TnRiver46

+1. Where I live you can keep 15 of them regardless of length so I usually target them for fun and food

I give my dogs pieces of raw fish while I'm cleaning them all the time........ I guess I'm in the minority but boy do they go crazy for it

Took me a few minutes but I believe I put 2 and 2 together........ did you used to call your jigs "mission jigs?" I used to love seeing you and your boys big smallmouth photos on another site

Fish lay around in fish markets all day all over the world and people still purchase them, even in much warmer temperatures. The best way to tell if your fish is still good is fillet it, then smell the fillet. Trust me you'll know..........

Thanks man I'll let you know

I believe I am headed to Norris Saturday

Trolling crankbaits for smallmouth and using down imaging. My girlfriend got me a lowrance elite 4HDI for Christmas last year and I have been staring at it ever since

From my experience they won't mess with you......... until you try to get your hook back from them..........

Handle them very carefully, they can be pretty wild. They have sharp fin rays that can stick you pretty bad. I usually try to get my hand under the gill flap (not the gill rakers)

That's what I was thinking, that fish would be a handful on that combo!!!!

I put the boat in gear and make a regular cast straight back behind the outboard. Then count to 5 before I engage the reel

I have been trolling for bass a lot lately, did it just today matter of fact. It's pretty awesome. If you can drive around and "graph" you can troll. I learn a whole lot about the bottom of the river sitting at the console trolling a crankbait and watching the graph. I use shallow diving crankbaits 95% of the time. My boat is 18.5 ft center console (wide boat) with a 50 hp 4 stroke mercury. With no current or wind about 2.75 mph is as slow as I can go, and that will flat catch em. Hooked two nice smallies today about 2.5 mph and 46 degree water. I usually try to troll upstream and get closer to 2-2.25 mph but I'm not sure why because 2.5 seems to be where I get most of my hits. I sometimes troll downstream and that's usually around 3.25 mph and catches fish surprisingly well. If the plug says it will go 2-4 ft it will go about 10 at the speeds I troll (variable depending on length and diameter of line). A 4-6 ft plug will troll about 12-14 ft. Shift into neutral when you get a bite and leave it in neutral. I have never gotten bored trolling. I get much more bored chucking crankbaits and not contacting bottom. I used to just drive my boat through the deep holes in Order get to the shoals and fish soft plastics. Now I catch fish trolling through all the deep holes on the way to my casting areas, while marking trees and humps all along the way

Got out on the river around 2-230 today, water temp just below 50. Current was way stronger than it has been all summer and fall thanks to some recent rains. Caught fish vertical jigging a small grub and fluke. Tried trolling crankbaits about 2.5 mph up a tributary with clear water but 46 degrees. my cousin and I both lost a nice smallie on the cranks. His jumped and spit and I tried to swing mine in. Headed back to the ramp about 545 when the sun and temp dropped

You got that right!!

Got out for 2-2.5 hrs this afternoon, paddled around trolling chartreuse grub and Bobby garland baby Shad in electric chicken color. Also had to release some crappie that were barely under 10"

White bass is my favorite food fish. My girlfriend won't eat a crappie but looooves white bass. Two ways to get that red meat out (although I don't even bother unless they are huge). 1) exactly what eveythingthatswims said 2) shave it out with the knife instead of slicing it out, Otherwise you will waste all the meat. I cook big bunches of white bass for people (non fishermen) at parties and they gobble up every last bit. The only way I have experienced them taste bad is if you freeze them more than 2-3 months

No off season in East Tennessee either. Sometimes coves freeze over but generally not for more than a week. You can always find somewhere to fish

Old thread I know but try this sometime. Zoom finesse worm with no weight---- that baby will shimmy pretty good

If papaw was still alive, he could tell you a couple novels worth of stories about every lure he ever casted. We sat on the breezeway and went through every lure in every one of his tackle boxes dozens of times. I still have a few of those plugs but they aren't for sale. Suspended one of his old lures (lucky 13 red/white) from the ceiling to where it's dangling in front of my mounted bass. Kind of looks like the fish is knocking the popper up out of the water

Wow never heard of those but it looks fun to catch!!!! If the squaw fish eats crawdads they will probably eat the rebel craw too

Maybe pushing 4

I would fish with live (or dead) crawfish in that case

Really crusty mono I feel your pain. Had a similar experience. Way back when about 16-17 yrs ago, I'm on my annual fishing vacation in Alabama fishing a buzzbait. Blam. Get the fish into the boat and it's huge. We take several photos and discuss how big we think it may be and should i get it mounted. We think around 7-8 lbs and at the time I'm about 14 or so yrs old. I decide I want to mount it and my partner says to put it on the stringer and go through both lips (metal clamp giant swivel clasp looking stringer). I do that and ease it over the side of the boat and the fish shook its head and ripped itself right off the old rusty clanky stringer! We go to get the pictures developed and the film was double exposed! Luckily I have caught 2 more 8lb since then, I still get a lot of flack over that one hahaha

I fished right below Wilson dam in late March this year and It was freezing cold. Everyone said they weren't running enough water (They were running about 20,000 cfs, which is not much at all for that dam. There is usually that much flow all the way upstream here in Knoxville). There were ten million bass boats everyone and everyone we talked to was skunked or close to it. We caught a lot of white bass in The marina near McFarland park and only a couple tiny smallies out in the river. The wind nearly broke my wide 18.5 ft aluminum center console in half

Gotcha thanks