Pickwick 8-22-2013
 

Arrived at Pickwick at 12:30 and there was not a soul on the catwalk or sidewalk. I couldn't believe it. Try as hard as I might couldn't catch a thing on the generator side. Moved over to the lock side and got into some decent large mouth. Caught 47 like the ones in the pic in a little over 4 hours. Most of the fish were of same size. Lot of fun but the heat was brutal. Used a dressed Kastmaster spoon on a medium light rod with 6# test fluorocarbon. Kept hoping for a big boy to bust on it but it was not to be.



Regards

47 bass!

Man, that's more bass than I've caught in the last TWO YEARS!

Glad you moved and got into SOME fish. Shorts sure beat the skunks.

Yep...for folks that have never fished there it is hard to understand. Hard to fathom just how many fish can get stacked up below that dam. Of course the large mouth are not there all the time. I have 3 years of records and they have shown up at this spot for those 3 years. But I am catching them a little early. According to my records it gets good in about 3 to 4 more weeks. Large mouth and whites should be there by then....and stripers too. A month ago the high water concentrated them on the generator side but they are now gone from there. Threw the River Rocker in tailrace yesterday and did not get a single hit from anything. I doubt there will be another big rain event until winter. But the whites should hang around on the generator side for about a month when they show up. Would like to take you down there sometime when the fishing conditions are right. Oh...from late fall through spring the crappie show up at same spot I caught the largemouth....in big numbers also. I usually fish there in winter but because of rotator cuff surgery and knee replacement did not get to fish the past two winters.


Regards

Me and the wife are going to a gun show this weekend and going to Florida to visit "our" nightclub (We invested in the startup of Dixie Roadhouse, voted best nightclub in SW Florida two years running now, in Cape Coral, FL) the weekend of Sept.13-15th.

Other than that, I have no plans so let me know when you think will be a good time to go and I'll make the plans to go. The wife is very generous with letting me go whenever I want.

Will do Merv. Dang....you're into everything! Fishing.....guns....dancing.....night club owner.....in shape of a man 30 years your junior. When I grow up want to be like you....LOL.


Regards

I would never admit to this on a public forum. :D

Your "man card"...turn it in immediately!

X2

Nice going, Alpha!

Thanks nomad....it doesn't take much skill to catch the bass down there when they show up this time of year. They are there to consume all the minnows they can before winter and will readily hit a surface lure. There are tons of them in there......that is what I love about tailrace fishing.



Regards

Pickwick update
 

Have been obsessed the past 4 weeks with trying to get large mouth at Pickwick. Against my better judgement tried it again today. Fished the generator side for 2 hours and that was all the heat I could take. Couldn't keep sweat out of my eyes so home I came. I did catch a couple of dozen fish though and the white bass were in there today. They were in the holes behind the generator outputs. This is the first I have seen of them this summer and I hope it is their fall feeding they have started. The large mouth were in the cutback by the sidewalk. River Rocker was the lure for today. Thought they would hit a jig but the whites wanted nothing to do with it.....but they crushed the River Rocker in Alewife color.


Regards

Nice, way to find the fish.

You DA Man, Alpha. You really
stay with it!

What exactly is a river rocker? That is a ton of bass. Most the time I fish for them, I catch only one, and sometimes I don't catch any.

Isaac.....it is a ton of bass but they will stack up below the dams in a tailrace. If I was fishing in a lake I don't think I would get anywhere close to that number.....and on some days not catch any. The River Rocker is a lure that is made by Lindy.....and I got the recommendation from Doug Markham the TWRA Public Relations Officer....at least I think that is his title. He was very high on them and I tried them out. They are made to fish in swift current.....but will work anywhere. I know they do work great in a tailrace. I have not used them in flat water yet. I know a couple of other members on here have some but don't know if they have used them or not. Doug Markham uses them for trolling also and has reported good catches with them. I have seen your bass catches this year and I don't have one as big as some you have caught yet. You've caught some good ones.


Regards

I invested heavily in bars for years.

LMAO, SAMBOLIE!

I have a notion you and I are talking different kinds of "investing"......

Lol!!!

Merv, I was thinking about asking you to go to Pickwick next week. That all changed Wednesday. Went to the ER about 6 pm and was not released until 4 this afternoon.

Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Nothing serious I hope Ott.


