I will be camping at pickwick dam october 9-11 and plan to drift fish for smallies- any tips or baits i should start with? I have a cast net and plan to catch shad to use for live bait- any other techniqes I should be aware of or try? 

@roadwarrior says also try Alabama rig, rage tail menace, and BPS tender tube #71. 

On 9/23/2020 at 11:56 AM, TnRiver46 said:

@roadwarrior says also try Alabama rig, rage tail menace, and BPS tender tube #71. 

 

 

If you want some company one of those days, let me know and I will show you around.

9 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

 

 

If you want some company one of those days, let me know and I will show you around.

@sidsmith03 do this^^^.   Make sure yall post some pics. 

On 9/28/2020 at 10:22 AM, roadwarrior said:

 

 

If you want some company one of those days, let me know and I will show you around.

If you are ok with drifting in the pontoon boat we can do it!! My family will be with me as well

We'll see about the fishing part, I might just guide you guys.

How many on the boat? 

just depends....sometimes my wife and daughter want to go, sometimes its just me and my little boy- we can come and go the camper is going to be parked at the campground there by the boat ramp

I think we will be fine.  I should probably come down the first day and you can take

it from there.  I will show you exactly what I use and how I fish the river.  With a little

luck maybe you will catch a personal best or at least a few 5's & 6's.  I will have plenty

of tackle, but bring what you like. Most importantly, you need a spinning rig with 6#

line for live bait.

35 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

I think we will be fine.  I should probably come down the first day and you can take

it from there.  I will show you exactly what I use and how I fish the river.  With a little

luck maybe you will catch a personal best or at least a few 5's & 6's.  I will have plenty

of tackle, but bring what you like. Most importantly, you need a spinning rig with 6#

line for live bait.

nice! we will figure out details closer to time- its a 22 foot fishing pontoon, super nice and roomy- I have cast net to catch bait if we need to, also have several spinning combos set up with light line- I wont be there until evening on thursday october 8th- 

looks like the trip may get cancelled for me! this weather is gonna be terrible

That's disappointing.

 

5 hours ago, sidsmith03 said:

looks like the trip may get cancelled for me! this weather is gonna be terrible

They will still bite! Come on a sunny day and you may get skunked 

Im not worried about rain but its the 40 plus mph winds im not sure about haha

I only live an hour away so I can plan the trip another weekend soon

On 10/7/2020 at 9:22 AM, sidsmith03 said:

Im not worried about rain but its the 40 plus mph winds im not sure about haha

I only live an hour away so I can plan the trip another weekend soon

we are sending a lot of current down toward pickwick! 

None of the gates were open on Pickwick Dam. The generating schedule while I was there

was 60,000 cfs 24 hours a day. The current was perfect for our drift! Looks like they have

dropped it back a little for the weekend.

 

https://www.tva.com/Environment/Lake-Levels/Pickwick 

On 10/13/2020 at 10:37 AM, TnRiver46 said:

we are sending a lot of current down toward pickwick! 

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.

3 minutes ago, clickityclack said:

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.

I would guess that’s because Wilson lake is so small and doesn’t have the water storage capacity of pickwick wheeler and guntersville . Thanks for the fishing tips! I’ve got a buddy in Florence and hopefully I will make it there this fall if I can get a boat running safely 

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I would guess that’s because Wilson lake is so small and doesn’t have the water storage capacity of pickwick wheeler and guntersville . Thanks for the fishing tips! I’ve got a buddy in Florence and hopefully I will make it there this fall if I can get a boat running safely 

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. 

Last week TVA ran 60,000 cfs while I was there Wednesday through Friday,

but no gates were open. The lake is close to winter pool. I am going back

tomorrow and hope to have comparable conditions.

 

https://www.tva.com/Environment/Lake-Levels/Pickwick

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. 

On my way to try it out no clue what I’m doing but bout to buy big minnows at the BP and go from there 

27 minutes ago, sidsmith03 said:

On my way to try it out no clue what I’m doing but bout to buy big minnows at the BP and go from there 

Good luck! Do you have any proficiency with a cast net? Current average daily flow is around 63,000 cfs 

2 hours ago, sidsmith03 said:

On my way to try it out no clue what I’m doing but bout to buy big minnows at the BP and go from there 

Buy you minnows at the Outpost across the dam. Great breakfast and BBQ, too!

Didn’t know the outpost sold bait 

On 11/8/2020 at 6:22 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Good luck! Do you have any proficiency with a cast net? Current average daily flow is around 63,000 cfs 

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