Super User roadwarrior Posted February 17, 2021 Super User Posted February 17, 2021 Blizzards all week with 6"-8" of snow the next 48 hours... Next Tuesday 61* HELLO brown fish! 2 Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 17, 2021 Global Moderator Posted February 17, 2021 Fish don’t live in the air Kent! hope you get a big one Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted February 17, 2021 Author Super User Posted February 17, 2021 The water temperature is not a problem on the river. My biggest concern is the lingering effect of the shad kill. Our weather improves starting Friday, but will have very little impact on the water. Threadfin shad are compromised at 45* and begin to die when the water reaches 42*. With the entire river system in the deep freeze, dead baitfish are spread throughout the region. I don't know if a four day break will be enough to purge the Tennessee. Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 17, 2021 Global Moderator Posted February 17, 2021 10 minutes ago, roadwarrior said: The water temperature is not a problem on the river. My biggest concern is the lingering effect of the shad kill. Our weather improves starting Friday, but will have very little impact on the water. Threadfin shad are compromised at 45* and begin to die when the water reaches 42*. With the entire river system in the deep freeze, dead baitfish are spread throughout the region. I don't know if a four day break will be enough to purge the Tennessee. I’ve seen dying threadfin already here in k town. According to tva predictions you might have a lot of water coming your way , might not be til later next week though Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted February 17, 2021 Author Super User Posted February 17, 2021 Ain't it always something? Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 17, 2021 Global Moderator Posted February 17, 2021 4 minutes ago, roadwarrior said: Ain't it always something? I’ve always heard massive current helps below Wilson and pickwick Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted February 17, 2021 Author Super User Posted February 17, 2021 No, ideally 40,000-60,000 cfs is the sweet range. Wide open is 240,000 cfs for the Pickwick dam. Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 17, 2021 Global Moderator Posted February 17, 2021 53 minutes ago, roadwarrior said: No, ideally 40,000-60,000 cfs is the sweet range. Wide open is 240,000 cfs for the Pickwick dam. Well yeah not that massive of current. That’s when boats go over the dam Quote
Fishlegs Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 2 hours ago, roadwarrior said: No, ideally 40,000-60,000 cfs is the sweet range. Wide open is 240,000 cfs for the Pickwick dam. It looks like they’ll be raising the water level over the next few days. The inflow for Pickwick is predicted to be in the 115,000-130,000 with an outflow in the 85,000-90,000 range. This may be a dumb question, but does inflow or outflow affect current more? Does TVA report water temp like it does the flow? I can’t find it on their site. Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted February 17, 2021 Author Super User Posted February 17, 2021 No, just more or less water running through the system. The two primary purposes of the TVA system is flood control and electric generation with "recreation" a distant third. They generally target "winter pool" 5'-10' below full pool to leave plenty of margin for spring rain. 1 Quote
Fishlegs Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 Let’s hope for no more ice, 60 temps, and tight lines! Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 17, 2021 Global Moderator Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Fishlegs said: It looks like they’ll be raising the water level over the next few days. The inflow for Pickwick is predicted to be in the 115,000-130,000 with an outflow in the 85,000-90,000 range. This may be a dumb question, but does inflow or outflow affect current more? Does TVA report water temp like it does the flow? I can’t find it on their site. Well as road warrior fishes below a dam, that’s inflow and outflow and the very same moment for two different reservoirs. Below wilson dam, the volume reading is outflow for Wilson and inflow for pickwick. Of course you will have some other inflows from creeks and smaller river before it gets down to Pickwick dam. When it floods, they attempt to hold back water and “store” it in the lakes , that’s why they lower them in winter because it rarely floods any other time of year. The lowered lake leaves room to store flood waters , it’s the only reason people can build stuff near the water haha. The only historic real estate before the dams was on high ground, like Memphis which is on a bluff Here’s a visual of pickwick lake levels, green line is last year blue line is this year 1 Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted February 17, 2021 Global Moderator Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Fishlegs said: Does TVA report water temp like it does the flow? I can’t find it on their site. They don’t report temp but usgs does for creeks and smaller rivers. The TN river in Knox is low-mid 40s on the surface by afternoon, it may be colder down toward pickwick with the recent snap they’ve had. I would guess around 40 1 Quote
Fishlegs Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 And so many people think fishing is just throwing out a line and catching fish. It’s much more complicated than that. 1 Quote
Fishlegs Posted March 10, 2021 Posted March 10, 2021 This Pickwick trip was supposed to happen a while back, but it was derailed by ice and snow. We had a perfect upper 60 degree day this time though. It got off to a late start due to some unexpected boat issues, but that allowed us to have some good conversation over a hearty breakfast. Once we got started, it only took a few minutes to get a small largemouth in the boat to ensure that there would be no skunk in the boat. We thought our luck had turned until we looked up and saw a barge that was grounded blocking one of the spots we wanted to fish. We had been making adjustments for the last four hours, so what's one more? We headed toward the dam hoping to get some smallies in the current, but all we got was one white bass. There were several boats in there, but nobody seemed to be having much luck so we moved away from the crowd. Then things started turning around. We passed the grounded barge again, and landed the first smallmouth of the day. It wasn't big, but it was a step in the right direction. Our next spot was where things heated up. Due to roadwarrior's skillful navigation of the current/wind I was able to land my new PB smallmouth. My 30 old spring scale (which I'm sure is rusted waaay tight ?) put her right between the 4.75 and 5 lb tick marks. Then roadwarrior looked at me...dead serious and said, "You ready to try another spot?" I took me a second to realize he was joking. We both laughed, went back around, and landed two more 3.5 lb smallies on almost the same spot. Then we decided to try another spot. We got one more smallmouth, and called it a day. As we were loading our gear off the boat that stupid barge that had been blocking us all day us finally got free, and passed by to taunt us one last time. HaHa! I am very grateful to @roadwarrior for a great day of fishing! He was an extremely gracious captain. He made sure I had the right tackle, gave tips on what to do, offered great stories along the way, not to mention got me a new PB smallmouth. I'm thankful he let this ol' bank beater on the boat. It was a great day of fishing. I hope we can do it again! A few pics below to commemorate. sunrise grounded barge skunk banisher first smb of the day my new PB smallmouth 3.5 smb another 3.5 smb last catch of the day 6 Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted March 12, 2021 Author Super User Posted March 12, 2021 Going back on Tuesday! 3 Quote
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