charlie.m.jr

That's me and my pet, Gerard, doing a little modeling. LOL.

2022 Ranger Z520 R. Lowrance electronics and trolling motor.

I remember when you posted this one on BBC. Pretty boat. Mine is the red one that was posted right after yours. LOL.

I throw all of mine on the same gear ratio/ IPT. I have several Lew's superduty wide spools and all of them are in the 6.4 ratio. Per Lew's that equates to 28 IPT. I personally feel like that's a very happy medium for me. I can slow it down or speed it up with not much thought.........at least on the speed up part. LOL. I do have to remind myself when the water is cold to slow down, but I can live with that. I did buy one a couple of months ago in the 5.4 ratio to throw big crankbaits on and I will play with it for hudds once it cools off to see if I can tell any difference.

Ignite swimbaits have been pretty good to me over the years. They aren't as inexpensive as some other baits but they are hand poured and have a great swimming action. I rig them on screw lock hooks and also make line through's out of them.

Lew's Superduty 300 may be a good choice for what you are wanting. It holds 190 yards of 14lb and the gear ratio is 6.4 or 6.5 to 1. I use their wide speed spool for hudds and glides and they have been great reels for me. They're solid and not over the top expensive.

I either use a palomar knot or a double improved clinch knot. For me it depends on the lure I am using as to which knot I tie. Both have been very good and reliable for me over the years.

Like others have said here, deep is a relative term. I live in the land of TVA lakes where fish are known for their off shore haunts. With that being said, in the spring and fall it does amaze me how shallow our fish get. Especially in the fall. I mean dirt shallow, like how do you not see them swimming where you got bit. That being said, they are always close to "deep water". Deep water being the river channel, creek channel, or a ditch. Even in the early spring or late fall (water temps in the mid to upper 40s, + ) there will be fish that do pull up shallow to feed. A lot of it here is just covering water until you find them and capitalizing on the opportunity. Where a bait that doesn't get down to the bottom will shine, is this time of year. A lot of our fish here suspend over the deep water just off of the ledges and they are notoriously hard to catch like that. That's where a big slow lazy glide comes into play and you can wreck them on it. It is the same principle and mentality as what Dylan628 said about jerk baits, but with swimbaits instead.

The last order I placed with them, ( 3 weeks ago) I actually didn't proof it before I submitted it. I wanted the 2 day shipping since I needed stuff for a tournament, changed my payment card, and in doing so, it resorted back to standard ground shipping and I didn't catch it. After I got the confirmation I called them the next day and told them I really needed the 2 day and they hooked me right up with it and it wasn't a big hassle at all.

Good job guys. Congratulations on your win. Thanks for sharing the story. To win a tournament solely on swimbaits is one of the things I want to do. My hat is off to anyone on here that has done it.

Anyone got any Mike Long series of rods? I need to snatch one up real quick.

If you want it on a lead head, check out the revenge XL swimbait heads on tackle warehouse. They make them with a very stout hook and it has a much longer shank for bigger baits. If you're looking to make a line through, check out red one miller pagoda weights also on tackle warehouse. I use them for a lot of baits to make them line through set ups. It's a lot better than the pop rivet and coffee stirrer method that you mentioned.

Dan I think you'd be happy with the fishing opportunities in Middle TN. Like I said I live a little south of Nashville, but from a watershed standpoint, it's a great place to be with close proximity to a lot of good fisheries that all vary from each other. If a person doesn't mind driving about an hour to an hour and a half, there are 11 different lakes in that could fit in that time for driving.

Dan I live just outside of Nashville....about 45 miles south. Middle TN is a great place for people that like to fish. If you move to Nashville, you obviously have all of the Nashville lakes in close proximity as well as KY Lake, Barkley, Wilson, Wheeler, Pickwick, Center Hill, and Nickajack all within very reasonable drives. All of the lakes are fishing pretty good with the exception of Barkley and KY lake. There's a struggle here with Asian carp and years of bad spawns, but that's a different story. As far as the swimbait fishing goes, it is good here for the majority of the time. Fish here bite hudds, bull shads, ploppers, glides, and more here regularly. You may have to adjust tactics here a bit, as what is clear water to us may be stained or nasty depending on where you're coming from in California. The fishing around here is generally pretty good throughout the entire year with certain lakes turning on at different times. If you did decide to make the move, the fishing opportunities here are pretty good with lots of diversity.

I'm right handed and reel with my right hand. Whichever side of the boat I am on determines which hand gets the net if I am fishing solo. Example being if I'm facing out of the drivers side of my boat and get a fish up ready to net, my right hand would be on the net and rod in my left. I keep my net on the seats, so naturally my inside hand would be the closest one to it so that is the hand that grabs it.

I live on KY lake and they will eat any color you put in front of them....yes even a trout color. What I have stuck with and what works for me are any of the shad or generic shad colors in the hudd. I do throw the trout color as well and it doesn't really bother me when I do. It used to be a mind thing to me to stay away from the trout colors, but I have seen times when they eat that color when they wouldn't touch a shad color. For the weedless RS white is always a good color and believe it or not the rotten tomato color is good, especially in off colored water.

i feel like the numbers for Tennessee and Kentucky are both low given the fact that the TN river runs through both states. i know of a lot of people that have caught fish 10lbs or better off of the river and it still continues to produce them to this day.

I understand buddy. Like I said, I'm not saying you are wrong at all, I'm just saying I haven't heard that. It could be something in the latest greatest that has come out.

On the side imaging on the front, I caution you to stay away from that. You will get an image but it isn't what you're going to be expecting. As far as being able to turn the speed down in the settings, that's a new one on me. I'm not saying you're wrong, I just haven't heard about it. I have customers ask me for my opinion on this very thing almost daily and my answer is always the same. If you want imagining on the front, stick with down only. I have down imaging on my boat currently, and even the down image is not as sharp or clear as it is when looking at it while moving under power.

With the trolling motor from garmin are you talking about Pan Optics? It is pretty impressive to see it, but it isn't quiet as easy to read or distinguish what you are looking at like it is with structure/down scan images. Pan Optics is more like a radar so to speak than what structure/down scan would be. Pan optics does make it easier for hitting specific spots like brush piles or rock piles because you can "see" what you're throwing towards, but as far as "seeing" what it is you're throwing at, it either comes down to structure/down scan or the tried and true method of fishing it and figuring out what it is.

You don't want SI on your trolling motor. Your boat isn't moving fast enough with the trolling motor to get a good image. Most side imaging is set up to give you the best picture between 2.5 to 5 m.p.h. Also the deeper the water, the better ( clearer ) the imaging is on down or side scan. The deeper the water is, the wider you can look side to side and still get a good, readable image. I use down scan to find schools of fish and side imaging for locating structure that could hold potentially hold fish. Spotting schools of fish on side imaging can be done and is easy to see, but figuring out what type of fish it is is the hard part. You need to know what to look for in the images. Figuring out what those schools of fish are is much easier with down scan. I can tell from how fish are clustered and the shape(s) of their return as to what I am looking at. ( bass, catfish, carp, crappie, etc.) On the laskes that I fish ( TVA river system ) electronics are the name of the game for off shore fishing and I spend countless hours a year graphing and looking at / for fish. Once you figure out what you're looking at, it gets a lot easier and is a lot less overwhelming.

I agree 100%