02.07.09 - Cherokee Lake, TN

[G3_Guy]

Team G3 fished in it's last official tournament of the USA Bassin Winter Trail today. We started off fast but fizzled at the end today... I landed a 15" on my first cast of the morning, 4 casts later I landed a 17". From there we landed 3 more fish between 15-17" by 10:30am and that was it for us. The wind picked up around 12:30ish and that was it. Would have been a great evening to have a sailboat. :roll: Below are the pics of the day. Thank the good Lord for a chance to go fishing and for allowing me to catch a few. Also, big thanks to my buddy Joe C. for putting up with me for 5 tournaments this winter and allowing me to help out. I really enjoyed it and hope to do it again!

God Bless and Good Fishing to all!

15" Smallmouth

17" Smallmouth

16" Smallmouth

17" Smallmouth

15" Smallmouth

 

[Captain Ahab]

Thanks for teh report - what was the secret bait for those fine looking smallies?

 

[G3_Guy]

Thanks Captain! The secret bait was the ol Float-n-Fly...

 

[Zum]

5 nice size fish for a tournament isn't it?
Seems to me with those fish you must have come close to placing?
Nice looking smallies there,way to go.

 

[Waterwings]

Nice catchin' ! 8)

 

[G3_Guy]

5 nice size fish for a tournament isn't it?
Seems to me with those fish you must have come close to placing?
Nice looking smallies there,way to go.

Thanks Zum... I wish this were true but in TN, all Smallmouth have to be at least 18" long before you can keep them... except on Douglas & Dale Hollow Lakes, where they must be 20" and 21" respectively. I wish we could have weighed them in but no such luck.

 

[Zum]

Thanks Zum... I wish this were true but in TN, all Smallmouth have to be at least 18" long before you can keep them... except on Douglas & Dale Hollow Lakes, where they must be 20" and 21" respectively. I wish we could have weighed them in but no such luck.

WOW...you must have some real big weights at the way in's.
or I guess some real small ones

Does that mean if you wanted to take one home to eat it would have to be 18" plus?or is it just for tournaments?

 

[BassNBob]

Nice smallies and good looking pictures. Thanks for the report. I tried today at Norris but no luck.

 

[jl_rotary]

Nice smallies.

 

[russ010]

man... you catch some of the best looking smallies - and they all average in the 15-17" range too.. way to go, you have definitely got them lunkerz patterned

 

[G3_Guy]

Does that mean if you wanted to take one home to eat it would have to be 18" plus?or is it just for tournaments?

Yeah, it makes for some interesting weights. In the tournament yesterday, we had 12 boats and only 3 boats weighed fish... no SM were weighed in. Which is actually very unusual for Cherokee Lake.

In TN, they would have to be at least 18" long for you to keep them period... the only exception is on Douglas Lake, where you are only allowed to keep one SM over 20" and then on Dale Hollow, you are only allowed to keep two... one between 12-16" and another over 21".

 

[G3_Guy]

Nice smallies and good looking pictures. Thanks for the report. I tried today at Norris but no luck.

Sorry to hear it didn't go so well Bob... hopefully we can get together and give it a shot before winter is over!

 

[G3_Guy]

man... you catch some of the best looking smallies - and they all average in the 15-17" range too.. way to go, you have definitely got them lunkerz patterned

Thanks Russ! I just enjoy catching brownfish and have been blessed to live in an area where there are good size in good numbers. I like catching the 18-22" better. Cherokee, Norris, South Holston and Dale Hollow are loaded with big SM... Hopefully everyone will get to witness that first hand at the Dale Hollow G2G.

 

[Zum]

It's kinda different here,as long as you release the fish in a tournament and they are over 12 inches,there good to go.
You can take any size bass home(5 limit)most lakes,except trophy and high harvest lakes.Trophy-3 bass;none over 14 inches,High harvest-10 bass;none over 12 inches.(again in a tournament you can have whatever as long as they are released back)
April 1 to June 15, none can be kept,except high harvest areas.