Regards

What is it about THAT dam that holds so many freakin fish? I mean your reports are just ridiculous sometimes. 100+ bass days, all quality sized bass. That's some incredible fishing. Even today catching 47 bass isn't one of your best days out there and that would be the bass fishing day of a lifetime for many of us. The only time I ever remember catching bass in numbers like that was during the "winter" in South Florida fishing in the Everglades. The bass fishing is on fire during that time and me and my father would fish almost exclusively zoom flukes and just about go through a whole bag in one day. I've had some good days of bass fishing here in the Spring but not THAT good.


I'm going one of these days. When do the rockfish start stacking up down there?

Jimmy I don't think it is just that dam. If you go back and look at my reports from the past 3 years....I think I have been posting on here that long.....you wont find much about me catching large mouth on the generator side. This is the first year of that for me. When those gates are open and they are letting go 200,000 CFS of water it creates a big lake on the generator side. I never knew the large mouth would hang in there like that even though I would catch a few while fishing for whites. Plus you have to walk down those huge rocks and I have not been able to do that for a few years but with the new knee I can once more do it safely. Plus using the River Rocker lure that Doug Markham is high on has changed the way I fish a tailrace. I have never been able to use a crank bait in that kind of current. You can run that thing right on the edge of the rocks and watch bass hit it when the water is clear...neat stuff. The whites have always been below that dam for decades. In the spring you can also get into Smallies the same way. But you never know what is going to hit your lure when you fish there. So many fish are feeding there it could be a white....but then again it can be a 12 pound striper....and in spring and early summer if you fish with crickets you can catch a couple of hundred huge bluegill a day there. They come up in there to feed also. There is a flat....away from the generator side....I fish down there that for usually 3 or 4 weeks this time of year large mouth are in the jumps all day long. Pickwick has always been known as a great tailrace fishery. I have taken several down there and they have had the same results as me. I have taken MNfisher down there and it has just been OK. It is hard to pick one day and say this is the day. tcintn has made one trip down there with me two years back and I was on the net for 3 hours landing whites and stripers for him...until he broke my rod he was using...LOL. He had nothing at that time to do that kind of fishing and I let him use one of mine...he was very gracious and replaced it with a new one. My son has only been able to go twice with me down there in the pst 3 years and both days were epic days for him. Once in the spring...he killed the smallies, crappie, and big Gills...and once in the fall and killed the whites and good sized stripers. Like every dam there are huge amounts of bait fish below there. I will be happy to take you anytime you want to go. I don't guarantee you to catch fish but especially in spring and fall it can be an epic trip everyday. But my reports are what they are. You have seen some reports of mine where I caught nothing or hardly anything. But when I set out to fish down there I will try for everything. If I cant get large mouth or Smallies...I will try for whites...gills...anything. I will be hitting Pickwick hard the next month or so as well as Nickajack. I just got word from a buddy of mine down at Nickajack that the large mouth are in the jumps where we fish...and that place produces 100 fish days also with large mouth and spots. So if you want to try Pickwick sometime let me know and all you have to do is make it to Columbia and I will drive the rest of the way. So if you run into tcintn ask him about his trip to Pickwick with me, and my son also. It is just a great place to fish.


Regards

SAMBOLIE, I hope everything is going to be OK with you! That's a pretty long stay in ER.

LOL. My bad. I was moved to the CCU until Thur then to a room.
Diagnosis is: Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Basically it is like strep throat except the bacteria goes into the blood stream rather that the throat. It can be fatal if not treated promptly.

Thanks Merv.

Could be serious, however, I believe I will be ok. Thanks to a wife who made be go to the ER.

Thanks Randy.

Just think about it. If I can't get to Pickwick the fish may continue to bite.:)

Hey Alpha! Quick, let's go to Pickwick while SAMBOLIE is still incapacitated!

He won't be able to show up and jinx the fishing!!!!

LOL...thats funny Merv. As soon as he showed up the bite almost stopped....LOL. of course I know it was just one of those things. Hope to see him down there again as he gets healed up...nice guy to fish with.

Regards

SAMBOLIE and I are going to get together and fish one of these days....if he ever quits blowing me off!

I wish you worded that differently.:)

that is so funny, not judging here Lol!!!!!!!!!!!:D

OOOOPS! My bad.

I meant he keeps spurning me, ignoring me, PUTTING me off!

I think the only reason he talks to me is because he wants Da Snorkster....

And the above back and forth is one of the many reasons I read this forum. Good stuff! :D