TnRiver46

Today was my first full day back from vacation up north. Brrrrrr. Back in the balmy 24 degrees I got an 18" smallmouth on my second cast. Actually cast out and set the rod down to gnaw on a frozen cookie for a few minutes. Picked the rod back up and thought I missed a bite but figured I was crazy. Reeled tight and jigged and the fish hit again

I'm not familiar with that one but I will look into it. If your gear fits into your kayak you can camp on several islands for free. Cherokee lake is nearby and fishes very similar to Norris

Basically what they do here is stock pure Florida strain every year and the result is F1. If they didn't stock more pure Florida every year then eventually the natives would outcompete them completely. That first generation F1 is cold tolerant and can get abnormally large

Pretty cool. We have rainbow trout in Tennessee from the late 1800s, wonder if we traded bass for trout? Haha

Only good ole styrofoam for me

I wish we had one somewhere near me!

They don't survive the temps in Tennessee either but the breed with the natives and form the massive F1 hybrid

Shouldn't have to worry about mud dobbers this winter. My water pump doesn't pee in super cold conditions until the engine warms up a bit

I can't believe no one has said whopper plopper. I've never used one but it's all I hear about

Interesting. So they were stocking bass in Cali pre 1959? That would be pretty cool to see back in the day

Sounds like flo ain't cutting it for the paying customer

it ain't just me. Read what @jbsoonerfan just said. If you want to root for your teams rivals that's fine but it ain't for me. Neyland is full when we win and half empty when we lose. We lose when our rivals are winning national titles and getting all the recruits. Do you even know who Cade mays is ? They can squeeze $1 million out a booster anytime they need it. They offered mike gundy $45 million. Were you wearing a gators hat when tebow was playing?

I praise the Lord everyday that I was born after the "boating license" was invented in TN. They already nickel and dime the crap out of us on all the other licenses. The only reason I don't hunt is because all the red tape. Been jumping over stumps with an outboard engine since I was 7.

I tried to read the stats and answer your question........ then I got a little confused and I think I'll just have a Miller high life

Awwwwwwww. Staffordshire or pit?

Disagree. Sec teams have been playing for the title every year for a decade and it has been the worst decade in a century for "lowly" TN. $1 million is less than a drop in a bucket, we have a $350 million dollar stadium renovation coming up. When kids watch bama playing for a title they want to go to bama, not TN. Ask your newest recruit Cade mays if it helped TN in recruiting this year

After I typed that I reAd tom and a few other replies. I have a degree In fisheries management and I would still mis-identify them on the test. We had to count scales and measure fin rays constantly and I wouldn't consider it an exact science

Welll....... woops

A few picture examples of one vs the other....... 2d on left (traditional sonar) 3D on right (down imaging) pic 1: school of white bass (idling forward) pic 2: more white bass (idling forward) pic 3: sunken boat on down imaging pic 4: school of white bass when sitting still pic 5: tree on down imaging. This would just look like a blob on 2d

I have 2d on bow and 3D (down image) at console. The 3D shows much more detail for like tree branches and rocks (cover) but both seem to mark fish just the same. They just show up as golf balls when moving on 3D and arches when moving on 2d. When you are sitting still fish look like horizontal lines on both 3D and 2d

There's a ton of good options, just picking one is the tricky part. Feel free to ask any more questions you might have

Amber does work best for dusk but just the ash/smoke/black plain ones are decent at dusk and good all around

Let's see if I can do the captions in order. Pic #1- sunset on the might Tennessee. Pic #2 - 6/0 saltwater hook in my face, my buddy is still apologizing. Pic #3- my fishing buddy from Memphis came to Knoxville for a smallmouth weekend. He set the hook on a carp and told me to get the net big smallie hahaha. Pic #4 - my second sturgeon pic # 5 - working in Carolina and an elk interrupted our lunch and chased me onto the top of the truck ladder rack, which is where I took the pic from. Pic #6 - fish fry on my annual fishing trip. Pic # 7 - sheepshead in ft Myers, Florida

Hey @A-Jay, wonder if they could isolate the DNA of Michigan-strain SMB??? And stock them all over the world?? "Be a lot cooler if they did!"

14-15 lb absolutely are competitive but I can almost guarantee that was an F1 first generation hybrid. I was just saying that the pure Florida strain aren't as big here, F1 are always huge