Biologist Larry Pugh lips a spotted bass hooked on a drop-shot worm rig just downstream of Lock D on the Tenn-Tom. Photo by Robert H. Cleveland Jr.

It was surprising to see what was swimming up with my spinnerbait stuck in its jaw, the golden willow-leaf and smaller silver Colorado blades shining in the clear water as they bounced with every turn of the fish’s head.

“That’s a spot -- a huge spot!” I started hollering at my fishing partner. “No wonder it felt like I was reeling in Moby Dick! I haven’t seen a spotted bass that big in years -- decades -- maybe never.”

Biologist Larry Pugh jumped down off the front deck to get a closer look, and to help land the fish. “We grow the biggest Kentucky spotted bass in the state up here; didn’t I tell you that?” said Pugh, the District 1 fisheries biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks in the northeast corner of the state.

Among the many waters he oversees in the area is the Tenn-Tom Waterway as it flows south out of Pickwick Lake down through the northeast corner of the state before it exits into Alabama south of Columbus.

I was quickly becoming a firm believer. The spotted bass was still fighting to get away from the boat, but it was a battle that, fortunately for me, it would not win. Finally tuckered out, the spot came in on its side, and Pugh lipped and lifted it up.

“That’s not even a big one,” he said. “It’s a good one, but I wouldn’t call it big by Tenn-Tom standards.”

The fish, weighing in at just over 3 pounds, was released back into the Bay Springs Pool, the uppermost lake on the Tenn-Tom. “You want a really big one? We need to move to another part of the river and fish just for spots,” he said. “Right down there below the Bay Springs Dam is where the next state record will come.

“Just another reason why the Tenn-Tom is such a great fishing destination. It has so much to offer, top to bottom.”

While the Tenn-Tom may never have turned into the economic boom that was expected from shipping, it did become a recreational success, especially for bass fishing. Its 150-mile run through Mississippi offers over 30,000 acres of fishable waters, ranging from narrow river channels to flooded backwaters in eight different pools.

Of all the times of the year to fish the Tenn-Tom, Pugh said, May could very well be the best month to visit.

In addition to great largemouth fishing, the waterway has the potential for trophy and even record spotted bass, and offers the state’s only smallmouth bass opportunities. In one stretch of the river, you can never be sure exactly which of the three you will find tugging on your line.

Let’s take a quick trip down the waterway with Pugh as our guide and see what it has to offer. We’ll start on the upper end, where the “mystery” bite is concentrated.

THE HIGH COUNTRY
The Tenn-Tom has its beginning on the Yellow Creek arm of Pickwick Lake, exiting into the 35-mile man-made channel that connects to Bay Springs. The upper part of the Tenn-Tom is referred to as the “Divide Section,” since it runs through the very bottom of the eastern Continental Divide and the highest elevations in Mississippi.