TO CATCH A HYBRID
Anglers on both the bank and in boats catch hybrid stripers in the spring below the dams.

"Live shad are considered the best baits," Nichols said. "And I guess dead shad are the next best thing."

Sassy Shad-type jigs work well if you chose to fish with artificials. Nichols said he likes to use 1/2-ounce and 3/4-ounce jigs. Most tailrace sections have plenty of riprap, sunken rocks and other debris, so hangups are inevitable.

"You will lose some gear," Nichols pointed out.

He likes chartreuse or white when picking a color for this angling.

Crankbaits and spoons also can sometimes be used to catch the fish.

Capt. Dallas "Buddy" Golden, who now works as a bass guide on Lake Guntersville, grew up fishing for striper and hybrids on Lake Martin and guided for stripers there for years and years.

"You fish for hybrids just like you would fish for stripers," Golden said. "When I guided on Lake Martin, we caught hybrids in the same places doing the same things that we did for stripers."

He caught many of his fish on live shad, but also fished jigging spoons, jerkbaits and bucktails. He almost always fished with white lures unless the water was stained and then he would go with white-and-chartreuse.

"They make a special jerkbait called a Red Fin that is just dynamite for hybrids and stripers," Golden said.

The Cotton Cordell Red Fin line of jerkbaits is marketed by Pradco Lures.

One thing anglers must determine when they arrive at a striper hole is just where in the water column the fish are located. It's a critical factor, even if you're fishing live shad.

"If the fish are near the surface, you don't use any weight with your shad," Golden noted. "You just use the hook and the shad and do what's known as free-lining.

If the fish are deeper, you use a Carolina rig, but replace the usual plastic bait with a live shad. The weight gets the bait down to where the fish are.

While hybrids are known to push 20 pounds, Golden said the majority of the ones you catch below the dams are 4 to 8 pounds.

"They fight real strong," he offered. "They're normally a little wider than a regular striper, so they might fight a little harder."

Golden won't go after the fish with anything less than 20-pound-test line and he doesn't hesitate to go all the way up to 30 pounds. For this angling, the guide uses both baitcasting rigs and spinning tackle.

"I like that open-face spinning rig when I'm throwing a jerkbait or a bucktail," he said.

Golden noted that he has fished for hybrids on West Point Lake and caught them on Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps there.

"You get real strong runs of fish below these dams in the spring time, with stripers, hybrids and white bass all running at different times," he said. "If everything comes together just right, the good fishing can last for weeks."

Anglers interested in catching the fish need to start looking as early as February and March, because sometimes the big fish in particular turn on early.

"They get a good run up below Guntersville Dam where I live, too," Golden said. "It just seems like those bigger fish come in earlier to me."