Hey guys, I’m going to be visiting my in laws who live in the Johnson city area the week of July 4th, and am hoping to get away at least one morning and do some fishing. They’re very close to Boone lake, and I had actually asked about fishing there once before. When I was up there a few years back I checked out watauga lake and did some shore fishing with very limited success, I caught one dink small mouth. I’m wondering where the best places might be to go, I know Boone lake is low and I can probably get to many places on foot since it’s so low, wondering what the best baits and tactics will be for this time frame? Down here in Florida it’s almost all soft plastics in the weeds these days, but I know this is a vastly different scenario up there. 

 

    The other option is if someone up there is interested in swapping trips out, I could entertain a trip on the Kissimmee chain (lake Toho) or stickmarsh/Garcia in trade for a trip out to either of these lakes mentioned.

Watauga is a big fish factory! Boone can be good for stripers up in the rivers. There's a small lake called steele Creek or something like that which has a reputation of huge largemouth

11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Watauga is a big fish factory! Boone can be good for stripers up in the rivers. There's a small lake called steele Creek or something like that which has a reputation of huge largemouth

I’ll look into Steele creek. Any suggestions since I’ll almost definitely be shore bound. And also best bets for baits this time of year? 

The holston river in downtown Kingsport is good for wade fishing smallmouth. Also when I’m bank bound I like fishing right below dams, sometimes it’s mostly trout but there’s always good access and current. Spoons and spinners are good for the trout, soft plastics or topwater for the bass