went yesterday with my good buddy chris (cj on here) to the tn river in my new boat. wanna thank chris for the great fun and fellowship. it's always a pleasure bud. make no mistake y'all, chris is the real deal with a fishin' rod in his hand. i continue to learn from him about the "big water" which at this point is still pretty much a new ballgame to me. our best bite came on jigs and plastics. even though we had no giants, they were plenty cooperative and we did manage some good ones. below is a nice little chunk on a jig and rage craw. these rage craws (in all their sizes) have become a "must have" for me and i can't tell ya how many times they've proven their worth.

then today, i had a couple of hours to get out and fish a pond close to the house. i honestly had no big plans in mind when i went today. just wanted to catch a few on the light spinning rod and trick worm and tussle with a few of the big bluegill that live in this pond. caught quite a few fish on the little trick worm and set up shop to bluegill fish. after a few minutes, i noticed a commotion down the bank about 20 yards. went over to investigate and saw this BIG bass. unfortunately visibility was kinda limited with the cloudy sky and stained water. even more unfortunate was the fact that all i had to my name was a couple of light spinning rods, some little hooks, one trick worm left, and some bluegill bait. well i did the only thing i knew to do, baited up for a small gill, caught one, and put it on the biggest hook i had - a 1/0 circle. cast to the area i saw the fish and it didn't take long. it was on like a light switch with the light line and a big ol' angry bass. wondered if i'd bitten off more than i could chew as the sow burned line off the little spinning reel. but everything held and soon i was holding a 9-1 beauty pictured below. pretty cool for 6 lb. test. and real nice on a day when i wasn't expecting anything bigger than 2 pounds. you just never know what's gonna happen when you wet a line, do ya? 8-)

Looking good man.

You gonna hook up with us in Kentucky or what?

i'm sure gonna try bro.  i'll pm ya.

Glad to see you and CJ caught some good'ns out on the river. Here's to many happy and successful days in your new boat.

That nine pounder probably felt the pull from the full moon tomorrow.

hookset

Awesome fish Paul.  Sounds like blast.

WOO-HOO!

Off ledges? How deep?

-Kent

8-)

Anytime I catch a fish over 5 lbs it's an awesome day.  Congrats.

WOO-HOO!

Off ledges? How deep?

-Kent

8-)

nope.  1-3 ft.  timing of the road trip is excellent.  right now, you can catch fish shallow if you wanna or you can catch 'em deep if you wanna.  if you have one particular thing you really like to do, you can catch fish doing it.   i suspect it won't be that much different further south on the river either.   

It was a great day for me too Paul. And always enjoy a day out on the water with you bud!

We were fishing in Paul's neck of the woods. My boat is in the shop so I haven't been out for over a week up here. From what I've seen, a majority of the fish have got their business done shallow. They're are still a lot of fish shallow but the ledges are starting to stack up. I expect ledges to heat up soon with the water generation schedule being on the up side!