Old Hickory Dam

[jad2t]

In about a month I'm going to start fishing a lot below the dam on the Hendersonville side from the bank. I've fished one time there. I don't even remember if there was generation or not. I had fun with some white bass but that was it. I don't know much about fishing below this dam but I know people catch a little bit of everything and so it's definitely worth the effort.

I just want to know what range of generation (in terms of cfs) will be the best time to go? Also, what's the bottom like fishing from the bank and how deep is it? Are crankbaits likely to get lost quickly? I was thinking swimbaits, cranks, flukes, maybe spoons? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[CreekWalker]

I've lost more lures down there than I care to mention. I caught a few precious drum and skipjack yesterday when there was essentially no generation. There was no bait on the shoreline. I usually do better when there is current. Can't go wrong jigging gulp minnows for small fish.

I've seen people catch decent stripers down there from a boat but no big ones from the shoreline. I'm sure it can be done but I can't seem to figure it out.

[nofish]

I've only seen asians pull big stripers from the bank down there. They seem to have them dialed in.

[Buccaneer]

Go here - http://www.tva.com/river/lakeinfo/index.htm - select Old Hickory from the drop down menu. What you are looking for is any change in the volume released. For example any step up say from "0" to "5600" or from "5600" to "12,000" or from 0 generators to 1 or more or 1 to 2 or more is the triggering event for the best fishing. From 5600 cfs to 13000 cfs is manageable current and also good flow for fishing down there.

use cheap baits jig head with grubs will catch about anything and will be cheap if lost