TnRiver46

I don’t really want to follow up that beast of a sheepshead but somebody has to do it. My girlfriend’s mother loves catfish and we are headed up to their house next week so I’ve been trying to stock up. Thought about going fishing tonight but most of my friends were wanting to hang out at the local watering hole. Oh well, one night no fishing is ok. But alas! The watering hole is only 50-75 yards from the river so I set some hillbilly hand lines tied to a sunken dock and somehow we got one! Small frozen gizzard shad baits, actually had one line dragged up river but snagged and broke off

Well Boone is down 30 feet for a leaky dam and has been for years. Might get a killer deal! Haha I have a house on tellico, they only drop it 5-6 feet. It's connected to fort Loudoun via canal so it's levels are identical. Also, the winter drawdowns are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing but the fishing is better . The tricky part about it is a boat dock.

I've cut open some big rainbow trout that were bursting with insects. If they eat thousands of them it adds up. The thing a fish likes to eat the most is what's readily available the most often. The can't go into a store and pick what they want

Usually it's deepest where the water is slowest. Are there any other people where you are fishing?

There’s a whole bunch of lakes just like you described in E TN. Like probably 12-15! They only draw down the Tennessee River lakes 5-8 feet in winter, they draw down the tributaries 30+\- feet for flood control (it rains A LOT) so lake front property may be thick mud front property for 8 months out of the year. Also the tributary lakes are drawn down starting sept 1 and the main river doesn’t go down until December 1. Good smallie lakes: south holston, watauga, Norris Cherokee, fort Loudoun, tellico, portions of Douglas, Boone, Melton hill, watts bar, portions of chickamauga. These are all big rivers with dams but there’s a ton of smaller free flowing rivers with big smallmouth as well. Then in you include the cumberland plateau you have center hill, dale hollow, Tim’s ford ..... there’s a lot of water and a lot of smallmouth. You may want to choose which lake to live on based on other factors like proximity to town, weather, etc. some places are quite remote with crazy weather

I watched a little bit of the live. I saw Scott Martin catch a big chain pickerel or something like one on a jointed swimbait

Even my fat arse eats some popcorn every once in a while

The struggle is real! Like 20 years real. I’ve had a 5 year old outfish me severely with a spinnerbait. No joke

I know what to do with a spinner bait! Just keep walking by when you see them for sale and give away any that you already have

Kind of like bear hunting: sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you........ Ok maybe a little better than bear hunting

Too much rib cage and not enough meat! Willing biters though, would be great for kids

Get out of my head!!! I like the way braid/leader fishes but I waste too much time rigging after break offs so I find straight mono easier and faster. Most of the time, after a break off with braid/leader, my leader knot is still intact but the leader is gone (except for about 1/4 inch and the knot). I have much more time with my lure in the water if I don’t have to redo all that each time. Straight braid is fun to fish but some bass are line shy, I don’t care what anyone says. Also, go swimming and listen to braid underwater sometime. If I can hear it a fish can

My buddies sank a boat with a gas engine and mud motor kit. Thing still runs great after pouring all the water/gas/oil out

Like @WRB said, I got into the habit of cutting them super short when tying tippet onto the end of trout leaders when fly fishing. If you leave a tiny tag end the leader will tangle up very badly and very often

Well first off, as with any trapping, have to try more than once. Crawfish trapping anywhere north of The gulf is somewhat futile, you might catch two or three here and there, might catch a dozen Every now and then. My buddy, one of the best trappers I know (I’m also a professional trapper) fell down a YouTube rabbit hole of people trapping crawdads and became obsessed. He tried really hard and didn’t do much damage. We always catch some with minnow traps but catch more with our hands. I had another buddy that became obsessed with it and would catch a few here and there in a muddy lake bottom but a otter usually found the trap and destroyed it

Pictures are deceiving, the middle two pictures are of the same fish (19” And the top fish was probably 19+ but we didn’t measure

Yep! On both fronts

Why?? Didn't you say you lived in Alabama?? .......... Sorry I couldn't resist

More water than land= fish paradise! (I don't know if that's true but it sure seems like it)

Makes pretty good catfish bait....

Another nice catch, I believe you caught a green sunfish instead of a bluegill

The people are what make it so great! Where you want to live just depends on what you are after. Mountains in East Tennessee , hills/cliffs in the middle, and massive large scale agriculture out west. West Tennessee reminds me more of rural Indiana/Illinois/Ohio where you will never see traffic , with the exception of Memphis of course. It’s kind of like going back in time, which i enjoy about it. There’s also Kentucky lake out there, which is beyond huge and the fish are too. Job market is very good as long as you don’t mind sweating a lot. Winters are mild, maybe 1 or 2 snowfalls of a couple inches each year. It does get down to zero degrees or a little under on occasion but not often. One of my favorite things about East Tennessee is the wind rarely blows at all unless there is a storm coming

I've been noticing that......

Nice catch!