First-Rate Fishing Below Dams

During spring, therefore, it’s rarely necessary to use anything but chunks of cutbait of a size appropriate for the cats being pursued. In small rivers, the best choice may be as simple as a freshly killed 4-inch baitfish. Cutting off the tail helps to keep the bait from spinning in current. Slash the sides of the a time or two to get those succulent juices flowing. Slip the hook through once near the tail end, leaving the hook point exposed to ensure a good hookset. Use a #4 or #2 hook like the Eagle Claw 84 or the Mustad 92671—simple, affordable, sturdy hooks. There are lots of snags, so buying boxes of a hundred saves money. Cats up to about 10 pounds take a piece of cutbait (suckers and shad work great), something about 1 inch x 1 inch x 1/2 inch thick. Increase those dimensions by half an inch at most for bigger catfish. Going any larger makes it difficult to fish it properly in current.

Leave the hook point exposed by slipping it once through the corner of the skin of the cutbait. A 2/0 hook is just right for fish from 6 to 10 pounds or so. For bigger fish, go with a 3/0 hook. Sharpen hooks with a file and reduce the barb to make sure the hook sets easily. Eventually, when the largest flatheads switch to livebaits, you’ll need heavier rigging.

Weight your bait with a bell sinker, preferably the kind called a bass-casting sinker, which usually has a swivel on top. Egg sinkers don’t work well because they don’t stay in place on bottom and you can end up with twice as many snags. There’s no way to completely eliminate snags, though, so make your own sinkers, or at least buy in bulk. Keeping on hand a supply of weights from 1 to 8 ounces covers most tailwater situations.

One of the biggest mistakes catmen make is worrying about the length of leader between the hook and sinker. This is needless worry because no leader is necessary. Let the sinker slide right up against the hook. The resulting rig looks, casts, and fishes almost like a leadhead jig—exactly what you want. Too much leader causes a loss of feel, lack of control, and subsequently snags. If the swivel eye on top of the sinker is so big that the eye of your hook sticks, use a bead to cushion this connection.

Use current to move this rig along the bottom. If your rig’s just heavy enough and you hold your line just tight enough to stay in constant contact with current, your rig moves through prime current spots so you can feel everything down there. Lift the rig over rocks and slide it through sand and gravel pockets. Snags are minimized, while presentation is maximized.

The most important part of this process, though, is the acquired ability to judge more than bottom content, which is secondary to current in determining where fish are. You can use this rig to read current conditions. Specifically, first look for and then feel for current tunnels.

Current Tunnels

Current edges are formed: Where flows moving in opposing directions meet, and where flows moving at different speeds and consisting of different volumes of water meet. Current tunnels are formed near bottom along these edges or at the rear or tailout of holes gouged by the turbulence of the tailwater, creating areas of relative calm in turbulent water. Catfish use these tunnels as a current refuge. They can move easily through them, and feed more efficiently. Food that washes into these areas moves slowly through, making it easily accessible to the catfish holding there.

Current tunnels may be either flat, relatively indistinct in shape, or oval and much like a tunnel. The flat tunnels usually form where flows moving in opposite directions meet. The circular tunnels form where flows are moving the same direction at different speeds and with different volumes of water. Most tunnels are no more than 15 to 20 feet long.

The obvious spot for circular tunnels is immediately below the dam. If a pillar separates one lock from another, and if only one of them is running water, the pillar creates a current edge where a large volume of water crushes and runs over a lesser volume of water moving in the same direction.

In most major dam areas, so much water is running or it’s so deep that it’s impossible to safely fish close to the dam. Lowhead dams don’t, for the most part, have many pillars, and getting too close is dangerous. And stay away from areas of massive turbulence. Anchoring is unsafe in some situations, too. Ask folks who know about local conditions. And when in doubt, don’t anchor. Always have a knife on hand to cut the anchor line in an emergency.

To fish through a current tunnel, anchor in the slower water on one side of the most turbulent flow, as close as possible to the head of the current edge. Cast your bait to the head of the current edge, usually just behind a pillar, and tighten your line to the bait. The objective is to locate the head of the current tunnel and to keep your bait anchored there, or at least move your bait through it as slowly as possible.