Saturday morning my boat partner, two of his grand kids and I hit the Tn River. The river was so foggy, we had to make the 15 mile journey to Guntersville Dam at just enough speed to keep the boat on plane (8-10 mph). Good thing, in the thick pea soup Don said I think I see a channel marker up ahead. Nope it was some idiot on a stand up paddle board, paddling upstream! He was waving at us so we wouldn't hit him and hopefully slow down and not wake him, which we successfully managed to do. Later on using the LakeMaps, to stay in the channel, we passed by an anchored barge. Didn't see it until we were almost upon it. The barge was anchored in deep water as close to the shoreline as possible. But a lot of boats travel the shoreline in fog, thinking is is safer than staying in the channel.

Finally made it to the dam and within 30 minutes had over 30 skipjack in the cooler for bait. Then we decided to float downstream and play with our new planer boards. This was mistake on two parts. #1. You can't have two grand kids in the boat and experiment with new toys. #2. The Tn River is nothing but boulders and sunken timber in most areas. We gave up after an hour and numerous hangups. We then decided to anchor fish. This is where SpotLock is worth its weight in gold. Within 30 minutes we boated these two blues. Don caught a 22 lb and I caught an 18 lb. Don spools his reels with 80 lb braid (which I detest) and then locks his drag down so tight it doesn't give. He lost two fish that broke his 50 lb leader. But hey, his rods, his rules. Right now the bite stops at around noon, so we called it a day after going an hour without any nibbles.

We decided to leave the planer boards at home until it is just the two of us. Plus we need to map out so parts of the river with a smoother bottom. Hopefully we can find some large mussel beds where the cats like to munch on them.

Don with his 22 lb'er.



Me with my 18.

guy you almost hit on the river ?

google this:

Paddleboard SUP Racing Challenge at Riverfest 2019

Nice work Nut...Takes a few trips of planer boarding to get things figured out.

Man great looking boat Sir!!