attached it to the BPS backpack with carabiners. So much easier now to bank fish. LC

Cool! There's some Tanger outlets in Pigeon Forge that are pretty close by. I may have to make my way up there and stop by Bass pro on the way :-) LC

Lots of options for me to look at guys! Thanks for the replies. I'm really liking the look of the fish hide and huk stuff. That's a bit more suited to my style than the button ups, but if I can find one of those button ups for cheap (on sale) I may have to get one. LC

Cool! Check back and let us know how they work out. LC I thought about one of those, and I wouldn't mind having some logos of my favorite fishing products companies to show my support, but I kept reading about having "permission" or "authorization" to have these logos. Same with the bass resource jerseys. I'm not sponsored by anyone lol. LC

What are you guys wearing to stay cool and dry while fishing? I've got a polo shirt from Adidas that is a dri fit sweat wicking material and has vents in it, but I've only got one and it wasn't cheap. Also looking for something that has a little UV protection and that doesn't break the bank. Finding something that wicks moisture, blocks UV, keeps me cool, and is affordable seems to be impossible. LC

A fit. So tired of this cold warm cold warm weather pattern! Spawn already! Aside from throwing a fit, I agree with above on throwing a jig. LC

Cool! I appreciate the info. I really need to start disciplining myself better and taking measurements and weights. The largemouth in my avatar is my PB I was referring to. If I remember correctly it was just a hair shy of 6 pounds but I didn't have a digital scale, just just a needle one at the time. I do know with this smallmouth that I could fit my whole hand in his mouth, and i don't have small hands. I hooked him in the roof of the mouth near the back of his throat and tried to remove the hook bare handed before grabbing my pliers. Next time I'll be sure to get some weights on my catches. I need to start tracking this anyways. LC

LOL I'm Only guessing the weight since I didnt weigh the fish. My PB largemouth was almost 6 pounds and this fish was around the same size just not as fat. May have been closer to 3 pounds I don't know. LC

Awesome! That's my first ever smallmouth! Put up a good fight. When I got him to the surface at the bank he turned and swam straight down and pulled drag. Very exciting! LC

+1!!! I love Seibert spinnerbaits. Made very well and the bluegill color is amazing. When I don't have a Seibert tied on its a war eagle or terminator. LC

Cool I'll give that a go and see if it helps out. Thanks! LC

Do you like the yum dingers? Was catching fish all day today on the strike king shim-e-sticks in watermelon red flake. Ran out and switched to yum dingers in the same color, not even a nibble. Friend showed up with more shim-e-sticks in that color and started catching again. LC

Been having some trouble lately with the knots I'm using for my leader, which is Yo Zuri Hybrid. I use an Alberto knot to tie my leader on to my main line, which is 15lb powerpro. The knot I'm using for the hook, and the one that keeps breaking, is a clinch knot I think. It's the one where you twist the hook 10 times, put the tag through the loop near the eye and then back through the loop you just created with the tag end. Today I lost a bass that was at least 4 pounds when I was bending down to lip the fish. The fish didn't flop around or anything and after looking at the line it broke at the knot. Same thing later got hung up and twitched at nowhere near enough strength to break the 10lb test leader and it snapped again, at the knot. Could my leader be bad? It's about 2 years old and I always tie on a fresh one. I use the clinch knot instead of Palomar because I heard that was bad for fleuro. LC

Never caught one before, but was fishing for largemouth today and caught this guy on a senko. My thumb scale says the fish weighed approx 3.5-4 pounds. The bottom jaw did not extend past the eyeball and there was no dark line down the side. The inside of the fishes mouth was also different, almost like there was no tongue or bottom off the mouth. LC

Hahaha. My one friend I've taken fishing a few times almost always ends up in the water somehow. Good guy but can be pretty clumsy. The most dangerous time was bank fishing near some turbines at a power plant. I had to pull him out that time. Glad i outweigh him by 100 pounds or he could have pulled me in too. This thread reminded me of this meme lmao. LC