Pickwick Rising

[sbrown]

Don't look now, but the 3 Day forecast shows Pickwick rising 4 feet by Saturday. I'm sure they are holding back water since upstream flooding is occurring in the Ohio valley. Nonetheless such a rapid rise will make for an interesting spring bite.

[roadwarrior]

Just a lot of water moving through the system.

Flood gates are wide open:

Predicted Data

Day      Average Inflow*      Midnight Elevation*      Average Outflow*

3/10/2011       279,365            415.17               215,093

3/11/2011       280,790            416.87          235,048

3/12/2011       244,043            417.77               229,970

*Elevations are in feet above sea level. Flows are in cubic feet per second.

[unageo09]

McFarland Park in Florence has been closed. Water is spilling out of the harbor into the parking lots. The soccer fields and old gold course also has water standing in them. The river is at level with the bank outside harbor down toward the campground areas. I imagine the park will likely be closed through at least Saturday maybe even into Sunday. There is another chance of rain Monday, but it shouldn't be enough to aggravate the flooding issues.

[jiggin_it]

ill be out there saturday....any ideas.

[sbrown]

There's 2 large tournaments on PW Saturday. With the sudden rise and forecast of 70 and sunshine, go shallow. The bass will be pushing up even further. If you can find water temps upwards to 57+ even better.

Any temp reports? Water on Bay Springs was 50 today.

[soopd]

What will happen to the fishing when they suck the water back down?

[roadwarrior]

What will happen to the fishing when they suck the water back down?

The Tennessee always fluctuates! Current is the

deciding factor, year around. It's almost spring,

the fish are on a tear and almost anything will

produce a bite. Right now "moving" baits/ lures

rule.

Suggestions: Jerkbaits, shallow cranks including

lipless, Norman Fat Boy, Bagley BII, LC (RC) 1.5,

2.5 & 3.5, Bandit 100, 200 & 300, Bomber Square A

and Swarming Hornet/ LFT Live Magic Shad.

In low light, eaqrly and late: Cavitron Buzzbait,

Rage Tail Shad, Megabass PopMax, LC Sammy,

Zara Spook or any of your favorite topwater lures!

The Swimming Senko and single tail grubs are also

a "sure thing".

Even the the primary focus is shad, you can never

overlook soft plastics, especially in the middle of

the day: Smokin' Rooster, Space Monkey, Thumper,

Anaconda, MegaStrike Mega Bug, Senko, Fat Ika

and of course, the Rage Tail Baby Craw!

8-)

[George Welcome]

Looks like a whole tackle bag to me Kent. Whew!

[roadwarrior]

Looks like a whole tackle bag to me Kent. Whew!

No kidding! The point is "anything" works around

here in the spring. Pick your favorite technique,

lure and color.

So, what's the trick? The usual suspects: location,

location, location! Then we can talk about depth,

profile and retrieve. Still, the fish are active when

we have current, so find some fish and you will get

bit.

8-)

[Al Wolbach]

May I suggest fishing the very back of feeder creeks. Incoming water on a rising lake, nearly a sure thing, unless the incoming water is very cold.............Works in E. TN.................Al

[Creeduck]

Decent day today at Pickwick, but only fished 3 hours.  Caught 'em all in 4' of water.   Man, have never seen the water move that fast - with that, add a 10-15 mph wind.    My trolling motor is now resting after a pretty good workout. 

[soopd]

We fished out of Waterloo this morning and I have never in my life seen that many boats.  I counted 25 boats just in second creek.  We managed only 7 keeper fish but no big fish.  I fished all depths and the biggest fish came from 19' of water.  The water temp started at 49 this morning and it was 53 when I left at 2:15. 

[unageo09]

The river has crested and is beginning to fall. It should go below flood stage Monday. I hope to get out on water maybe Tuesday or Wednesday.

[jiggin_it]

fished pickwick today and spent most of the day avoiding the parade of boats and floater logs.  that is by far the most boats i have ever seen on the lake.  i know there was a fishers of men outta state park and the bfl outta jp, but wat was tourney was outta waterloo.  the main parking lot was full and there was several in the spill over parking lot.  it was unbelievable.......we put in at state line around 6:30 and i stopped counting at 30 headed toward tombigbee, i dont know if they were goin to bay springs or fishin the waterway.  i wish we had just gone to sit and watch all the boats on the main lake, i bet it was a show.  now to the fishing.....it was slow for us, we managed a limit and talkin to some guys at the ramp it sounded like it was hit or miss for everybody. i know several caught some good numbers.  anyone on here do any good?

[soopd]

There was a tourney scheduled for Mcfarland today and if I am not mistaken it was moved to Waterloo due to Mcfarland being shut down. 

[jiggin_it]

that makes sense. 

[crankbait2008]

I'm new at this, please bear with me.. I have a tournament on Pickwick lake this Saturday..Does anyone know if they are catching them deep or shallow ?? on points or rip rap or what?? I took a big goose egg last year in March ! I really don't want to do that again ! ! thanks!

[soopd]

Where is your tournament out of Saturday?

[crankbait2008]

Yellow Creek or State Line ramp as some call it !

[triglet]

oh yeah. a tournament and the water is high.  hopefully we can find a spot to camp on the water!

[soopd]

I fished out of Waterloo saturday and I caught quite a few 1 to 2lbers.  Most of them came from less than 4ft of water.  I caught 1 fish from 20' of water.  I caught some on square bills, texas rig plastics, and the deep fish came from caroline rig plastic.  It was a struggle all day for me but we did manage some fish. 

I am fishing out of McFarland park this afternoon so we will see how that goes.    

[roadwarrior]

So, how did it go?

[soopd]

Water temp was 54.  I didn't put in until 3:30 and I fished until about 7:00.  The current was moving and the water appears to be down to about summer pool level.  The water is still pretty stained.  I managed only 3 fish on a shallow crankbait.  Two largemouth went about 2 lbs each and one 3 lb small mouth. I am still learning Pickwick and it seems I learn something new each trip. 

I am fishing out of Waterloo again Saturday and I am pretty confident to bite is going to be GOOD.  Probably going to fish 2nd creek and bear creek.

[sbrown]

I went yesterday and managed only 5 small ones. 3 on square bills 2 on senkos in 4 fow. The larger fish are schooled up on ledges but wind kept that hard to fish.

The lake is still spilling at the dam and will keep the water muddy till it stops. Looks like another 1ft fall thru Saturday and the current is busting. I wonder if too much? I look forward to them shutting down the dam and letting the lake stabilize hopefully next week. With all the up and down the fish are freaked out. The shallow bite will be hard. Temps up to 57 but with a fast drop the quality fish are not in the warmer shallows that I can tell. Looks like crappie fishing for me this weekend and hopefully Pickwick will be back on mid week next week. Now the lake fish know how their cousins below the dam feel with all that current....

[bankerbasser]

I fished my local club tourney today out of Stateline in Yellow Creek and I would agree 100% with this post.  The fish are definitely freaked out !