From October to March, big smallmouth roam the river banks feeding on as many shad as their fat bellies can hold. The Tennessee River below Pickwick Dam gives you the best opportunity to land a trophy brownie. Over the years I've had the pleasure of getting to fish there many times. Mostly successful, I've boated numerous fish over 5lbs and the largest being 8.2lbs back in October of 1997. Drift fishing the current is the ideal method. Usually I'll start about a mile down from the dam, position the boat around 20ft from the bank, and cast a split shot rig as close to the rocks as possible. Then, I'll just drift, holding the rod tip high and bounce the rig off the rocky bottom.
I like to catch shad with a throw net but the "store bought" shiners work well too. I simply hook the minnow on a #3 bait hook, 8# Hi-Vis line, and a 7' spinning rig. Why Hi-Vis? For one, I cant see regular mono line. This is a must to be able to see your line as you drift. The Smallies lie in ambush mode behind the larger rocks positioning themselves for a quick strike when bait fish swim by. Usually its not a hard strike but simply sucking in the shad with little effort. Watching my line I can see it stop or move upstream. Thats when I set the hook. A lot of time it is a rock that fooled me but I dont take any chances. Needless to say, I tie new rigs quite often.
You can catch these strong fighters with artificial bait too but I enjoy changing it up every so often and the chances of a really big one increases by using live bait. That is why I go and you should too this next fall.
Scott Turnage/Host of the G3 Sportsman
