How should I approach fishing a dam central Illinois

It all depends on the type of dam and how fast the water is flowing. Id try to hit the slower moving areas of water. Near rocks or any structure that is going to hold fish.

I'm fishing man made dams which were made for water power in the 1700/1800's. I'm fishing the slow moving water and to the sides of the moving water. Which is a drop off. But I have deeper water in front of me and flats off to one side. I throw topwater lures into the flats. In front of the drop off I use spinnerbaits, cranks, inline spinner and a carolina rigged senko. I use the spinner bait in the channel before the dam. I do find bass waiting to ambushing bait. Even long both sides of the moving water were it's still the smaller bass are there too. Just be aware of the larger predators that are ready to rip the lure off your line(pike).

At night the catfish come up the drop off to feed as it gets darker. There great on a charcoal grill.

Thanks for the replys, I was going to work up and down and parallel with a Carolina rig. 10in black grape power worm