Here are a few good ones I caught..Water temps 43 to 46 most caught between 5 to 12 feet deep on live shad..Decided to cheat on the artificial for a while..lol..

Biggest went around 8.6..We have probably caught around 30 over 5 lbs in the last two weeks and probably 10 over 7..I am not big on the live bait but it is sure fun to sit back and watch your poles bend over to the water..

Wow. What a trip.

That lake looks like a nice place to fish, too.

Beautiful fish.

You can go back this summer and recatch them on artificials.

"cheating" or not, those are some awesome fish man!  way to go!  and i agree, that lake looks awesome.  scratch that, with fish like that comin' out of it, it IS awesome!

Those are definitely some healthy looking fish.  Shad are awesome bait but I find it difficult  or a pain in the ars to keep them alive.

WOW! Those are some great fish man

Awesome fish man! Really healthy lookin' fat fish there, no doubt!

SICK FISH DUDE!!!! i dont care what you caught em on those are some great fish! good job keep it up!!!!  

Nice fish. Now my cabin fever is even worse!!  ;D

Nice work!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GREAT FISH!!!!!!!!!!!! would i ever love to have 5 of them HAWGS in a TOURNY 8-)......  BUT VERY NICE FISH partner even if it came off live bait.

Very nice fish.  I wouldn't worry about the live bait sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Nice Hogs. I cheat all the time with live shiners from the shop or blue gills I catch off shore . It will always produce the the big bass. What's your method? Do you use a floater, free lined, or with a sinker?

I fish big shiners on a split shot for smallmouth on the Tennessee River most of the time.

"I like fishing, but I like catching better!"

8-)

Wow man!  Nice fish! 8-)

I so wish I was sitting there next to you fishing!

Thanks for all the comments..We are downlining with 4 foot leader and one oz lead wt to keep bait down..Some where also caught with corks..with about 4 foot down and splitshot about 1 foot up...

I dont get why some fishermen have a problem with live bait. It is NOT cheating. As long as its legal live bait and you dont fish it in a tourney its perfectly fine. Live bait is the way to go if you just want to go out and catch a bunch of nice fish quickly. Yeah you dont learn much about fishing from using live bait though...

Yeah you dont learn much about fishing from using live bait though...

Really?

You might be surprized by all the guys that hire guides and still use live bait. I even recall some guy out in California that claims to have caught over 80 DD largemouth bass who says catchin' em on artificials is EASIER!

Great Fish man! I gotta stop coming to the outings section, its making me depressed.

Me personally think that catching fish on live bait is much easier..The only reason I am doing this is because I do like catching and not fishing..lol..The cheating part I am refferring to is because Craigaria got me into this and i told him this was like cheating..I will at this time invite anyone to my lake and give you the ability to throw any artificial and I will fish with live bait and we will see who wins.. ;)...This is not anything personal just an opinion that is does take more talent and skill to catch fish on artificial to live bait..I have caught five fish over 10 in my life with 12.4 being my biggest..If i were to catch one on live bait that is bigger I would certainly have to put an asterisk by the catch..

Yeah you dont learn much about fishing from using live bait though...

Really?

You might be surprized by all the guys that hire guides and still use live bait. I even recall some guy out in California that claims to have caught over 80 DD largemouth bass who says catchin' em on artificials is EASIER!

What I said I just said from my own personal experiance with live bait. Last time I used live bait I  was fishing with friends and we targetted largemouth bass on a small pond with some live feeder goldfish we bought from a pet store( yes we did get permission to do this from the pond owner). We seemed to catch a bass on EVERY cast with the goldfish. We would do everything from toss the goldfish neer structure and get bass to attack to throwing them out in the middle of the lake and waiting to get a run on our line which would come in about 2 minutes. We would even see bass in the shallow parts of the lake and toss the goldfish at them and just watch the bass inhale them. We probably caught 7-10 bass EACH with those goldfish in under two hours....

Also I often fish this private pond by myself useing artificial lures... that is the one time I have used live bait in that pond. When I fish the artificial lures the fishing is much harder. I actually have to work and figure the fish out to catch them....

Awesome toads, and thanks for the Pictures,

keep them coming man!!

all healthy looking fish.