Mike Whitten firmly believes there is a world record smallmouth bass lurking somewhere in Pickwick Lake, especially after 30 years of fishing its fertile waters and a happenstance discussion with a mussel diver one afternoon.
"He told me about seeing schools of big smallmouth that would eat the crawfish that scattered about when he would pick up mussels," says Whitten, who lives in Memphis but regularly fishes Pickwick Lake throughout the year. "We talked for a while about where he dived, what he saw, and then he said that in one area he had seen three smallmouth he believed were each between 12 and 15 pounds.
"I told him those probably were drum if they were that big, and that underwater they probably looked like smallmouth. He said he had a master's degree in fisheries and was mussel diving just for something to do, and he knew what a smallmouth bass looked like. The more he told me about the area deeper water on a channel ledge, with about 6 to 8 feet as the shallowest part where the fish probably moved up to spawn I believed him. I really think there is a world record smallmouth in the lake."
Tales about supposed world records abound at only a few lakes, and Pickwick is one of them. The 53-mile-long lake is part of the Tennessee River system, a regular host to professional tournaments for bass, crappie and catfish on its various impoundments. During TVA's annual conservation electroshocking studies last year, in 18 hours of shocking, biologists netted 965 black bass and 40 percent of those were at least 10 inches long. Largemouth comprised the majority (690), but smallmouth (144) and spotted bass (131) also were caught. That's not surprising, though, because the lake has a healthy variety of species.
"This is a good crappie and sauger fishery in winter, and in late autumn, you can have a great time catching white bass and hybrids in Bear, Panther and Indian creeks," Whitten says. "I've caught flathead and blue catfish, and the lake has a great bluegill population. It's a great fishery for kids or anyone looking to catch something virtually anytime of the year."
But bass provide the Siren's song, specifically the smallmouth that can be found from below Wilson Dam in its turbulent discharge waters, on down the bluff walls to the Natchez Trace Bridge, and then along the main channel ledges on the lower end of the lake. Largemouth can be found shallow in the creeks, and Whitten rates the spotted bass fishery as vastly underrated.
"We're starting to use the 5-inch Yamamoto Cut Tail worms on Pickwick and Bay Springs, an offshoot of Pickwick, to catch some big spots," Whitten says. "I know there was a 7-pounder caught in 2002. Last December, my wife had five smallmouth that weighed 22 pounds, and two more spotted bass at 3 pounds each that didn't even make the photo. There definitely is a spotted bass fishery on Pickwick, but they're not as plentiful as smallmouth and largemouth.
"Other than mid-July to mid-August, there is probably not a time on Pickwick I don't like to fish. My favorite time to catch a big smallmouth, depending on the weather, is Feb. 15 to the first of April, because in that period of time, water temps that may get as cold as the mid-40s will start to rise. Between 52 and 54 degrees is magic for smallies, and a lot of people miss that gap because they think the fish spawn in April. Some do, but I'm convinced the big fish the 6- to 8-pounders make a strong move in mid-February.
"There are a lot of smallmouth that never go near a bank," Whitten adds. "They spawn out on humps in the river and on stumps off the bank 14 to 25 feet deep."
During that time, Whitten likes to throw three baits, with current necessary to position fish on structure: a 3 1/2-inch watermelon-gold flake tube with Kick 'n Bass craw scent, rigged with a 1/4-ounce tube head and 4/0 Mustad Ultra Point hook. He also opts for an SOB Lures 1-ounce chartreuse-white spinnerbait with a No. 5 gold willowleaf blade fished slowly across gravel bars, points and stump flats, and a Lucky Craft Pointer 100 jerkbait in chartreuse shad and clown colors, worked on the bluffs between Indian and Bear creeks.
Fishing pressure picks up in spring with tournaments almost every weekend out of McFarland Park in Florence. Anglers taking advantage of the variety will jam boat ramps from Wilson to Pickwick dam, scouring shorelines and offshore structure. That's when Whitten and other savvy anglers move deeper, pursuing the postspawn smallies that have moved back out to deeper water if they ever left it at all.
"From late April to June, we catch a lot of quality largemouth, smallmouth and spots on a Carolina rigs and crankbaits," he explains. "I'm getting to be a good proponent of finesse jigs, like the Strike King Bitsy Flip Jig, which I tip with a 3-inch Yamamoto crawfish. I'll also throw the Cut Tail worm on a darter-head jig I pour with a big 4/0 Mustad Ultra Point hook. We're fishing those on ledges and high spots 14-22 feet deep. Those areas are where the postspawn smallmouth are stacking up and feeding to replenish themselves after the spawn."
Whitten makes a long cast with a 5-inch worm, which is like a finesse worm but with half a curly tail, and drags it slowly across the bottom littered with mussel shells, stumps or other structure. He shakes it subtly, without much action from the rod, and if that doesn't elicit a strike, he'll pop the rod tip gently to make the worm rise and fall.
During that time, he'll also target shallow largemouth with a Strike King 1XS or CB 350 Lucky Craft crankbait in chartreuse shad or chartreuse-black, a 1/2-ounce white spinnerbait or a weightless 5-inch Senko. He also will have a Lucky Craft Sammy 100 tied on, in chartreuse shad with a white-feathered treble, and has no problem throwing it at any time of the day. All of those baits are fished around flooded cover and bushes, which largemouth relate to more closely than do smallmouth.
In late summer until Thanksgiving, Whitten breaks out his spinning rod and 8- or 10-pound-test line and uses live yellowtail shad on deeper structure for smallmouth. Boat positioning and current are both critical, he says, but being in the right place can pay off if the fish are gorging on shad and ignoring artificial lures.
"A lot of people laugh and say that's cheating, that you're fishing live bait, but it's precision fishing," he says. "You have to anchor the boat right, rig the weight right, etc. Guys don't think twice about going to Okeechobee or Stick Marsh and trolling shiners, but they wouldn't fish live baitfor bass on Pickwick.
"From Wilson Dam to Pickwick Dam has the best population of smallmouth of any lake in the Southeast, in my opinion. It has gravel bars, current, structure and lots of bait. Lots of people think smallies live on picturesque bluffs, but they live on gravel bars and sandy bottoms."
Whitten, like other anglers who know of Pickwick's bounty, feels blessed to be able to enjoy the year-round variety the lake has to offer.
"The water's clean and well-managed; preservation of the resource is on TVA's agenda," he says. "There also is a tremendous ethic of catch-and-release with the local anglers who fish on the lake. Among the smallmouth anglers I know, you don't kill a big smallmouth. You catch it and put it back. That contributes to the overall quality of the lake, which helps make it so great.
Inside Pickwick
Best Patterns: For smallmouth, you can't go wrong using crankbaits, Carolina rigged lizards and tubes to target main channel ledges that have stumps or mussel beds. You're looking at anywhere from 6 to 25 feet deep, although mostly in the 10- to 15-foot range. Feeder creeks dumping into the channel also provide good target areas, numerous humps, cuts and depressions that provide fish ambush points. For largemouth, it's a good bet to stick with crankbaits, black-blue 1/2-ounce jigs and big spinnerbaits in white-chartreuse around middepth cover, such as stumps and rockpiles. Some fish come off docks and shoreline cover, but the primary tactics are middepth to deeper structure with cover on it.