TnRiver46

I agree with @WRB, the pole is the problem. A spinny pole has no place in the world of spooks in my opinion. That being said, I have thrown them on spinning gear plenty of times and had success, it just isn't ideal. You can gain line much faster with a baitcaster. I can throw a Zara puppy a long way with a cheap baitcaster, which has to be the lightest walking bait on the planet. Even with all the best gear a bass can throw a treble hooked plug at any moment, especially a big bass. They come off your hooks because they are extremely strong and jump a lot. Keep practicing and you will get the hang of it, sometimes we can overthink the whole process. One thing I would try is Texas rig a floating worm or fluke and fish it like a spook. The odds of losing a fish on a single hook are far less than with treble hooks

They will eat up those little swimbaits all winter long down here! We don't have sunny beaches but we have hungry bass

Surely you jest...... everyone around here blames the otters. They reintroduced them in the early 90s and they are everywhere now. I deal with nuisance animals for a living and we get calls about them cleaning out koi ponds. 330 conibear is the way to deal with an otter, they can fetch decent coin for the fur too. That being said I would only trap them if they are truly causing problems or trap them in winter for the pelt. Like several folks already posted, they can't kill all the fish in large watershed but they can do damage on a small one. The best smallmouth rivers near my house are loaded with otters and have been for years. These rivers still produce lots of big fish, it is rare not to see 4+ Otters in the middle of the day at the prime honey holes

Good point, I don't fish with jerkbaits until it gets really cold, which in most years is never in Tennessee. But it seems if I scroll through my fall/winter smallmouth pictures I always see a bunch of nice fish when we are bundled up with a cloudy background. The river smallies will eat on a hot summer day but the lake ones seems to like horrible weather

Daylight savings celebration week continues. All I got was a dink or two but my buddy got a nice one throwing a tiny square bill probably diving 2 ft max over 15 ft of water. This particular bass didnt realize the bait has to be slamming off wood or rocks to get bit. Couldn't find the measuring tape in the dark

They work great for any fish in any situation. Smallmouth shred through a bag of them really fast, I get mine hand poured at 2.5 inches

A

The ones in the newspaper here are always about a month behind what is actually occurring

Most of the time I just drag it like a shaky head but last night I was shaking it pretty wildly, water temp was 60 and I figured they should be active. I was trolling a crankbait 3 mph and getting bit so that was another clue they were active. Eagles are very abundant nowadays, my buddy got a great photo of one in downtown knoxville the other day. I camped on Norris not long ago and got my first ever skunk on that lake, they were blasting shad at daylight though

Fish were a little bit smaller yesterday. Got out after work and the river was much more stained and pretty fast downtown. Ran up to a tributary and it was crazy clear with no current. Trolled cranks through there and picked up some. I started seeing crazy ledge rock and grass clumps so I dropped trolling motor and caught a couple with a poor mans ned rig. Then trolled back halfway to the ramp in he dark before hitting the fast water and got the best one of the evening, maybe 16-17"

They look good but I wouldn't bet against bama in the sec champ game. I bet Vegas would have bama favored too

5 lb spot is mean as a d*^n rattlesnake. They will rival if not whoop a smallmouth as far as the fight

Turn it into a flipping/frogging stick? Or a broom to sweep the kitchen?

I was wondering why it was so expensive!

Worth a shot since it's already broken. If you can't get the insert to stay put just ooze some epoxy inside the rod and let it stick to the insert. Might throw off the weight of the rod if insert is heavier than original material

Mikes reel repair website always had what I needed

Got any other broken rods? Or a thin metal rod that will fit inside the blank? Insert an old piece of rod or thin metal and wrap with thread then epoxy. People used to fix any rod for 10 or $12, see if there is a local rod builder near you or just give it a try yourself

We only have gulls in the winter months, they haven't showed up quite yet. The lowrance and fishing lures are the only way I know to locate suspended fish. The problem I have is the fish are always around, they just bite sometimes and sometimes they don't. I was in friends boat one time and he had a diving mask and snorkel. After a long time of fishing shoals with no success, I jumped into the water to look around and there were smallmouth everywhere, some of them really big

Tried fixing it yet?

Smallmouth hate sunshine where I live

In cold weather, Blade baits work great for me. As well as spoons suspending jerkbaits finesse worms and tiny tube jigs. Float and fly has never boated me a smallmouth and it's not for lack of trying. I know it works but not for me, I usually outfish my float and fly buddies

Thanks! My girlfriends family gave me that as a joke but I wear it in the wind all the time haha

^whst he said. If you are fishing alone keep a tube on a second rod and drop it right Behind the hooked fish.

Sometimes you can tip a spoon or spinner with a tiny piece of live or scented bait

Nice job, took me darn near a week of "after work" work to do a transom in a jon boat. I figured it would take like 4 hrs. I also made a giant mess with fiberglass resin and wasted one tub of it that I soilidified in like 5 seconds somehow