Bass residing in tailraces below dams constantly feel the effects of current.
Water flowing through a dam activates bass by providing cooler, oxygenated water and in certain areas of the tailrace, heavy current positions bass on ambush points. When the water flow is constant, bass usually congregate along current breaks where they can pick off food being swept into their strike zone.
Any object in the water that diverts the flow serves as a current break. "In the tailraces below our lakes, there will be broken rock banks and some jetties where you can see the boils and side eddies,” says Jimmy Mason, a Pickwick Lake guide and tournament competitor from Alabama.
Many of the breaks in the tailrace areas below dams on a chain of lakes are easy to distinguish without electronics. Since current is always present in tailraces, Mason checks the water flow velocity to determine how he fishes the breaks. "The more current you have, the more it positions the fish around the breaks," says Mason. He notices that the fish will be more on the front sides of the breaks and not holding as tight to the obstacle in a slower current.
The amount of flow also influences how many fish hold on breaks. “There will be times when there will be an unbelievable number of fish holding in the same eddy (during heavy flow)," advises Mason. "It's almost like all the fish in that area are pulling into a few select large eddies.” Mason usually finds single fish holding along a series of rock outcroppings in medium or low current.
On the tailraces of the Tennessee River chain of lakes, Mason targets current breaks that extend above the water (rock jetties or rock piles) and underwater obstacles such as divergent dikes and stump rows. “You can see that something under there is disrupting the current, but you can’t see what it is,” says Mason, who relies on his electronics to define the underwater break.
Facing the nose of his boat into the current, Mason drifts backward with the water flow and uses his trolling motor to control the speed of his drift. He usually casts his lure upstream and lets the current wash it into the eddy of the current break.
The time of year and type of current break determines which lures Mason selects for tailrace fishing. "I'll start during the warm months with a topwater bait and then depending on how the fish react, I will go to the (Yum) Houdini Shad or even a spinnerbait (1/2- to 3/4-ounce Booyah double willowleaf model) that I sweep into the eddy,” says Mason. These lures produce best for Mason when he targets the eddies of visible current breaks.
Current supplies a higher oxygen level than the surrounding waters in the summer and fall, so bass tend to hold along breaks near the heaviest flow during these seasons. On his home waters, Mason finds the most active fish on the upstream side of the current breaks. “If you think about what current does, it hits an object in the water head-on, so there will be a dead spot that causes a boil or an eddy in front of the object as well as the back side," Mason says. "Lots of times, the most active fish will be sitting in that eddy in front of the break where they get the choice food washing into that eddy."
During colder months, Mason keys on underwater current breaks where he bumps a plastic grub or 3-inch tube bait along the bottom. He rigs his soft plastics on a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jighead depending on the current strength.
Bass are usually less aggressive in the cold water, so Mason suggests keying on slack water areas behind the current breaks. Since he wants his lure to stay in contact with the bottom, Mason usually anchors his boat, which allows him to keep his lure in the eddy longer. "Once I get my first bite or two, I will anchor my boat so that I can cast upstream and let the current sweep my bait through the area I am trying to fish," says Mason. “That is the whole key; you want the current to make your bait fall naturally into the areas that the fish are in.”
Once he finds a productive current break, Mason returns to it throughout the day because he knows it will produce for him again.
“One of the neat things about current is that the fish will replenish in an area,” he says. "A lot of times, you can go back through an area that you have fished an hour or two beforehand, and the same eddies you caught fish in then will replenish so that you will catch another fish or two there."
Whenever you find an object breaking current in a tailrace, make multiple presentations to that spot because it could be holding a bunch of hungry bass waiting for your lure to sweep onto their dinner table.
