Fall is a fabulous time for drifting the swift waters of the Wheeler and Wilson dam tailwaters in North Alabama in search of super-sized smallmouth bass.
If you want to catch your biggest smallmouth ever, now is the time to get to North Alabama and visit the tailwaters of Wheeler and Wilson Dams along the Tennessee River. Specifically, you want to be in Jerry Crook's boat.
Crook, who has fished these terrific tailwaters extensively for more than 20 years, understands the intricacies of fishing beneath huge and complex hydo-electric dams. The character of both river sections varies dramatically according to how much water is flowing though the turbines or even the spillgates, and Crook knows how to approach them under every imaginable condition.
Five-pound smallmouths don't turn heads during the fall in these waters, and 6-pound-fish show fairly frequently. Crook has seen a handful of 8-pound smallies from the Tennessee River, which probably holds at least a few world-record-caliber smallmouth bass.
Crook's favorite lure, without any question, is a
Glow Chartreuse YUM Samurai Shad , fished on a 1/2- or 1-ounce leadhead with a large, heavy-duty hook. Drifting in the current and casting to seams and eddies, Crook just cranks the baitfish-imitating bait back and holds on tight.
Prior to the development of the
Samurai Shad , Crook did almost all of his fall smallmouth fishing with live bait, drifting with live shad or shiners on split-shot rigs, using 10-pound-test Silver Thread on Pflueger Trion spinning combinations. However, when the smallies are smashing the Samurai Shads, which Crook casts with Trion baitcasters and 14-pound test, he often can leave his bait tank at home.
If the fish are "high" in the tailwater, meaning they are tight to the dam, he will fish live bait on 3-way rigs, baitcasting tackle and 17-pound-test Silver Thread. However, autumn conditions typically push the fish a little farther down, and they'll stack up around shell mounds and other humps within a half mile or so of the dam.
Other good lures for the jumbo smallmouths beneath Wheeler and Wilson Dams include a double-willow 3/4-ounce BOOYAH Blade spinnerbait , which the smallmouths will just about knock the blades off and a YUM Muy Grande Grub on a 1/4- or 1/8-ounce in the leadhead. Farther down the lakes, tie on a Bomber Pro Long A in one of the Tim Horton colors and hold on tight when you pause between jerks. These are the waters where Horton earned his stripes and first learned just what giant smallmouths think about suspending jerkbaits.
Of course, part of the fun on the Tennessee River is that you never know what is going to latch on. Stripers, hybrids, white bass, catfish, drum and buffalo are just some of the species that might smash a smallmouth fisherman's bait, and some fish weigh 20 or 30 pounds -- or much more!
To learn more about fishing with Jerry Crook, give him a call at (205) 608-0933. For more on the area, call the Colbert County Tourism Commission at (800) 344-0783 or log onto
http://www.colbertcountytourism.org/ .