Blue Raider Bob

Temp on Tennessee river was 62 yesterday and caught 38. Most were dinks but several were nice. I agree with TnRiver46. I catch more when water temps are higher but they were on a fish bite yesterday with several throwing up shad when landed. Check out the belly on the Smallie in the picture. Don't think she could have crammed one more fish in if she wanted too! Where is the picture of " One of your biggest ever"? Don't hold out on us!

Looking forward to more Bass pics!!! I'm going to the Tennessee River tomorrow afternoon and to the Cumberland Sunday. Would go Saturday as well but Saturday is farm day. Expected high temps in low 70's!!!! What a spoiled life we lead!

Eric I totally get that. Back in the day I would fearlessly walk a top plate...on the second floor......now I won't walk a top plate on the first floor! 8/12 is too much for me now. I won't even ride my daughters horses any more because they are too far off the ground. Falls hurt worse than they used to!

Durn what a Hoss! You seem to be right in the current! I need to head for the river tomorrow. Thanks for convincing me it's a good idea!

Wow! I'm really ruint now. It's hard enough trying to figure out how to build this house I'm staring at without the exciting distractions of a guided trip through the marshes of Maine with a kind, generous, new fishing friend, (who is paddling) with the thoughts of taters and sausage and 70 honey hole fish! No, friends....it is I who just won the lottery! Decks take a lot longer when they are attached to a lake house! Trip to truck to grab a toolbox and come back with a tacklebox! How does that happen?

Can't believe the outpouring of love! I'm humbled. Tater's and sausage, 40-bass evenings. All I have to do is build a pond (which I love). I've got two other small ones I've built. One with a completely covered rock bank from digging up rocks on the farms. I would feel honoured and blessed to build your pond and TnRiver46's deck!

As long as we get to wet a line within site of the Greatest Building in the World! Go Vols!!!! And my Blue Raiders who have dropped two since they went to Miami and beat the Canes!

Just realized these picts are from 2018. The pond is six years. Time flies! My God my math is horrible!! It's four years old. 2018 to 2022

I do not eat the fish because I treat them as pets AND I don't like fish! As one of eight kids, and no money, we had fried Bream (Bluegill and anything close to Bluegill) often. Headless and with all fins still attached. I loved catchin' with canepole and crickets, but I hated cleaning and eating! My pond is four years old and it was built with a plastic liner because our ground does not hold water. It is fed with a solar powered well pump. It is stocked with local lake catches as well as baby bluegill and bass that are stranded when my wet weather creek dries up in the summer. They are washed into the creek from farm ponds further upstream. I had several nice size bluegills until the otter family moved in and ate them ,as well as all my larger bass. Since the otters have been discouraged from returning, some of my bluegill are getting up to 1/2 lb. I also have several bass over two and maybe a few over three, and I definitely have "Bertha" in the pond at 5lb 3 oz when I brought her home from the Cumberland a couple months back. I don't eat the fish but I am fascinated by them and observe daily. I toss out feed and the Bluegill gather, followed by an explosion or two. Don't see how the bass catch them because the Bluegill are lightning fast. They are also a barometer of sorts for fishing trips. Some days I'll toss out a handful and the Bluegill with bust the feed from all directions. That's the day I hook up the boat! Other times the feed will set for 15 minutes without any takers. That's the day I sit on the dock!

Extremely touching moment! Thanks for sharing!

I can say both! This is a lot of very hard work and is beyond beautiful! I really love the different tones of green in the summer garden. Very creative and I am envious. My gardens are very boring...just rows of beans, corn, squash, ect. And they are dreadful to work in July and August down here. I would rather build something or fish! Thank you for sharing. If you look at the dock picture with the snow you will see an automatic fish feeder from Moultrie. These things are terrific. It is solar powered and feeds my Bluegills three times a day. They hang around the dock and are almost tame in a way. Speaking of which, I have Molly,(my resident Red-Eared Slider), who showed up four years ago and has remained. She is so tame she will eat out of my hand. The other turtles spook easily, but not Molly. When she sees me approaching the dock, she heads that way for a private feeding.

Thanks Eric! I also used to frame many years (decades) ago. I framed back in the day when every house was a 4/12 ranch and it was way easy. Nowadays the houses I supply ( I sell building materials) are so cut up....well you know, but I still have that itch, as I'm sure you do. I get a wild hair and just build something. There are structures all all over the farm. Lately I have been fighting itches and just go fishing! One thing about the otter I failed to mention......I was dozing off in a chair like I sometimes do when he (it was huge) shot through the observation hole onto the deck at my feet. If I would have been standing, I would have cracked my head on a dock post trying to get away! It really scared the daylights out of me!

