Pickwick Lake Fishing Report - December 4, 2025

Bass Fishing - Bass fishing has been very good over the past couple weeks as the water finally cools to upper 50's. Both largemouth and smallmouth can be caught anywhere from shallow on bluff points and transition banks to suspended right on the first drop. Many of the large sacks are coming from people livescoping and throwing a jerkbait, alabama rig or shaking a minnow such as the Jenko Don with the revolution head. This is a time of year when there is a little wind that i love to take a suspending jerkbait and just cover points until i figure the depth range. Smallmouth is also good in the tailraces when the water is on, so its critical to watch the generation schedule.

Crappie Fishing - ITS TIME! to me this is the best time of the year to be out crappie fishing. Traffic is lower and you can catch them shooting docks, drifting, or fishing deep brush. Really the key is wind that allows you to present your bait right. THe past 2 weeks, lots of limits caught deep on brush on the 3 inch lil don jenko bait and the 2 inch tickle fry on a 1/8 head. If you are shooting docks, its critical to go to lighter weights no larger than a 1/16 head and baits like the fry baby from jenko have been the best. Most of our success has been in major creeks but we have found the patterns to be good all the way from the TN dam to bear creek and waterloo, so its not one specific area.

Catfishing - Unreal this week. Out on a bass trip this week and a good friend kept 20 nice white cats caught on a Jenko Don minnow. They are suspended and really feeding up so can only imagine what you could do with true bait. This was on the main river above the dam.

Sauger - Just starting to show up below the Pickwick Dam. Heard a couple limits caught this week, but the nastier the weather or colder the better this gets. Several 20 inch fish caught this week.

Brim - Loading up deep on barge ties and the dam walls. Also, you can drop shot a worm or even fish a small jig in cuts below the dam and fill the coolers up! They get in bunches and its one of the best ways to catch a big mess of fish.

We understand its hunting season and many people think its cold, but proper clothes and some care (lifejacket on or very close) and it can be the best time to be on the lake. The change of leaves, eagles and wildlife is plenty and the fish are biting!