roadwarrior

You might not want to fish it when you have all that mess on the bottom. The C-rig works best for me on rocky bottoms and mud or sand bottoms. In the muck I either fish weightless or T-rigged weedless.

Give the Yamamoto Fat Ika a try. Rig it weightless on a 3/0 or 4/0 Gamakatsu Offset EWG hook, skirt up. You can fish this soft plastic totally weedless which should help. I fish the Fat Ika slow in <12' of water. Cast it near cover or structure, parallel to the bank. Let is fall to the bottom and sit for a minute, then move it 6-12" with a horizontal sweep. Let it sit for at least 10-15 seconds, then move it again and continue until you are out of the "zone". If you are fishing deeper or just want to try another profile, I suggest a tube T-rigged (unpegged) and weedless. I've been killing 'em on a big tube, Micro Munch El Gordo, black neon (black with red flakes).

My first boat was a Bayliner Fish & Ski. It was really a ski boat that allowed you to configure the seats to fish out of. I would NOT recommend Bayliners, the quality is mediocre to poor, but the style (F & S) was okay.

What Rattlinrogue said, just about everything. Soft plastics would be my first suggestion, that's a great place to start. Get comfortable fishing soft plastics, both weighted and weightless. You will catch a lot of bass and some of them might be large. Add other techniques one at a time, get better before you try to get broader. You will become a better fisherman and catch plenty of fish along the way.

Stumps: Fly fisherman on the White River in low water conditions

I fish live shiners. If you are fishing a river, that's what I recommend. Artificials: jerkbaits, grubs on a jig head, Hula Grubs, Gitzit (especially baby diaper yellow), hair jig with trailer, 4" lizard (C-rig) and small crankbaits shallow, DD22 deep. I was at Bull Shoals last weekend. This lake is clear and deep. The Ranger Boat, Bass World Classic was held there, 10/7 & 10/8. The winners (two man team) boated 27 lbs on DD22 off primary points in 18' of water surrounded by very deep water.

basser89, The Tennessee River is a commercial river maintained for barge traffic, electricity production, flood control and recreation. The system incompasses at least thirteen reserviors covering four states. The preferred flow for smallmouth fishing is 60-80,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), but we will fish 20-140,000 cfs.I don't know what would be considered average, but with all gates open, the river system moves 2.4MM gallons of water per second! Throughout the week TVA has been releasing an average of 38-68,000 cfs everyday. Saturday and Sunday the average is scheduled to be 8,000 which means a couple of generators for a few hours. They don't care about fishermen and I can't fish this weekend as a result.

Wow! This is disappointing. The big knock on fishing the Tennessee River is that water flow is controlled by the TVA and they are not concerned with fishing. So, they just posted the Saturday release schedule, 10,000 cfs. That's average which means a couple of generators for a couple of hours. Bottom line, not enougn water to go fishing. The weather is perfect, the fish are on a tear and I can't fish. Bummer. What would be worse is if I had guests coming from outside the area. They would be all jazzed up about their big trip and I would have to tell them we can't go. Everyone thinks, "what the heck", let's go and give it a try anyhow. Well, that's not how it works: No water = no fish, period, the end. There is a lot to be said for free-flowing rivers. Maybe Bassmaster has it right after all.

Madhouse27, Split shot always, you want the minnow to swim and look natural. You want to use the minimum weight, but enough to get to or very near the bottom. This is not the same technique guys use in Florida, so with bigger baits fished in cover, you may want to try free swimming with no weight. However, that doesn't work for me on the river.

I brought this up again for Jake and other guys that are new to the forum. Maybe there are some ideas here that will help you. Good luck!

Hey Jake! Welcome aboard! There are lots of good people here and some information that you can apply to your new location. Michigan has plenty of great rivers and lakes, you'll soon be pleasantly surprised finding new "favorite" water to fish. Good luck to you in your new home state. My #1 recommendation is to hire a guide for a couple of outings on a couple of different rivers. You will learn more in one day with a good guide than anything else you could possibly do. Lures/ bait, current and structure on rivers may all be a little new to you, but you can learn a lot in a very short time. Start out with the right equipment. My suggestion is a quality spinning rod and reel, medium light or medium power with a fast tip. Spool up some 6 lb test line, it makes a difference. Then hire yourself a guide and go fishing. Your guide will introduce you to lures and techniques that work on his river. That's where I think you begin. Good luck.

I just got the October Bassmaster magazine and was wondering what your take is on the "5 Best Rivers for Smallies". Since I have not fished any of the featured rivers, I can't really comment on them. I wasn't too impressed with the fish photos, but I know numbers are important to many fishermen. I was just surprised that the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers did not make the list. Maybe that's good for me! Have you fished any of the top five? If so, tell us a little more about them. The rivers are: (1) New River (2) Susquehanna (3) St. Lawrence (4) Snake River (5) Columbia River If you have another nomination for one of the top smallmouth rivers, tell us about that river, too.

