Fishing the tailrace below the Lake Talquin Dam can be an eerie experience, even on a sunny day. In addition to the dam’s floodgates and sluices, the tailrace is loomed over by a rather large and industrial-looking brick building that houses the dam’s hydroelectric turbines. With its 20-foot-tall windows, it is reminiscent of the water-driven mills of the Northeast, many of which have long since been abandoned. The dreariness of this 1930s building reveals nothing of the incredible fishing just below its walls, on the Ochlockonee River. The tailrace is perfectly suited to fishing with a small boat and simple tackle and its proximity to Tallahassee makes it a great bass fishing site.

Not long ago, I met another angler who was fishing the tailrace and having great luck. I had just eased the boat up to the barrier cable that stretches across the river below the dam, when I noticed him. Judging from the bend in his rod, he was either fighting a strong current or a very big fish. It turned out to be both. I watched as he landed a 20-plus-pound striper. Other anglers who saw that action immediately picked up their pace, casting heavy jigs into the boiling current.

Over the next several hours, other anglers landed a number of nice stripers— while I threw small jigs, spoons and plugs without a strike. Maybe he felt sorry for me, but the guy in the next boat finally threw some leadhead jigs over and shouted that I need to use heavier jigs to get close to bottom where the fish were holding. That’s how I met Buddy Warren, who had been regularly fishing the dam since he was 10 years old. Using one of his 3/4-ounce jigs quickly produced a 12-pound striper. Later that day, he threw me a jig with a realistic rubber swimming tail, to use if the fish quit hitting bucktail jigs. By the end of the day, I was hooked on that place. Over the next few months, I fished the dam almost as regularly as Buddy, who was there from dawn to dusk every day that he wasn’t working.

The more I fished there, the more I realized that it was both a simple and a complex procedure. Sometimes, catching fish is just a matter of casting jigs into the heavy current and letting them sink close to the bottom as they move downstream. The downside is getting stuck between rocks. Anglers who regularly fish the spot adopt the attitude that for every lure eaten by a striper, the bottom will eat five or six!

Many anglers prefer fishing on the right side of the dam, directly beneath the turbine building. Others, like Warren, catch more fish on the left side of the dam when the floodgates are open. Some say the best fishing occurs when a combination of turbines are operating and floodgates are open to permit the flow of specific amounts of water into the tailrace. Anglers can get information about water level and gate openings by calling (850) 891-5990 and listening to a recorded message.

Buddy Warren prefers to keep it simple and his theory is, "The more water flow, the more fish." He does prefer that the gates be open and he always fishes right in the strongest flow with a heavy jig, but he admits that using this method makes fishing from a small boat difficult. Buddy also searches for eddies in the current because that’s where rocks are located. The bottom of the tailrace is made of limestone with rocks that have been undercut by the current. The fish often lie right behind the edges of rocks, so casting close to the bottom near rocks is advantageous as long as you don’t get snagged. Buddy told me that he caught his biggest striper ever on a cold, overcast day in a rainy drizzle. He was fishing in front of the Number 8 buoy casting toward the log chute in the dam. Casting near rocks, he caught a striper that weighed almost 40 pounds.

As with their northern cousins, the cold stimulates stripers here in Florida. They languish during the hot summer months, but when the water temperature drops below 70, they go into feeding mode. Cooling temperatures and a strong water flow combine to draw stripers from the entire 50-mile stretch from the dam to the Gulf. Throw in a seasonal concentration of both gizzard and threadfin shad below the dam and you have all the ingredients for a striper-feeding explosion. Stripers also take advantage of black crappie that spawn at the dam. While the tailrace can be fished year-round, there is no doubt that the best months are December, January and February.

Two strains of striped bass can be found in the Ochlockonee River, the native, or Gulf strain, and the stocked strain. The stocked strain was introduced to enhance the population and some have no doubt been flushed through the dam from Lake Talquin. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has stocked pure Atlantic-strain stripers in Lake Talquin for years as a source of brood stock and as a gamefish.

Stripers offer Florida anglers a great opportunity to catch a real freshwater trophy. Buddy Warren prefers medium-action 7-foot baitcasting rods, comfortable for making the hundreds of casts sometimes necessary to catch fish. He also uses 17-pound-test monofilament. Anglers can go lighter or heavier, but having plenty of line comes in handy when a striper heads downstream in a heavy current. Passing the rod under the cable below the dam requires a bit of finesse to prevent breaking either the rod or the line. Accomplishing this with a fly rod is doubly challenging!

Feeding periods for stripers are often sporadic during the day with a spike at dawn and dusk. There are usually lulls in the feeding and then the fish erupt and feed for an hour or so. Warren likes to keep an eye on the schools of shad on the surface as well as checking his depthfinder to spot shad that move under the boat. He can often predict a feeding period at the dam by seeing shad move under his boat or by spotting the cormorants starting to dive on schools of shad downriver. Often, when the feeding activity starts downriver, the fish below the dam are already feeding on the schools that arrived earlier. Seeing shad flipping on the surface or birds diving near the dam is a clear indication to start casting in that area. Sometimes stripers get airborne in their attacks on the shad. When this happens, it’s time to cast a topwater plug into the action. Sometimes this occurs in open water and other times it is up along the wall on the right side.

Fishing below the dam with a fly rod is challenging, but not impossible. Near dusk, stripers herd shad up close to the wall that runs up to the dam. A streamer or a popper is often effective for these surface feeders. An 8- or 9-weight rod is more than adequate for this. Floating lines are good for poppers and slow-sinking lines that just break the surface are good for streamers. There is often a slight backwash that flows toward the dam along the wall and this makes it easier to keep slack out of a fly line. Casting into the swift current even with a fast sinking fly line may be too much of a challenge when the current is strong. It becomes nearly impossible to maintain any contact with the fly and difficult to detect a strike. A better approach is to cast down and across the current below the cable. This allows better contact with the fly as it swims downstream.

On the west side of the river, there is a small creek just below the dam. Stripers sometimes erupt into feeding frenzies when schools of small shad gather in front of this creek. Because it’s shallow and the current isn’t strong, it’s a great place to throw a streamer or a popper.

A bonus to fishing for stripers is the chance of tying into one of the huge largemouth bass that hang around the dam. These bruisers gorge on the endless supply of shad. They seem to prefer the same habitat that the stripers do and they often strike the same lures. This action usually occurs close to the rocks near the bottom or along the rocky wall leading to the dam. Largemouth bass also like to smash lures on the surface and it’s not uncommon to tie into several 7- to 10-pound bass while striper fishing. These bass are almost always shaped like footballs and in February and March, they are also full of roe.

Buddy Warren and I were fishing below the dam on a sunny January day with the temperature in the low 70s and a comfortable breeze blowing. We each had a few stripers in the ice chest and were looking forward to the next feeding period when he paused and said, "You know, Bill, there are some mighty miserable New Englanders trying to do just what we’re doing. We’ve really got it pretty good!"

Just don’t forget the sunscreen here, even during Florida’s winter.

Access

The only boat ramp open near the dam is the Lazy Daze Campground located just off Highway 20 before crossing the bridge when going west. It’s less than a mile from the dam. It’s a simple ramp that can be tricky for large boats when the water level is really low. The launch fee is $3. They sell some tackle. Locations that carry striper lures in the Tallahassee area are Blind Eye Outfitters, West Marine and Wal-Mart. For fly gear, try The Fly Shop in Tallahassee. —B.G.