clickityclack

These were my best 3 fish from 2 trips on Pickwick last week.

ok, maybe I'm losing my mind because I see it there now, but I swear there was only "report" and "share" prior to your post. whatever works. thanks!

I'm having this same issue. There is no edit option for me. I only see a "+" and "Quote" at the bottom of my posts.

Yes....sort of...lol. Recently, genetic studies have confirmed four new species that are all restricted to their respective river drainages (above the fall line): M. cahabae (Cahaba River), M. Tallapoosae (Tallapoosa River), M. warriorenis (Black Warrior River) and M. chattahoochae (Chattahoochee River). Yep. That's where I get the majority of my smallmouth action. Actually, the beast in my profile pic was caught on Pickwick right below Wilson Dam. It's my PB. Wish I could make the pic quality better, but haven't had the time to try and figure it out yet.

Unfortunately, smallies don't live in Birmingham, AL or the immediate vicinity so I don't have the option. However, we do have redeye bass and I would much rather have the option to exclusively target them if I had to choose only one. I know many people (almost all of whom have no experience with redeyes) think it's ridiculous when people say this but I truly belive it: pound for pound redeyes fight harder than smallies. I feel very lucky to have to opportunity to fish for these amazing fish on a regular basis. Side note: The people who post pics of Rock Bass/Goggleeyes online and identify them as redeye bass may be the death of me. It drives me insane (stupid, I know). Rock Bass are the Drums of Bass. They have zero fight in them. Huge losers. The complete opposite of redeyes.

?? Yes, I forgot to mention I also discovered a new species in the kayak. I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. I think my phone was trying to "help" me out there unnecessarily.

I've had amazing success this summer with Nikko Hellgrammites. The redeyes love them, at least they did this summer. I use Shroom/Ned/Slider heads with mine. I love their durability but it is hard to even rig them up sometimes they're so tough.

I also started kayak fishing this summer and so far I really love it. Here's my first two smallies from a yak (not my fishing yak but mine isn't much nicer lol)

So, how was the fishing?

Yep. If you can throw a cast net pretty well then you can catch all the minnows you need yourself for free, but of course, they won't live as long as the store bought minnows. You can help them out by changing out the water very frequently, adding a handful of non-iodized salt and using a larger bucket, but they still won't live as long as those tuffie/tuffy minnows you get at the store. I know you're fishing down at Pickwick and I'm not as familiar with that area as upper Pickwick, but if the bait shops over there are like the ones up river then they sell out early many days so it's always handy to throw a cast net in the boat just in case you get stuck without an option to buy. Honestly, a couple of weeks ago on upper Pickwick the schools were so huge that you just had to be able to get the net to open up enough for it to land halfway right on the water and you would get some minnows. It only takes a little bit of practice with one to get good enough to do what you need to do so don't be afraid to get one and start throwing it. Hell, I'm a girl (and not a very big one) and I can handle most cast nets well enough to get the job done so I'm sure you'll be a pro in no time. lol

Now I think I understand why they're spilling so much through Wilson and not the others. Looks like they're running about double the # of turbines at least 2x more frequently at Pickwick than at Wilson.

Yeah, but without significant rainfall during any of this time and Wheeler and Guntersville not spilling it seems Wilson would have been spilled dry by this point or at least have a significant drop in water level, but that hasn't happened. They were already almost at winter pool level before they even started this round of spilling. Of course, they know what they're doing and certainly know more than me, but it has just been kind of a mystery to me how they're still spilling full force but they are for sure.

Fished upper Pickwick over the past week and they're still spilling at Wilson with almost every gate open so there's plenty of current coming from there too. Kind of crazy how long they've been spilling Wilson without any of the adjacent dams spilling during that time...several weeks now. Smallmouths seem to be only up in the horseshoe right in front of/below the spillways and not in the current on the right side (facing dam, rockpile side) where we've caught many nice size smallies this time of year in the past while drifting live minnows. Plenty of drum and catfish still up there, of course. Had better luck with smallies below O'Neal Bridge/McFarland drifting in various spots.