One correction: #6 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hooks for smallmouth. Nick: The Tennesse River and the reserviors I fish on this part of the river are stained, not clear. Cumberland River lakes like Dale Holow are crystal clear and I'm sure night fishing rules a good portion of the year. Madhouse: Like Redtail said, except #6 not #1 hooks (my mistake in the post).

Go to topic category "Everything Else". On page two is a thread "Story of the Forum". That will answer your question.

I'm not a tournament fisherman, so I only fish for big fish. Fishing for big bass is not always productive, but when it is, it's exciting. I know big bass are caught occasionally on just about any lure, in any water, but to consistantly catch big bass you need to target them. Location The lake, pond or river you fish must be capable of producing big bass. You can't catch 'em if they aint' there! Target water that is known for big bass. It takes lots of fives to produce an eight, and lots of eights to produce a 10 lb bass. Depth and Structure Yeah, I know, most big bass are caught in shallow water in low light conditions, but only one of my 10s has been. Big bass occasionally hunt shallow and that's often early morning or late afternoon. The rest of the time they LIVE in deeper water on or near structure or cover. I fish deep structure and there is vey little fishing pressure out there. Lures and Bait Big... Large bass prefer a large meal that they don't have to work too hard to catch. They are opportunists and often feed off the spoils of their smaller neighbors. Bank runners injure and scare baitfish that often become disorientated and vunerable. Suspending out in deeper water, big bass ambush their prey. Structure and cover provide stealth for the predator. Big lures imitate the prey these big girls need to survive and big baits, well, that's what's for dinner! Speed I like slow. I target a feeding strike. That's not to say that a fast moving lure won't trigger a reaction strike from a big bass, sometimes that is the best strategy. Most of the time, slow is the ticket and soft plastics and jigs fit the bill. Live Bait I just had to throw this in. I don't use live bait fishing for largemouth, but I fish live shiners for smallmouth almost exclusively on the Tennessee River. I catch a lot of fish, some are huge, although most aren't bass! Some of them are smallmouth and most of those are big. Live shiners, yep, they work.

Fish the deeper water around the structure and weeds with weighted soft plastics during the day and crankbaits in low light. Specifically tubes, Kreature and Kut-Tail for your soft plastics. Lipless cranks, Norman Fat Boy, Bomber Square A and Bagley BII for hard baits. I would also fish jerkbaits, especially the Lucky Craft Staysee if you are fishing from a boat. If you are comfortable with jigs, that would be another option.

Floating Rapalas and floating Rogues might just be the ticket. Two feet of water is certainly too shallow for a regular jerkbait. Stained water, particularly that shallow, should not be much of an issue. I think stained water is easier to fish than clear water anyhow.

Soft plastics. Senko or Fat Ika weightless is water <12' Weighted tube, Kreature, Hula Grub or Kut-Tail in deeper water. All but one of my 10 lb bass have been caught between 10 AM and 2 PM on the hottest, brightest, bluebird days of summer on a 6" Senko. This year, as the summer heated up, I had better luck with tubes. Specifically, Micro Munch Tackle's El Gordo in black neon, T-rigged (unpegged).

Matt_Fly, I would consider that a great day as long as my guide's 15 averaged 2 lbs and we boated comparable total weights!

This is part of a response I posted last week regarding "How to hire a guide". Your guide should be a professional and this is a job for him not a day on the lake. Depending on where I'm going, who I'm taking and the particular guide I've hired, they sometimes fish, but usually they do not. I expect the guide to put me on fish and provide some local advice as to what's working. I don't necessarily "expect to catch fish", but I do expect my guide to try his best to find them. As a specific example, I have a couple of guides hired this weekend. I'm taking my 76 year old dad and a 75 year old friend of his. The two days the three of us are trout fishing on the White River, the guide will not fish. I don't have to tell him that, he will be busy! The third day it's just me and the guide, who I also consider a friend, fishing the lake (Bull Shoals). I'm paying full bore retail for that third day, but my guide will fish the front of the boat and we will be equal partners in every way.

Call Ricky at Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock, he might be able to point you in the right direction. 870.445.4424 or 445.4166

The point I was making is that jigs, worms and tubes work year around depending on the conditions you are fishing. They are not always the right choice on any particular day, but they might be at any time of year.

Jsutton6, Great outing, great fish! You might want to try throwing a jerkbait, too. That's my favorite technique fishing artificial lures.

Try the Norman Fat Boy, bluegill pattern. I caught my PB on this lure last month and a 7-8 lb last Saturday. Yep, I like this lure...A lot!

It's the second featured article on the BassResource home page (what comes up when you access the site): New! Jig, Worm or Tube