For the 4th of July I'm going up to East Tennessee to visit my girlfriend's parents and do some fishing with her dad. They keep their boat on Boone Lake, and that's where we'll be fishing apparently. Knowing her dad, he probably hasn't taken the boat out once this summer, so does anyone have any tips about fishing this lake or perhaps just this area?

A tip?  Stay off that lake on any holiday.

Go to http://www.easttennesseefishing.com and you'll get more responses.

Yeah, I kind of figured that after looking at a map and realizing it was <5,000 acres and right in the middle of the tri-cities area. Maybe I can convince him to head somewhere that's a little less populated...because if it's as congested as you make it sound, my chances of catching even a piece of garbage will probably be 0.

You might be able to get something in the tailwaters, but Im sure South Holston, Watauga, Boone, Cherokee and Douglas all will be nuts on the 4th with pleasure riders.

Well I guess inherently almost any lake bigger than a couple hundred acres is gonna have it's large share of recreational boaters and people zooming around on PWCs. I'll be up there for about five days so I will try my luck before the crowd swarms in. And fortunately, the parts of the water I usually like to fish are the parts the recreational folks stay away from ;D

Boone's problem is that it is small, close to JC and Kingsport and probably has more pleasure boaters than any lake in NE TN.  Cherokee or Douglas are much easier to navigate during crowded times.

I'm going to Boone tomorrow to look around and I'm not really looking forward to being over there after dark.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

I think I would hit the lake for the very early morning bite (an hour or two tops) then I would head over to that little bar near a marina (I forget the name) and sit back, consume a few too many drinks, and watch the show that presents itself to you during a summertime weekend. While I was working on a project at ETSU I enjoyed this show plenty of times. Drunk pleasure boaters, some obvious newcomers to the boating world, and scantly clad college girls.... not a bad afternoon if I do say so myself. This bar that I speak of is like a tiki hut right on the water... where many folks come to eat and drink after some time out on the water. What memories I have of that place.

Try and catch some Elwives for bait if at all possible. I caught a 5 1/2 lb Largemouth this spring on Boone while fishing with these live baits.