Tennessee Boy

I say take the prize money out of tournament fishing at all but the highest levels. When you wave money around you will attract thieves. It should be enough to fish for honor and fun. I’ve been saying this for 30 years and I’ve yet to find anyone that agrees with me so I realize it will never happen.

They also forfeited a $100,000 boat.

Zoom Lizards for 30 years. I don’t like change.

I just drove across the bridge. It’s raining and I only saw one boat on the water. It was on the spot! I thought everyone would want to know.?

DH on my list now that I’m retired. I’ve heard all my life that it’s challenging if you don’t know the lake. I think February is probably the best time to go there.

Well thank you but the truth is I'm not . Like I said in the original post, I'm not looking for advice, I'm just trying to start a discussion. I have not fished or graphed the spot because I'm not that interested in a spot that gets that much pressure. I'm pretty sure it's a brush pile that someone dropped. I'll eventually graph it to see what all the fuss is about and if I see fish I'll probably try to catch them. I think we all know of community holes that always seem to have a boat on them. Here's my opinion on these matters. We all learn from others. Some folks are kind enough to teach us. We learn from other without them knowing it. The notion that everyone should always find their own fish is unrealistic. I spend a lot of time hunting for offshore spots because I really enjoy the hunt. It takes a lot of time. I found two spots last year that are special and not community holes. I try to kept others from finding them by watching me. I don't blame them or look down on them for trying. That's part of the game. The rest of the spots I fish are ones that anyone who can read a map would want to fish. I don't apologize for being observant on the water. When I fish a new lake, I try to understand the character of the lake by noting what other anglers are doing. When I see a boat fishing, I look at the map to see what they are fishing, if it looks good, it's probably a community hole. That's a lot faster than graphing every promising spot on the map. Knowing how to read what's happening around you is an important part of fishing and there's no shame in it. The truth is most professionals search the web, talk to as many sources as they can, look at google maps, and hire local guides to help them understand a lake before a tournament. It's an essential skill in fishing. If you always try to solve the puzzle on your own, you are putting yourself to a significant disadvantage. As your knowledge of a lake grows, you become the one that everyone is watching to learn from. That's the way it works IMHO. If you wrap your boat and start a YouTube channel, you should expect to get more attention. All that said, being rude on the water is unacceptable and is a different matter. You won't know it if I mark the spot you are fishing. When I fished a club, I had many discussions about fishing spots that others had shared with me. If someone showed me a spot, I never fished that spot in a tournament without their permission.

Check out this video starting at about 7:00 minutes. This is the argument many make about finding your own fish. Do you agree?

I’ll add another consideration based on lessons learned from FFS. Bigger faster baits tend to get more reactions without hits. Smaller slower baits tend to get fewer reactions but those reactions are more likely to be hits. So throwing a big crankbait first might result in fish following it off the spot without hitting it. Those fish usually won’t return to the spot immediately to hit your “clean up” bait. These are tendencies not rules. There are good reasons to start big and fast and there are good reasons to start small and slow. You might also want to start somewhere in the middle. It’s a judgment call that one must make on the water.

I must say I'm very surprised at how much everyone seems to agree that it's okay to fish the spot. Maybe I need to stir the pot a little more to get some debate going here. What about the argument that it takes time and effort to find a spot and that it's stealing someone else's work to fish a spot that you didn't put in the work to find yourself? Let's consider a different hypothetical situation. What if I noticed a well known local guide is sitting on a spot? Would that change anything? Obviously, it's wrong to move in on a spot when someone's fishing it. There seems to be a consensus that you shouldn't move in and mark a waypoint either. I'm pretty good with math and I can get the coordinates of a spot from two hundred yards away. Is that okay?

If I'm "killing it" I'm not going to loose interest. I might make a change if I think I can dial it in further. I also agree with Tom about experimenting during a good bite.

We have lived in our current home for about two and a half years. It's located near the lake and whenever I leave the house, I pass by the water. There's a bridge that I cross at least twenty times a week, and as expected, I always check the water conditions and the number of people on the water. I have noticed that one particular offshore spot often has a boat on it. I estimate that I've seen a boat fishing that spot hundreds of times. One day, I saw a boat there and two hours later the same boat was still there. I have checked the map, but I don't see anything interesting in the area. Obviously, there is something there that attracts anglers. I have not fished there or graphed it to see what's down there. My question is this: Would it be unethical for me to fish this spot simply because it is popular? I am not seeking advice as I already know how I feel about it. I just want to start a conversation about the ethics of fishing spots solely because you've observed others fishing there. What would you do?

Very curious first post. ?

I’m actually surprised you were brave enough to ventured out this weekend. Didn’t you know middle Tennessee was invaded by 170,000 Swifties?

So that’s what happened to my hot dogs. ?

It’s bad enough when you use the Lord’s name in vain. It’s taking it to another level when you do it in God’s Country. ?

It’s funny now to watch the old movies and hear the bad gangster type villains using words like “dang” and “heck”.

A few years ago I was heading into a creek that had a narrow channel marked by buoys leading to a large marina. I was watching three boats, one in front of me and two coming towards me. That’s when I first noticed a kayak to my right. His kayak, life vest, and cap were all olive brown which matched the color of the water. I had not seen him until it was too late but fortunately I missed him by 30 feet. All of the boats were creating wakes and I could only see his kayak when he was on top of a wake. That experience still haunts me.

McBeth had 5 for 11-8. He made a name for himself with that typo.

I like the way they do it online here. You can print it or just pull it up in the app on your phone. I have mine set to auto renew so I don’t have to do anything. They do sell them in stores for folks who are stuck in the 80s. I would be very surprised if a state didn’t have an option for getting a license without a computer.

It’s very sad. I fish that lake. I never go there on the weekends because I’m afraid someone will hit me and I’m in a silver bass boat. I don’t think most kayaker realize how small they are on a big lake and so many of them almost seem like they’re trying to camouflage themselves. What color are most kayaks? The color of lake water. Add a matching life vest and cap and you’re practically invisible when you’re on top of a wake and completely invisible when you’re between wakes.

I put mine up front under the deck because I have three things connected to it up front and only one thing at the console. I was a little concerned that the extra vibration and wake impacts up front would be a problem but it’s been working fine for five years. The switch is rated IP54 which is splash resistant not waterproof.

There are plenty of people who only use spinning reels that are living normal happy lives. Same can be said for people that only use baitcasting reels.

Cloud cover is very important in fishing and a barometer can help you determine if it’s cloudy….or you can just look up. ?

You’ve dialed in a bait, and how to fish the bait, at a location that works. You just haven’t determined what’s special about the location that you need to find other similar locations. It’s also possible that there are no similar locations. Let’s just call it a “template” instead of a pattern.

When I get to the point where I’m spending to much money on duct tape trying to keep my truck in one piece, it’s time for a new one. My Tacoma is 11 years old with 159,000 miles on it and still going strong. I usually buy slightly used vehicles. I’m a CarMax fan.