TnRiver46

Small worm or lizard Texas Rig with 1/16 oz bullet weight would be my choice. If that’s getting stuck go with weightless Worm

Cool deal! It's hard to beat

Any monsters? Was it windy?

It was indeed from a pond in Philadelphia. Not the Philadelphia you are thinking of, this one has a human population of a couple thousand I would guess haha

I think I know the bodies of water better than any of the guys at game and fish, especially the ones I graduated with hahaha. As far as I know there is one group of pads on tellico lake and some on John sevier lake and that’s it except ponds or somewhere on chickamauga. West Tennessee probably has some but that’s a journey. People spray the vegetation for profit

Not around here! Pretty much all aquatic vegetation gets sprayed on all our lakes. We also have no natural lakes so most everything is deep and flowing fast. The only lily pads I could imagine in East Tennessee are possibly two hours south of me on chickamauga or somewhere out in west Tennessee. Or in a water feature by someone’s front door!

I wish there were lily pads around here! Although I have never caught a huge fish out of them, it always seems like they are there

Vols crapped the bed in the 6th. Still got some pitches left though

I have some. And I know a guy that hand pours a copy of the floating producto worm with a paddle tail. I have a whole bunch of those.........all in purple.......

Looks like fun!

I fish them with all different size weights depending on the conditios. They work well without weight too, and not just stick baits. Topwater worm fishing is very fun

Spinnerbait and crankbait

Well you can see my buddy in the background getting some free bait. You still have to buy the net and hooks though

Hahahahaha y'all ain't right. 1/8 oz ball jig head with maybe 1/4 portion of a knock off senko rigged weedless. You can kind of see it in this pic

Did some paddling on a small river after work, got a couple little smallies and a catfish with the poor man's need rig

I get checked all the time. DNRs all claim to be underfunded but do you guys honestly believe that??? When is the govt ever short on cash?

I go on a family fishing trip memorial day week with my best friends family. They have done this for about 50 yrs straight and I think I have gone for 17 or 18 years. We actually shot a commercial about the trip that aired for a while on a country music channel, might still. We fish the alligator infested swamps of South Alabama, pretty wild place. All of this to say, I totally understand your excitement. I'm a little giddy myself.......

One time I dropped the “A bad day of fishing beats a good day of work” in a casual conversation. The reply I received was “people that say that ain’t never had their boat sink.” Food for thought.

@Brian Schram, never seen so much negativity about a fish. If I haven't said it yet, congrats on your catch of a lifetime. Hold those things however you want and tune out the negative. Looking at a picture of a fish does not allow anyone to say how much it weighs.

So sorry to hear this. I love your perspective, though. Prayers sent

Awesome job, how was the wind up there? I wish I would have ran into you at Bass pro, I have giant bags of 2.5 inch hand pour swim baits that are as good or better than the kietech (according to my single line sampling research). I was a good ways below Cherokee dam on the holston river Saturday and got a nice smallmouth, might have checked out the weigh in had I known y'all were in town

Small baits light line fish slow

Hmm I have never heard of that one, thanks I'll see if I can find it

Prayers sent