I personally would not fish this way. I see it all the time at Old Hickory dam, but it seems like you are putting yourself in a potentially dangerous situation without an easy exit.
Cordell Hull dam is a great area to fish. As generation slows, a bunch of fish will move back downstream to the deep holes near the big bluffs just upstream of Carthage. As generation picks up they move back. Of course this is not all of the fish and the big stripers can range a lot farther than that, but it is a pretty good area to focus on learning where to good spots are found.
A great way to learn the area and catch a bunch of fish is to run up to the dam and drift downstream. Bounce a 3-way rig with a small piece of bait (shad is great, but any smelly bait will work) under the boat as you drift. It takes a little practice to figure out the right amount of weight to keep the line nearly straight underneath the boat and not snagging all the time. Touch the bottom with the weight, lift a foot or so, drift 10 seconds or so, and touch the bottom again. It will keep the bait near the bottom but out of most snags. It will also let you feel changes in depth and bottom composition. Do Not drag the bait downstream on the bottom. It will snag very quickly. Mark where you get bites on your depthfinder or by eye. Good spots will start showing up and you want to drift over them again and again. You will also learn the snags so that you can avoid them.
After you figure out where the holes, humps, and other fish holding structure are in the dam area, you can use a bunch of other methods to target certain species and structure more specifically.
Small cut bait will catch almost everything that swims below the dams as the shad get chopped up as they pass through the hydroelectric turbines. If you want to target big fish, big live bait is helpful, but not required.
I am sure there are a bunch of other good methods for fishing below the dams, but this one is pretty easy, work consistently, and allows you to cover a lot of water to find where the fish are on any given day.
Good luck, I wish I was close to Cordell Hull dam. There are some giant fish in that area.
Jim
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