Whether you find the smallies feeding high or low will depend on the amount of current coming through the dam. But regardless of which spot they're in, most often the best method for catching the bass involves drift-fishing with live shad minnows.

Some humps, ledges and rocks farther downstream give up some smallmouths as well, but the premier hotspot for big bronzebacks at this time of the year lies at the foot of Wheeler Dam.

THE OTHER SISTER
As remarked above, I've always considered Pickwick Lake to be the twin sister to Wilson Lake. Physically close to each other, and of the same parentage -- the Tennessee River -- they are most readily distinguished by current: That coming through Pickwick seems stronger. And when you move downstream to Pickwick, you find the fishing different as well. In the upper reaches of Pickwick, anglers catch a number of smallmouths at the base of Wilson Dam using the same technique of fishing with live shad that works below Wheeler Dam. But most of the bronzeback action on this impoundment takes place farther downriver.

Knowing when to fish is easy: whenever current's coming through the reservoir, the more the better. But, you really need a good map and a GPS receiver to know where to fish. With those you can locate and record the drops into the old river and creek channels, flooded humps and underwater bars. Water moving over these features makes them smallmouth honeyholes.

Pickwick also features a similar but much more exotic kind of bottom structure: The lake floor is dotted with ancient Indian mounds. During the summer months many years ago, my brother, Archie, would put on his scuba gear and dive on the Indian mounds. He explained that archaeologists had done some hurried excavations of the site just before the lake was filled. Archie described these digs as not very sophisticated, looking as if a backhoe had been used to dig a trench through the middle of the mounds. He also noted that some really big smallmouth bass were holding on the edges of those old trenches. Like the other bottom breaks, these are best fished on moving water.

A few years ago, I got the chance to fish Pickwick Lake with Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark., who's one of the country's top professional bass anglers. It was a trip that emphasized the need to have current for successful bassin' on the impoundment.

Nixon has fished Pickwick in so many national tournaments that he's quite familiar with the venue. "Since there's no current running, let's fish this little creek channel with a Strike King Bitsy Bug," Nixon suggested, tying on one of the jigs. In four hours of fishing, we landed 10 smallmouths weighing up to 5 pounds and one largemouth that tipped the scales at 6 l/2 pounds. Despite that impressive catch, Nixon assured me the fishing would be even better in the afternoon, when the current was expected to pick up in the lake.

After lunch, back on the lake, we headed to a spot in which a shallow bar rose up to 5 or 6 feet deep right on the main river channel. We cast and retrieved Bitsy Bugs for about an hour and didn't get a bite.

"Current's starting to come through the lake," Nixon eventually announced.