Get a Gazeteer Atlas or the Sportsman's Connection Lake Map Guide for Middle Tennessee and scout out some of the local creeks and small rivers that you can wade and fish. Some of them offer really spectacular bass fishing and you may never want a boat again.
Most of the best creeks are closely guarded secrets because they can't withstand a lot of fishing pressure, so those of us who fish creeks a lot generally don't want to broadcast our spots on the Internet because it can draw a crowd to a small creek and fish it out. You just have to put a little scouting time in.
If you are interested in creek fishing for smallmouth, you might also want to get in touch with my good friend Mike Dial over at
www.tennesseebassguides.com. He posts here occasionally as creeksmallie. Booking a day with Mike will teach you several years' worth of experience about fishing the local smallmouth streams.
bd