TnRiver46

First place I learned the Carolina rig was on lake toho in Florida with 1 oz sinker in 4-5 ft of water. And it worked! Been slinging that ball and chain ever since, it doesn't have to be deep. You can retrieve the rig fairly quickly with the big sinker and still be kicking up dust

For those who don't know about ky lake, it is the furthest lake downstream on the Tennessee river. From Pickwick lake downstream, the Tennessee river flows straight north. Take a look at the map @Catt posted, I bet most of you thought the water flowed from the top of the map to the bottom, but its the opposite. Just downstream of Kentucky dam the TN river enters the Ohio river near Paducah KY. The Cumberland river takes a similar path to the Ohio. The Ohio flows into the Mississippi in Cairo, not long after collecting the Cumberland and Tennessee river. To say it has good current would be an understatement right now, they were pushing 240,000 cubic feet per second earlier this week

@Dorado, that last sentence is music to my ears! 99% of the grass in the TN river is 1 hr or more south of where I live

I don’t throw anything at a bass on the bed. I’m sure I catch them sometimes off a bed but rarely see them on one. And if I do see them on a bed, I usually only cast at them once or twice if at all. I like fishing for the hungry ones

Hahah! You could also ride a horse across the rio grande with that pistol

Hmmm. I’m starting to see an issue. Does anyone fish these lures when there isn’t grass??? We don’t have much grass and what we do have won’t be around until August....... the only place I know with grass is in the Rapids in clear water

I guess if they have a $50k + wakeboard boat, they probably have a quality wetsuit

Just keep wrapping the thread!!! That should at least cover up the peeking through part. Dab o glue helps too

That looks like a tricky place to fish, I always like to try the deepest places. “Post spawn” is a pretty broad time, if you mean immediately after spawn I might try right here around this choke point

I always try to spend $0 because I have more than enough stuff. Usually end up spending $25 here and there

Ha! And it was a lot better for skiing than Fishing

Thanks fellas, I’ll try to keep it away from the logs. I have some hand poured craws and swimbaits I can use for trailers. And I like the used worm idea, I usually do pretty good with a swim jig with worm/grub trailer in grass but figured I would try the chatter bait. Especially on account of how muddy the water is this year

Its slowly clearing out up here at the start of the river

And they start pleasure boating in April? Brrrrrr

That’s a monster! I bet you won’t go another 3 yrs without throwing a grub

Great skit! Pitchers and catchers have already reported a few places! Very exciting.

Ha! I used to have a fish and ski and I feel your pain. Soft plastics sticking to a windshield equals trophy backlash

This place sounds awesome! Reminds me of home. I look at the usgs water data website several times a day, I would recommend bookmarking it. There are even a few gauges that have turbidity and temperature readings so check for that too. If the water is muddy, a river smallmouth can still find a junebug plastic worm

I broke down and bought my first ever chatterbait today, 3/8 oz black and blue z-man for $4. Wish me luck! All suggestions welcome, I’m too cheap to put a rage tail trailer on it. I save those for special smallmouth occasions. Before I go tossing it into a log jam, just how weedless are these things and how easy are they to free when snagged? I’ll be using thick line

You’ve got to have some intestinal fortitude to swim in Tennessee in April! I don’t know exactly where lake Anna is but I would think the water will be too cold for excessive pleasure boats. How do y’all get so many on the water that early? All That being said, I have seen people jet ski in snow flurries! More than once! I’m hoping it was some kind of test drives.

I would call mike carter, he guides on both lakes and will know exactly where they are biting better

Those V4s were reliable back in the day. The johnson fast strike 150s seem to be just as reliable and have a crazy amount of power. Both love to drink gas at maximum levels

Nice fish! Did you measure it's length?

I used to have a hand operated trolling motor with a long tiller extension and a big foot on/off switch. Great for boat control but man did I hit that thing with sidearm casts........

I usually point the front of the boat upstream