Left work early Friday to get a couple hours in on the Duck River in middle Tennessee. Water temp was 41 deg. and I came away with a big, fat, skunk. Wasn't all bad because the weather was terrific and I wasn't working. Included a couple of pictures from my little riverboat. The Duck begins in the foothills of the Cumberland Plateau, and crosses the midstate to join the mighty Tennessee, and Kentucky Lake near New Johnsonville.

     Flipped a two headed coin Saturday to see if I would go fishing instead of farmwork, (I chose heads). I won, so I went to the Tennessee River at South Pittsburg TN. Water temp was 45 and gin clear. Had lots of trouble catching fish and only ended up with six little ones. All caught on a Big Bites Swimbait. At least no skunk in the boat.

     Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! Three of my kids gave me food and the other gave me a Bass Pro Gift Card. Three good kids and one TERRIFIC ONE!!!!

At least you didn’t end the year with a skunk! And that’s some nice looking water you’re fishing. That’s always a consolation prize. Your water doesn’t freeze, does it? I imagine you won’t have to wait long to get after em in the new year. Every winter I have half a mind to load the boat up and head south of the Mason-Dixon to do some bassin before April. The Tennessee river is always on my radar for that. 
 

 

     Holler if you ever do make that trip. I'll try to put you on some river fish. What was really disappointing about the Duck River trip was I ran across one other boat on the river, and the guys in the boat said they caught 9 with the biggest at 14". They said they are keeping the six biggest to eat. What is frustrating is the Tennessee minimum is 15" so these poachers were eating six short fish. I already have a really hard time catching bass on the Duck, and this is not the first time I have seen short smallies go in someone's cooler.

     The rivers and large lakes here never freeze but my farm pond does.

There is no state wide minimum length limit on black bass in TN. Certain bodies of water have exceptions but statewide you can keep as small of a bass as you want to. And they could have kept 10 of them 

 

 

now if they were on KY lake, there’s a 15” minimum on largemouth and smallmouth but not spots 

You are right. I stand corrected. Unless noted, our state has no limit on size and each angler may keep up to five per day.

@Blue Raider Bob, I did see something called duck river bottoms that I believe was considered part of KY lake on the regulations , which would be 15” minimum 

 

here in east TN it’s mostly SMB and the limit is 18” just about everywhere in the Knoxville area. Upper east TN I think it goes back to 15” on several lakes. Takes a lifetime to know all the regs, the game wardens have to use a cheat sheet 

@TnRiver46 I did some looking & quite a few lakes had different length requirements than the statewide regulation & based on 4 different zones. Not too many creeks/rivers were included in the exception list (compared to the number available). I was a bit surprised.

It’s quite complicated. flowing rivers have a PLR on SMb also, don’t know if that’s state wide. You can keep 5, 4 under 13” and one over 17”. Or all 5 under 13”. And 13” is not under 13” and 17” is not over 17”. 

@TnRiver46 It is if trying to memorize - was pretty straightforward once I looked at the exclusions. Just makes it more of a pain to resident anglers who fish different waters. Visitors are probably only fishing 1 place for a week or so at a time. Then you have all the waters which cross state lines & reciprocal licensing to figure out. Just come to IN where it’s a bass desert - much simpler. I kid - nice places to fish, just many public well-known places get hammered IMO. Excluding Lake MI, I believe our largest lake is under 10k acres.

@RipzLipz, I had some game wardens pull up to me

on the Holston , asked if I had anything in the livewell. I said I’ve got 4 smallmouth that are under the slot (like I said you can keep 4 under 13”)

 

they said “under?? That’s not good.” I  said well the limit is under 13”, they had no idea haha

@TnRiver46 I rarely have been checked, if ever, in IN. However, have been checked numerous times out of state. Never had an issue. Mostly C & R out of state anyway, save walleye for meals while up north.

I get checked probably a dozen times a year 

Yes, it's a wide state with so many different types of waterbodies. If you read the limits on Crappie, you will see that on the Mississippi River side of the levee, there is no size or number limit. That goes to show how terrific the fishing is in the old oxbows of my youth. Once you approach middle Tennessee, you will see much more stringent limits. Little did I know then that slab Crappie and spinnerbait Bass were not a guaranteed thing very trip. I sure know it now!

21 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I get checked probably a dozen times a year 

After seeing ya'lls pictures on this site, I'm not too surprised!  😆 But seriously, I've been checked one time in Tennessee in the last forty years, and never on the Tennessee. Is it the same guys each time?

It’s usually the same 4-5 guys in combination, they are friends/coworkers with the game wardens I went to college with. Therefore I think I’m being set up every time 😂