Pickwick Lake Elevation 414
Water Temp. 75

BASS
Overall bass fishing has been excellent but to really do good I have had tofocus on the morning hours. The first few hours of daylight can bereally productive in the right areas. Several guide tripshave shown that between 6am and9am we can catch better keeper fish than the rest of the daycombined. If you have a slow start during those morning hours oddsare you are going to have a tough day fishing. I like to throwa surface bait right now only if I see bass busting the surface.By 6:30am I liketo throw a Sexy Shad, Strike King Series 6 Crank Bait aroundmain lake tapering points. The larger size crank bait usually attractsbigger fish and do not count on it eliminating small fish because thesmallest bass will try to eat it as well. One trip last weekproduced two smallmouth bass over five pounds the first hour of fishing on theStrike King Series 6 on two different main lake points. Make sure youuse a medium action rod with a smooth reel to get the most action outof these crank baits. I will fish with this same crankbait for the rest of the day but the action usually slows downafter 9am. Carolina rigsome of these points for a few extra fish, if they are there they may hitthe slower bait.

White Bass
White bass have been running strong for a while now with no sign of slowingdown any time soon. You can catch white bass on a number of baits, in-linespinnerbaits are popular and white grubs are very common and easy to use. Onmost of my guide trips I like using the smaller crankbaits because they areeasy for a novice fisherman and I seem to catch the bigger sized whitebass. The most productive crankbait over the last few weeks has been theSeries 3 Strike King crankbait in the Sexy Shad color because of itssimilarities to the baitfish as far as size and color.

Stripers
Stripers are biting really well when the Dam is generating. Yellow tailminnows are running strong right now and accounting for a large number of fish.Fish these yellow tail minnows close to the bottom and drift down stream. Ifyou fish during the morning hours or late afternoon you can catch a lot of fishon a King Shad by Strike King, this bait runs below the surface and is big andstrong enough to hold up to big stripers. It is best to fish the King Shad inthe new Sexy Shad color on 12 pound test line and throw it where there is a lotof current, because it is jointed its action attracts fish when you simply reelit back slowly with tight line. Just make a long cast and keep your linetight.

Catfish
I took a group out catfishing Monday to verify the catfish were still activeand they definantly are. We caught all of our fish in 20' ofwater. We were able to catch all we wanted on live night crawlers but thebigger fish were caught on turkey liver and cut bait.