fish, Nickajack Dam, All, 05-07-2016

[fish]

We bucked the wind Saturday below the dam at Nickajack trying for anything that would bite. The ran one generator for a while but it didn't help much. We didn't do much good in the boils but we saw several people catching some.

One question, what kind of fish breaks the top of the water kinda like a Dolphin? They were large fish and almost looked the color of a gar, they were everywhere.

We finally tried to get out of the wind but no luck finding anywhere. We have a 24 foot pontoon so that is just that much worse in the wind.

We did wind up catching around 50 bream, warmouth, sunfish and what have you, which we released.

We still had fun, especially our grandson, who enlisted in the Army and will be shipping out the last of this month so we are trying to fish as much as we can before he leaves.

 

[rusty50576]

Possibly could have been paddlefish breaching. Did it sound like someone throwing a refrigerator into the river? Gar will come up and gulp air but paddlefish leap out of the water

 

[spuds704]

I've seen some large carp breaching lately.

 

[TN444PSD]

I was down there Saturday for a while from the shore, there are huge gar coming up all over below the dam right now, the shad are black thick from the bank to about 5 feet off the rocks and the drum are all in there with them by the hundreds. you can net all the bait you want with a dip net from shore right now. the catfish and drum were biting good, just about every cast you had one on.

 

[Nedrigger]

I was there after dark Saturday and didn't get anything tried bream, chicken livers and gizzards, and even shad for cut bait had one hit is all. some young guys came up in a flat bottom and had there music full blast running around in front of the pier which didn't help much. btw is mono better or braid better for below the dam with the rocks and all going have to put some fresh line on and was wondering?

 

[SpurHunter]

Nedrigger - 5/10/2016 3:59 PM

I was there after dark Saturday and didn't get anything tried bream, chicken livers and gizzards, and even shad for cut bait had one hit is all. some young guys came up in a flat bottom and had there music full blast running around in front of the pier which didn't help much. btw is mono better or braid better for below the dam with the rocks and all going have to put some fresh line on and was wondering?

If you are letting your rigs lay or drag on the bottom, mono for sure. If your casting and retrieving in current, braid is better as you can use smaller diameter line and cut through the currents better. Braid is strong, but it gets cut easily when contacting sharp objects.

 

[SpurHunter]

rusty50576 - 5/8/2016 10:15 PM

Possibly could have been paddlefish breaching. Did it sound like someone throwing a refrigerator into the river? Gar will come up and gulp air but paddlefish leap out of the water

I have seen a ton of Gar doing that as well. It could also be buffalo jumping I guess? I havnt seen a paddlefish do it below a dam, but have seen it at the Nuke before.

 

[Nedrigger]

thanks for the info. where can I go to find out when they cut the spill gates off.. seems like I have better luck when no water is coming through the dam.

 

[porthos33]

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</div><div>QUOTE]Nedrigger - 5/10/2016 4:49 PM thanks for the info. where can I go to find out when they cut the spill gates off.. seems like I have better luck when no water is coming through the dam.[/QUOTE]</div>

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https://www.tva.gov/Environment/Lake-Levels/Nickajack</p>

 

[Nedrigger]

thank you porthos33

 

[fish]

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it. I thought the fish looked like gar just wasn't sure.

We had planned to go fishing tomorrow but the wind is supposed to be pretty high so I guess we will sit this one out.