I had four really good days back in April, fishing in a Bassmaster Elite series tournament on Lake Pickwick in Alabama.
I guess it’s a little misleading to say I was fishing in Lake Pickwick. I was actually fishing in the tailrace below Wilson Dam, in the extreme upriver part of Pickwick.
Tailrace fishing is oftentimes an exact opposite from fishing in a lake, and thank the Lord for that. Only three or four of us spent much time fishing the tailrace that week, and I was fortunate enough to catch 81 pounds of bass and win the tournament — and $100,000.
Because tailrace fishing is unusual, there isn’t a lot written about it. I guess I’ve waited more than four years — until I won the tournament — to write a column about fishing a tailrace. But hey, what better time to do one!
The thing you need to learn about fishing a tailrace is that baitfish are the big draw for bass and other predator species, and there are certain times of the year when you can find a lot of blueback herring, threadfin shad or gizzard shad up toward the tailrace: when they spawn in the spring, after the water starts to warm up; and when it gets really hot during the summer, in July and August, when the baitfish love that cool, aerated water coming off the bottom of the lake that’s on the other side of the dam. The timing can be different at different lakes, depending on habitat and current and the like.
The week I fished the tailrace at Pickwick, I caught all kinds of fish: stripers, white bass, freshwater drum, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and even a meanmouth bass — a cross between a smallmouth and a spotted bass. What that shows that when baitfish gang up in an area, all the predators will show up, and that’s the big draw for fishing tailraces. If they’d let me weigh everything I caught, I could have weighed in a hundred pounds every day.
Before we go any farther, be sure to understand that fishing a tailrace, because of the water being released from the dam and the heavy current and shallow obstructions, can be dangerous. I always wear a life jacket when I’m fishing in a tailrace, and I take every precaution when I’m up there. The current can pin you against a rock, slam you into a rock; all kinds of things can go wrong.
The key to catching fish in a tailrace is understanding that fish want to feed, but they can’t stand to just sit in the current and wait for it to sweep their food right down their throats. They have to find places where they can get out of the current, get behind an obstruction or some other kind of current break but be able to quickly jump out and grab a bait. You find a tree in the water that’s 30 feet long and 10 inches in diameter, but there might be only one tiny spot on that tree that breaks the current enough for a fish to set up there.
To find those places, you might need to be in the tailrace when they’re pulling water through the dam and setting up a current, or you might need to be there when the water is cut off and the surface is flat. If the water’s clear, you can spot all the rocks and obstructions when there’s no current. If the water’s not clear, you might not be able to see them, and you’ll need the current running to be able to see how the water boils as it goes around something. But no matter what you find, remember, the fish will be on one small spot where they can feed without spending too much energy fighting the current.
It’s like this: I don’t mind walking 10 yards to dinner to eat, but I’m not going to stand on a moving treadmill while I’m eating a hamburger.
In the Alabama tournament, I caught most of my fish off two rocks. They were six or seven feet deep, and I had to be very methodical with my casts. The spots were had to hit just right in moving water. You might have the water move the bait one way one time and the other way the next time, and maybe the bait would go too deep one time and too shallow the next. It might take me five casts to get my bait just in the right spot.
In a tailrace, you’ve got to have moving water to set up the bite. Fish will bite when the water’s still, but it’s the running water that makes it easier for them to set up in ambush spots. The last day of the tournament in Alabama, I had one bass that weighed 1-12, before they turned the water on at 11 o’clock. After that, I caught five that weighed 21 pounds in four hours. You don’t go to Hardees for breakfast at 4:30 if it doesn’t open until 5. That’s when the rush comes.
It’s best to be able to set up outside the current to cast to the spots that hold fish. If that’s not possible, you can’t anchor; it’s too dangerous. And the current is usually too strong for your trolling motor to hold you, even with a 36-volt Minn-Kota. If it will hold you, your batteries won’t hold up for eight hours in that kind of current. One thing you often have to do is crank your big engine and move upstream, then drift back downstream; you can often slow your drift up enough with your trolling motor to be able to cast. Sometimes, a Power Pole will help a little.
Different lures will work in a tailrace on a variety of species. Fish will hit a spinnerbait or a crankbait; sometimes you’ve got to use a crankbait if they’re real finicky to get a reaction bite. In Alabama, I caught most of my fish on a Berkley Hollow Belly swimbait. I fished it on a half-ounce Buckeye Lures swimbait head or a ¾-ounce Gary Yamamoto swimbait head. Depending on where they’re holding and how fast the current’s moving, you can use different weights. The faster the current, the heavier the head.
Tailrace fishing isn’t an everyday occurrence for every fisherman, but it can certainly make for a rewarding day on the water — or four days, for that matter.
Davy Hite, a 45-year-old native of Saluda who lives in Ninety Six, was BASS Angler of the Year in 1997 and 2002, and he has won the 1999 Bassmasters Classic and the 1998 FLW Tour Championship. He is sponsored by Triton boats, Evinrude outboards, All-Star rods, Pfleuger reels, Berkley Trilene, Yamamoto Baits, Owner hooks, Humminbird depthfinders and Solar Bat sunglasses.
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