I was blessed with the opportunity to fish 2 water bodies a couple of weeks ago in Tennessee when my bride informed me we were going to help move our youngest granddaughter into her dorm for her freshman year at Freed-Hardiman.
I called one of my Bobo’s Thumper customers south of Nashville and we set a date to meet and fish Tim’s Ford lake in southern Tennessee close to Chattanooga.
I met Bob at the ramp at 4:45 and helped launch. His boat is set up with livescope and it was awesome watching fish and bait moving around some bridge pilings. The fish weren’t what we were looking for so we moved to some areas he had been catching fish on previous trips. He is a slow troller most of the time but we did do a little casting with spinning gear without any luck. We trolled 6 lines with big gizzards he caught the day before about 125 out on 8 lb braided line around.5 mph with his ipilot trolling motor while thumping with his 4 month old Bobo’s Thumper. We landed better than 35 stripers and hybrids up to 10 lbs. With the lighter line we had all the thrill of fighting good fish anyone could ask for. Bob was a gracious host and I was able to enjoy some beautiful scenery and catch some really nice fish.
At noon I took off for Knoxville close to the northern border about 4.5 hours away.
I met Billy Davis of Melton Hill Bill Fishing Guide Service. https://www.meltonhillbill.com/
I’ll have to finish the rest of this later when I have a couple minutes.

Ok. To continue with my epic adventure to Tennessee.
I met Billy about 4:00 PM at the ramp and we unloaded and headed upstream. We tried some huge chunks of cut bait first. I only had a couple of bites on them and Billy said he figured it was some big blue cats, so we changed up to some huge live skipjacks about 12" to 15" long. That was the ticket. Freelined them and got ready to hold on. I missed the first 2 fish by not waiting for the fish to get the bait in it's mouth. After that Billy decided he would count for me so I didn't pull the bait away from the fish. With some coaching I finally landed a 24 lb monster striper. The next one was a 25 lb. Then a 27 lb.beauty. Total fish count was 8 monsters from 23 lbs. to 27 lbs. I will be going back later to see if we can get a 40+.
I left there and drove back to Jackson where the family was staying. I crawled into bed at 2:00 AM after 23 hours with 12 of it on the water catching some big ol' Tennessee monster fish.
Thursday we drove to Hot Springs ARK.
I met another Bobo's Thumper customer Friday morning and we fished Lake DE Grey for hybrids. With the boat traffic and weather changes we only landed 5 hybrids up to 8 lbs and a few white bass, but it was a fun relaxing day to recuperate from Wednesdays awesome trips.I'll add some pics later.

Don't forget to post the pics Jeff, especially the 10 lb Hybrids !

Tim's Ford is practically my backyard. I've striper fished it a few times, but mainly fish below the dam for trout.

Nice post. Would love see your fish if you have a picture.

Thats what I'm talking about, nice side liners Jeff.

Very nice!

I used to catch big'uns like that at PK before the flood.

Great fish Jeff👍

Studs!!

Great catches! I used to travel to Tullahoma Tn for business and it's an easy drive to Tims Ford ... it's a beautiful lake that I only got to fish one time, with some luck on smaller stripers, but would like to fish again.

Awsesome TN trip, Jeff bobo
Us hubbard boys did that 3 years ago and what beautiful country with monster stripers. Its good catching this year too. Last two years there were too much rain and floods.

Now that looks fun.

Thanks guys.
Launcher
Tullahoma is where I stayed. Just 15 minutes or so to the ramp. It is beautiful country.