Did they ever get the goalposts out of the river? Don't want to get snagged on one when they drift down this far! WHOA! That dude looks like he ate everything in the lake! 5-1/4 at 19" That is amazing!

I think after 80 (samples) I might have bought that 219.00 bottle. Wouldn't have hit a deer though 'cause I would have been walking! Durn sure wouldn't have got up early the next morning to fish! Glad to have survived those days! Ribs, briskets, and mac & cheese!! Now that got my attention!

We have those as well! Don't have a picture but down the road from us is a driveway sign that reads...(Tresspassers will be shot! Survivors will be shot AGAIN!) I don't go down that drive! The otters were an exciting novelty at first..........until my dog started bringing me bass skulls....ouch! They were living under my dock where they could get between the floor joists. How can they catch these fish???? We all know how fast a bass is. I watch them explode after bluegill when I throw in fish food. They go from zero to GONE!!! In an instant, and it seems to me the bluegill are even faster! How do the otters catch them? Anyway I pulled up my deck boards and found piles of scales and skulls, so I framed in all the joist openings to discourage the otters. It worked and now they drop by occasionally but do not stay. Got tired of sweeping piles of fish scales and ...you know what... off my dock. Had a couple of beavers stop by for a day but my pond didn't fill their needs. Couple more dock pictures. You guys know lots about the white stuff but we rarely get a snowfall. The other is the ceiling of my floating dock, I know it's over the top but I like to build stuff. Finally is my observation hole. One day I was kicked back relaxing and an otter came flying up through this hole onto the deck. We both jumped out of our skins! He scared the....out of me and I did the same to him. He did a 180 and was back in the pond before I could grab a camera. I drop fish pellets in the hole and get good views of my scaly friends!

Why is it to late for froggin'? The bass don't know the frogs hibernate? Have you tried and just not gotten strikes? Just wondering........can't get enough of Google Earth and the many ponds and lakes of Maine! Went to Zillow and wow those properties are expensive. Half a mill for a lake lot at Rangley.

Never been near there but If it were me, I would bring a spinning rig with plastic craws and Ned heads. Maybe a Goby imitation like a Dark Sleeper swimbait to work slowly near the bottom.

I'm with you there. I fish rivers and I catch in all directions. Sometimes if I get bored, I will even troll upriver against the current and catch fish.

Do you catch them on slower retrieves or only while burning them in clear water? In the dingy water back home it was always a slow retrieve. The clearer water where I am now doesn't seem to give up the smallies on a slow retrieve. I'm wondering about a faster retrieve. How deep is your water? If you are burning the spinnerbait then the smallies must be coming up for them. Read a book by Jim Root and he swears by spinner baits for smallies in rivers and lakes.

Thanks for the recommendation. I just ordered one. Maybe it will help me graduate from dinks to hogs!

What a fisherperson's paradise! Thanks for the info! I've spent the last thirty minutes cruising along the ponds between Belfast and Camden. Amazing number of ponds to fish and the ocean nearbye. I'm very envious! Might have to play hookey tomorrow and head for the river.....sounds like a plan!

Good grief! There are ponds all over the place. One is even called FISH pond! Now I'm really ruint (as we say down here). And all the boats in the Harbor at Camden. Boy I sure would like to make it that way someday but it is a long drive from Tennessee. Our fishing opportunities are much more limited. It's all rock and Western Cedar trees. Anyplace that has dirt is growing crops or grazing cattle. My paddle used to be my depth finder in the swamps back home. Anything over paddle depth was "Deep water"! And we sure couldn't see the bottom. Nowadays I depend on my livescope. Can't fish without it. What is your favorite pond? I would like to spy on it with Google Earth! meant Eastern Cedar but I'm so tore up over Maine that I can't speak!

That water looks crystal clear. Is it, or just my perception? Thanks for the post. Now I'm daydreaming about Maine ponds while I avoid working! What part of Maine? I have never been there.

No different at all. I do not let my Ned sit. It is a hang-up machine. I try to feel the bottom and hope instinct and luck keep the hang-ups to a minimum. I vary retrieves. Sometimes a slight bounce and sometimes a slower crawl. Depends alot on river bottom composition. I only fish current and rivers so it is a bit different from jig fishing lakes. I personally refer to the set up as Ned for ease of technique understanding with fellow anglers but I do not use a TRD. I use a craw or TicklrZ. Don't know if they are better but it's my confidence baits. I'm going to try different plastics such as Fluke and curly tail to see if it matters or if the Smallies just eat everything they see. Got to try the Power Craw as well.

What color single tail grubs have been working for you? That's something I used to do but got away from them. Do you fish them like a swimbait or more like a bottom bouncing presentation? I have some 4" Chartreuse Mister Twisters that I've never used.