Pickwick Tailrace Report 4/5/2016

[Alphahawk]

Hit Pickwick yesterday with a fishing buddy that I had not fished with in several years. The weather started out cold and windy but after a few hours turned warm with just a slight breeze. Water temps below dam at Pickwick were a constant 61 degrees. We caught a variety of fish......catching well over 100 fish between the two of us. Got into crappie...Gills.....white bass....one great Smallie....some short sauger and short walleye.....some large yellow belly bass. Found a spot where there were literally hundreds of crappie stacked up.....see sonar pic.....we just spot locked on that spot and vertical jigged until we got tired of catching crappie then moved back into white bass area. We would get 2 or 3 short crappie and then get some nice 11-13 inch fish. Started to fill the live well with crappie but since we didn't leave Pickwick until about 5:30 p.m. we released all fish. Had a few 8.5 inch Gills that were quite chunky fish. Had a lot of white bass in the 13-14 inch range....with Larry getting the biggest one at 15.5 inches. They were mixed...some males and some sows. I know that all of them were digging and had the UL rods bent over. I have caught a bunch of Smallies over the years that are at the 18 inch mark but the one I caught on this trip was the heaviest fish I have ever seen for that length. I did not have a scale but let's just say it was heavy...pics don't do it justice. It was a great battle in current with the 2# test line.....had a couple of nice jumps. Most of these fish were caught on a Bison colored Trout Magnet on a 3/32 ounce jig head with a #6 hook. Quite a few crappie were caught on a Fast Lane Crappie Magnet. Both of us used 2# test line. I was using a Yamaga Blanks Blue Current 6' 10' TZ Jig Head Special rod paired with a Daiwa Ignis Type R 2505 reel, and I had Larry fixed up with a Major Craft Volkey Super Finesse 6' 8" rod with a Shimano Stradic reel. Didn't take an over abundance number of pics...we were too busy catching and having the time of our lives. Today I will clean up rods and reels...clean out the boat and get ready to hit the water again when the weather permits. Life is good!

Regards

[TNBronzeback]

great report and pictures!
congrats on a great day!

[Jaymon]

Beautiful smallie.

[Dakota]

Great fish!


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[AllOutdoors]

Great report!
Nice pics. I'm glad y'all had a good time.
Thanks for sharing.

[TroutFiend]

That was a great day there!
Looks like a football with fins, great catch in 2lb.

Andy




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[Heiny57]

Good day

[tsuggs]

One awesome day Randy!! That is a pig smalljaw on 2lb test.Thanks for the report and cool pics

[skillet]

WOW!!! That smallie is FAT!!!


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[Travis C.]

Show off. :D


Nice catch and fun day.

[Alphahawk]

Show off. :D


Nice catch and fun day.

Thanks for all the comments guys. That Smallie was sure getting his share of the rice. Yeah Travis I like it when I get a nice fish like that Smallie and am able to land it. But you know my fishing habits....look at the girth on that Gill! That gets me excited. I have new waters to fish for them down there this year and I think it will be a banner year. Check out this di image of Gills from yesterday. I am pumped. Just want all this wind to go away....it is a killer for me.

Regards

[Gone fishing]

That's an awesome smallmouth and great gill too!

[crosshairy]

Thanks for all the comments guys. That Smallie was sure getting his share of the rice. Yeah Travis I like it when I get a nice fish like that Smallie and am able to land it. But you know my fishing habits....look at the girth on that Gill! That gets me excited. I have new waters to fish for them down there this year and I think it will be a banner year. Check out this di image of Gills from yesterday. I am pumped. Just want all this wind to go away....it is a killer for me.

Regards

I've always wanted to get one of those drop-down cameras and take footage of an area after looking at the HD sonar scans and compare. Obviously you have a trained eye to identify what you are seeing based on experience.

I would have said "oh, that's a bunch of shad schooling" or something, and never thought twice about it. That's why I don't catch as many fish as you :D

[Alphahawk]

I've always wanted to get one of those drop-down cameras and take footage of an area after looking at the HD sonar scans and compare. Obviously you have a trained eye to identify what you are seeing based on experience.

I would have said "oh, that's a bunch of shad schooling" or something, and never thought twice about it. That's why I don't catch as many fish as you :D

Well the only real way to tell is drop a line down and find out. But you can get an idea of what you are seeing after you use these units for a while. I know it sure does help one eliminate dead water.

Regards

[Travis C.]

Thanks for all the comments guys. That Smallie was sure getting his share of the rice. Yeah Travis I like it when I get a nice fish like that Smallie and am able to land it. But you know my fishing habits....look at the girth on that Gill! That gets me excited. I have new waters to fish for them down there this year and I think it will be a banner year. Check out this di image of Gills from yesterday. I am pumped. Just want all this wind to go away....it is a killer for me.

Regards

Dang they are stacked in there!

I found some stacked up below OH dam on generation one night and caught several on TM's. Definitely going to check that out again.

[tacklemake]

Thank you my friend for another great report.

[lupanfreitag]

I have to get down there sometime. You always post amazing spring reports!!!

[jaystaler88]

That smallie is a pig. It's cool how the shape of their body and coloration changes so much. I love the dark tiger-striped ones.