TnRiver46

My cousin tells that one all the time but it’s a muskie

I went to a football game here in 2016 in late September and the field temp was 106 degrees

47-49 is my all time favorite water temp for fishing by a landslide. What’s funny is I didn’t know you could even catch a single bass in winter until I was about 25 years old. Before that I wasted all my cold water efforts on trout, now I know better. We tried the stupid float n fly for several days because bassmaster always had articles about how well it worked below 50 degrees. I have still never caught a bass with float n fly. Somewhere we heard that spoons and silver buddies work, and one day it just clicked. Now I just use tube or worm with confidence

I’ve had some years where sept was bad but it’s typically excellent. Then again it’s usually 90 degrees here and no real transitions have started in earnest, basically just more summer with poplar and sycamore leaves laying around

I’ll never understand how those $1 buzzbaits work so well but they do . Even running darn near sideways

Come on up!!! Back in the day you could even watch the dawgs play in Knoxville in sept but we have y’all scheduled for homecoming this year in November……….. not sure why they did that, I thought the home team was supposed to win the homecoming game hahaha

I wish! We have water skiiers in Santa hats on Christmas

I’m ready for fall, mainly because that means winter is closer (and it’s pretty )

Gill nets are mono. And they way they are used, fish can’t escape them no matter what they look like

It’s so funny you would say this, my buddy still tells the story about a hooked smallie backing up to dodge the net. And it was years ago!! As you might imagine we always just call BS and tell him he’s a lousy net man

My buddy uses the owner ones, he likes them. Our lakes look similar to table rock

Haha! They always advised against it. They treat those 5000 ambassaduers like garage kept antique cars

I have also seen fish back up but fish traps work because the mouth of the funnel is easy to go through one way, jagged and (nearly) impossible to through through the other way. There’s room in most fish traps for them to turn around and try to escape head first but the funnel catches on their skin and fins

Thanks buddy, lord knows you throw it a lot with great success. Those same old timers that taught me always make fun of this one friend of theirs that engages the reel before the buzzbait lands. They always say “you could just hear the gears in that old ambassaduer crying out” but it kept the lure on top by golly. also if you want some good buzzbait footage, watch Jacob wheeler chest mounted go pro footage on YouTube. He’s a master of that lure, and his rods are whippy

Thanks for the post and pics. Hard to imagine mangroves freezing! Thank goodness they are the most relentless things on the planet

I’d say at least a couple dozen in my neighborhood. Hopefully they don’t plant any almond trees……..

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. I always like to have some of each. Swim underwater one day and listen to the noise braid makes. It’s the same noise it makes going through rod guides only way louder you could catch thousands of bass while blaring hip hop music in your boat and stomping your feet too but why. Might as well sneak up on them in stealth mode

That helps along with a high rod tip. Also just watch the lure with your eyes, stop the spool with your thumb before it lands, and start reeling. I was taught by old men that use round Abu 5000c reels with probably a 3.5:1 gear ratio and fiberglass poles that were as flemsy as bamboo. They stressed never letting a buzzbait below the surface and it’s by far their #1 lure. They even made their own buzzbaits. Sure a stiff pole and super fast gears will help but it’s not necessary if you pay attention. They never had the option of fast gears or graphite

Sept is easy in East TN but we’ve got shallow water smallies. We do the same thing you do, take pics of all fish then look back through them years later. We always have lots of nice 20”+ smallies with our TN football Orange gear in sept (because it’s early in football season and we aren’t ashamed to wear it yet). and the ones in the reservoirs bite too, they like to chase shad on top late summer

The pros can keep one on the surface with a 5:1 (or even slower if they still exist). Heck many pros are throwing buzzers with sinking Floro line nowadays because if you keep it moving on the surface (with motor skills) it literally doesn’t matter

Awesome day on the water, what school did she pick? also 161’ low??? I think they built the dam too tall……..

I’ve never owned a reel faster than 6:1, it’s all about technique not gear ratio. Anticipate it landing and don’t let it sink, it’s that simple

I guess we are somewhat lucky where I live, almost all water is public (although Twra is a state agency, they don’t own any water except maybe a few small lakes in west TN) now the public water levels are controlled by TVA (federal), and of course they are also a utility. Let’s just say they make a lot of money. They even made some National headlines not too long ago about how exorbitant their salaries are

Sounds pretty awesome! What the fish do when the water isn’t ripping? Probably rest spread out. If it’s anything like fishing the ocean, getting bites is hard with slack tide