SWVABass

If the shad are numerous and spawning on your lake, fish might be keyed in on that. Like most said rotate through some baits and see what get bit. You also maybe fishing to shallow or deep…. Try some new water too

Rapala subwalk, have fished them countless times for smallmouth with no luck

As much pressure as the TVA lakes get, I personally think it’s highly unlikely to see a new world record come out of there. I think your going to need to look at some off the wall small fisheries in tx, la, ms, al, or fl. These lakes are seeing enormous fishing pressure so I don’t think it’s possible imho. though you could look into Mexico or Africa to chase some largemouth where they aren’t fished like crazy.

If you wanted to make a trip out of it, there is a decent city park in Bristol. Steele Creek Lake. There is a long boardwalk with a covered fishing pier too. It’s a little bit of a walk but it’s pretty much all paved. Largemouth, smallmouth, crappie and catfish all call it home. It does get a lot of pressure but it’s a nice lil lake.

That was on S. Holston, Volunteer Div. Took over 15 to win as a co and the cut was around 10-3. Fish were up shallow spawning pre and post. I caught them on worms, craws and spinnerbaits. I broke a smallmouth off at the boat who most likely would have put me in the money, but what can you do when they hit like a tank right at the boat??? Oh well next time I guess. Your talking a boilermakers jersey correct?

Just fished my first BFL today. Drew a really good boater, he had a decent pattern going but was worried I’d have a hard time fishing behind him. Ended up with a limit for 9-13 good enough for 37th. Was a good time if all boaters I draw are that considerate of their co I believe I’ve found a new home. good luck up north, might see you at Cherokee don’t know if I’m going to Douglas the day before though.

Michael’s has glass beads as well as hobby lobby. They are clearly marked glass beads. They usually come in a plastic tube.

Ever seen the trunk monkey?

Feed him something else like megabass jerkbaits, should be able to get like 10 of them for that coin…

Yep I bought a new house before the housing market went nuts, so my family had a sweet place and I bought a kayak. I’ll pay less to fish a tournament and back seat it with someone and help off set their gas cost. Then when everything goes to hell I’ll be sitting pretty ???

I was catching them on a hollow body frog, in Dec. so I would be fishing top water year round at dark. Pop r’s, frog, buzzbait

Some states a weird, I know NM didn’t close schools on Columbus or Veterans Day. I’m a fed employee (fire fighter) we get days off state folks don’t and vice versa. Though I’m hardly home to have summer holidays off do to fire season.

I’ve fished for them in homestead. Make long cast at your targets. They are super spooked because the amount of pressure in S FL. Seems like they are constantly been casted at so if they see you they are gone. I had my best luck fishing dusk to a couple hours after dark.

I’d go to the Sp. here they weren’t supposed to open till 8, I showed up at 745 gate was open, next time 730 gate was open. I continued to keep showing up 15 mins earlier time after time. Found out they weren’t locking the gate. Ended up having it to myself for 2-3 hrs when they were on beds. By time folks showed up I had been able to catch good fish with out them being harassed by 6 year olds with spin casters slamming night crawlers at them. At that point I’d just wave and say have fun. Was the best part of the whole pandemic ha!!!!!! This is probably national parks so those would be federal, might apply to states though…

Honestly in today’s economy everything is over priced. Wait a couple months most likely you will find a lightly used new boat for super cheap cause the repo man is coming or the bank already got it back. Lots of folks went in during the pandemic and are now going to get crushed, sucks for them but if you have the finances you are primed to take advantage. Just my .02 cents. That’s why I opted for an older model new kayak, got it at a discount cause everyone wanted the newest and a 2yr old boat wouldn’t move.

Have the seller perform compression test, test drive, ask for maintenance records, have it inspected by a mechanic as well, see what warranties transfer with ownership.

Are you looking for only brand new or used?

Great info here… I too don’t fish one that much and have some questions. Rod/reel combo for fishing this? Glass rod or no, and why you prefer what you use. line size, what size gets to big and kills the action?

Wacky rig 90% of the time and a dropshot 4” roboworm

Did they fish Monday? I know the winds are rocking in the center of the country right now, have a lot of old friends on wildfires in tx and nm right now and wondered if they stopped fishing cause of the winds?

@scaleface he’s in my line up for now, but I don’t know that I will leave him. He was able to make HOA work last time but I don’t know about twice. Zaldain I think I’m going to pass on him and his glide baits for now….. smallmouth season coming up might grab him there if he’s still in the bottom bucket.

I’ve read through your post and a little confused still. I understand you want to fish live and/or cut bait. Got that down, now which species are you targeting? Is it a free for all anything that jerks will fill your need or are you looking to target only specific species? if your not wanting to go down all the rabbit holes on different lure types and fish species I would honestly recommend and ugly stick. I have two, use them in waters where I could have anything bite when using bait. They are tough, inexpensive and you can buy a decent spinning reel to team it up with. Folks might want to snub their nose at it but those rods have caught tons of fish and are built like a rock. so I would say don’t worry about how many different rods and why or what for if it’s not in your playbook to start fishing that way. But I would recommend downsizing somewhat but do it cheaply since it’s more of the social spect and being outdoors that your there for. And if you want to open up to more water, cheap kayak. The only fuel required is what you put into your body and in turn pump out through your arms or legs.

I can average right about 4 on my PA12. I’m loaded light though and have turbo fins. My job has me hiking long distance under heavy loads so when I get on my boat that is a cake walk.

If you haven’t listened to BTL Day 4 with frank scalish I would. The guy has crazy good experience fishing those conditions and gives some very detailed info on how to target ice out smallmouth. Check it out, according to him now is the time to load the boat with fat prespawn fish.

So I went with a hobie pro angler 12. It is big and heavy but I love it. I can car top it on my vw or jeep. Lots of storage and the chair is hard to beat. I tried a couple different ones and this was what I wanted since demo. Also it’s great in saltwater as well. The only thing I can say about them, make sure you know what kind of drive you have, I had one without the kick up fins, it’s an expensive fix after hitting a rock I couldn’t see.