when releasing water how exactly does this affect bass behavior?  how do you change your tactics during this time?  

how do I find out exactly when and how long the draw down will last before hand?  

I pretty much live on an almost 20000 acre lake that has a  generating dam between it and another 15000 acre lake. On both lakes when they pull water either way.....THE FISH BITE!!!!!!!!! and alot of times they will bite faster moving baits. During the extreme weather summer or winter, When they are generating is the only time the fish really bite. Big crankbaits on humps where shad are present will really catch some hawgs when they are pulling water.....Some dams you can look up in the phonebook and call. I have never really had any luck getting accurate info as far as lakes go.

The bass will often go on feeding sprees during instances of increased current on the reservoir.  The current stirs the water, so to speak, and will sweep or concentrate bass food sources in certain areas.  Many times the bass will sit in the slack water or eddies and swim out in the current to eat the food that is sweeping by.  Also, if a pattern emerges with the current then you can basically follow the current from the dam to upriver on the lake since the current process will reach further into the lake later.  Also, an excellent thing to take advantage of is after the drawdown.  The lake will backpeddle and create current in the opposite direction as it refills.

Drawdown schedules can be found on your lake's Corps of Engineers website.  Here on KY Lake, we have the TVA, which is similar to the Corps of Engineers since they both use the lakes to generate power.  Here's a link to our website and how they post drawdown information http://www.explorekentuckylake.com/weather.htm

It may be necessary to call the Corps on whichever lake you're fishing in order to find out the generating schedule.

so even if the bass are not in an active feeding mode and the drawdown begins they instantly begin feeding out of hunger?  or is all this commotion out of reaction?

Even if both generator wide open it creates little current on a lake the size of Toledo Bend. What it does do is position the bass on the down current side of structure reducing the number of areas you need to search.