these are some of my favorite Tennessee River baits you know obviously when we fish a tournament
or we just go fishing on Tennessee River you know we throw a lot of baits let's be clear you know
any given day any tournament any season but these are they're some of the best so um let's get right
to it you know I just wanted to show you some of my favorites and I got them kind of divided up by
season let's start with pre-spawning a lipless this is the war pig half ounce if you're not
throwing a lipless you're not throwing a war pig in the spring on the Tennessee River you're gonna
have a long spring but uh no it's just a staple um you know the fish are getting showered and getting
on gravel you know lipless War Pig Gotta Throw It the bait right it's the one everybody's been
throwing the last few years you know vibrating jig slobberknocker is incredible it's a great bait
I throw it all spring up through the spawn and just flight catches them and it catches big ones
my favorite because I'm an East Tennessee guy is the Fret side I mean you can't fish in Tennessee
without a without a flat side I mean just you just can't do it so the French side is my go-to
and uh you know catch a lot of fish these fish are staging up they're getting shallow you know
they're getting on Rock uh getting next to a single piece of wood flat side way to go
and of course the staple the Stunna you know you're targeting fish that are staging getting
ready to come up out of their winter haunts you know jerk bait the Berkeley style now
can't go without them so let's kind of go you know spawning's you know kind of anybody's game right I
mean you're pitching soft Plastics you're throwing something white um you know I don't think we're
really going to go into that much mostly because I'm not very good side fisherman but let's go
post spawn so once the fish are done spawning their Garden fry if you know anything about
me if you know anything about the Tennessee River you know I'm going to be rolling this
so this is this is the bullet pop 80. and the key to this is is what I'm doing with this is
not what everybody thinks I'm not casting this out over Open Water I am rolling this you know
under bushes in shade spots under dock walkways and I'm targeting big females that are garden fry
and I'm trying to land this without a splash and just getting those big females come up for this
of course how can you fish almost any season but specifically
you know postponed my favorite time to throw a wacky rig is postponed but obviously there's a
lot of fish caught that are staging up for the bed you know on this bait and just the funnest one to
be clear is postponed those fish are up they are garden fried choppo I mean there's no better time
to throw it you know as soon as they come off the bed I start winding this thing around and it is a
postponed bait for me something else that's going on kind of almost in conjunction with a post bond
is a Shad spawn and it is a huge deal on the Tennessee River you know it is I mean if you're
not fishing the Shad spawn when it's going on you're probably beat you know it's it's a key way
to pick up some really really big fish early you know in every event that you'll fish whether it's
your style fun fishing or fishing a tournament and and my two go-to's for that are simple
sparkly white jig this is the swim jig you know if I'm fishing at docks I'm throwing a skipping
jig if I'm if I'm round grass or wood I'm going to throw the swim jig always white always white
always white I go through a whole bunch of them turn the Shad spawn and uh I mean they're they
hold up well but when you skip it you know six miles on their Dock and sometimes you
lose a few so always a white swim jig a white skipping jig I mean you just can't beat it and
you know for when you're fishing whether it's rip rap you know the shadow going to
spawn on docks and then they're going to spawn on Rock so if I'm fishing Rock a lot of times
I'll get away from the swim jig you know just a jig and I'll throw a spinnerbait so you know
the Berkeley power blade you know came out this past year and I mean it's a great spinner bait
um white blades white you know just white white during a Shad spawn for me and uh great bait
so that gets us through the Shad spawn and that gets us to what I I would say is is a lot of
people's favorite time of year on the Tennessee River and that is summer you got to throw a big
crank bait you know it is the way to to catch them on the Tennessee River you know when they're
schooled up on Ledges I mean all the way down the chain it does not matter um you've got to have
a deep rank but you've got to have a treasure on all the time during the summer because if you get
a school fire with a crankbait you put a hurting on them quick the other bait that I'll throw a lot
here's the Berkeley football head jig um you know it's when you can't get those big fish to fire on
a crankbait you know you've got to slow down your presentation but you still want to catch
big ones I'm trying to catch one that matters for my limit it's going to be a Berkeley football jig
and that brings us to the fall and what I noticed about this lineup is there are no fall baits but
that's not true because once the fish go shallow in the fall it all starts over again so when I go
back to the war Pig go back to the Olympus I mean all-time great fall bait it's when I
go back to sober knocker most of the time in the fall I'm going to go to a Shad color you go back
to Astana go back to a jerk baait fish are pulling up always going to use the shallower
version in the fall for the most part you're not the one 112 plus but the 112 and probably the most
fun is you're going to go back to the Chapo you know fish are out their feet and they're looking
up they're chasing Shad shatter moving the back of the pockets and that's when it's time to pick up a
top water and just go to work some of my favorite baits for the Tennessee River spring summer fall