Taking the wife up this Thursday-Saturday to catch some bass. Hopefully, I she can catch her first small mouth. I live in Shelby County and fish the Coosa mostly. I haven't tournament fished in years and don't plan on starting back so any information you share I promise will not affect you one bit. With that said, does anyone have any information they care to share on what the fish are biting and where to start looking? We're staying at 'Wheeler Lodge.

Thanks, in advance.

Wilson has a lot of the Coosa style shoreline grass you are used to seeing. Spinnerbait in the grass should be good right now.

Any tips on where I can find some small mouth for my wife? Feel free to send me a PM if needed.

Drifting shiners below wheeler and or wilson dam will net you some brown fish right now.

Thanks, gman but I don't use live bait.

Would imagine crankbaits, swim baits and spinner baits would rule right now. It's been a day since i was down on the lower end of wheeler/wilson in the fall.

Drift below the dam and throw Spinnerbaits or swim baits on a 3/8- 1/2 oz head looking at the recent current they are running. Take multiple colors but generally a natural color with paddle tail in a Keitech or true bass styles. Dip that tail in some chartreuse and you should be able to find a smallmouth or 2.

Or, just use live bait

Alabama rig in the tail races. As other have stated swim baits, spinnerbaits, and crank baits. I like fishing the rock piles with a jig.

I fished the tail race below wheeler dam last week. We used live bait and fished with some crankbaits as well. We caught several different species of fish. My only smallmouth was caught around the island that’s just north of the towers. I caught it on a 3xd. The hybrids fired up at dusk. You could probably catch them on any moving bait. The water temp was 71 degrees. Most of the people I spoke with thought the smallmouth bite would be better if the water was a little cooler. That was only my 2nd trip in the tail race, so I’m probably not the best resource. I do plan on going back next month.

I don't know what I'm talking about or what I'm doing, and we were fishing a different place, but my friend and I caught quite a few small mouth below the Gville dam on jerkbaits this last Saturday. Ironically, we were actually originally trying to catch white bass.

Some guys wom a bunch of tournaments last fall on Gville with all smallmouth

We caught a couple nice ones. I could see that happening. Maybe we were just lucky, but if I was catching them, I'm sure someone that knows what they were doing could get on them.

The fish were schooling on Wheeler late Sunday afternoon. We had roughly 20 spots/largemouth in about three hours. The fish weren't up shallow like I expected them to be. The better sizes were out in 12-20 feet of water on rocky banks...

All I know is we tried to fish for crappie last Saturday. Didn't catch a single one because the smallies kept hitting the bait.

I guess you were using live bait?

Where is the best place to get bait close to the dam? Im gona go try it out tomorrow. Wanting some good big minnows

Dip net right up close to the dam. Be careful. The rocks can be slick and you’ll wind up in the river. Don’t ask how I know.

Yeah a cast net will get you all you could want

Fishing was pretty tuff if you didn't find the bait and even then, it wasn't great. Fished second half of day on Thursday on Wheeler catching around 7-8 LM and a few dang drum on CB. Friday, I fished from daylight until wife texted me to pick her up around 10:30 on Wheeler where I had only caught 5-6 LM. I decided to pick her up and go to Wilson. We fished from around noon until sunset and caught 10-12 LM and a few more dang drum and a few white bass and hybrids. Saturday, fished from daylight until 9:30 in tailrace on Wilson with 50 other boats. I caught 4 SM, one drum and a skipjack. Went and got my wife and we returned to Wilson and did not go back to tailrace but fished mainly creeks and managed to catch at least 18 LM or so. All in all, I'm pleased with the trip. For a Coosa River guy it was fun to fish someplace different and always fun to catch a few small mouths. A few people were saying the fishing has been terrible and lack of generation hasn't helped. The small mouth bite hasn't happened yet according to the locals.