# Claiborne Dam 8-8



## Brandon Godwin (Jun 24, 2011)

My dad, son, and I fished the tailrace Wednesday AM. I caught a nice spot on a buzzbait early but thats all we could do with the bass so we started catfishing. We caught several blue cats with the biggest at 25-30 lbs. Most were caught on cut skipjack but the big one was on a whole live one. This is only the second time I have fished the tailrace. Do they ever enforce the Stay Back 800 ft signs? We caught our fish much closer than that.

Has anyone ever done well with the bass in the tailrace?

Thanks BG


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

I have fished the tailrace with some good catfish success, one trip we caught over 100 bluecats between 4 people in about 5 hours of fishing.

The trick is to use a balloon and allow the dam to suck the balloon towards it once it reaches the spill water the force of the water will pop the balloon allowing the bait to sink right where the cats like to hide in ambush waiting on bait falling over the dam.

I have also fished the dam at night with good success for Flathead heads on live bluegills, look for changes in the bottom where wash outs are formed.

Did you catch your skipjacks around the dam? Last time I went we didn't find any skip jacks just shad.


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## Brandon Godwin (Jun 24, 2011)

Yes we caught them on a sabiki but they were pretty scattered. We saw them come up one time but the ones we caught were right on the bottom. We had to keep baitfishing the whole time because as quick as we caught one we used it up. I may be going over to the dark side (Catfishing)! It was a lot of fun.


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

Its very addicting, how many cats did yall get?


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## Brandon Godwin (Jun 24, 2011)

We had 10 but we only fished for cats a couple of hours. That place must hold tons of fish. I still think there are some good bass there too. Have you ever caught any really big cats at the dam?


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

I have herd of 80lbers


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

where is claiborne dam?


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## FISHUNT7 (Jul 19, 2009)

*Claiborne dam*

In Claiborne. :tt2:


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## FISHUNT7 (Jul 19, 2009)

jcoss15 said:


> where is claiborne dam?


Just kidding

It is the last dam on the Alabama River. It is off of Hwy 84 West of Monroeville.


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## basnbud (Jul 20, 2011)

so wheres the closest ramp to the dam ?


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## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

We went yesterday, they had all the locks closed so after a few hours we only boated a few small fish. The water level was so low while I was trying to get the boat onto the trailer my truck got stuck in the mud, the boat was tilted on a bad angle and got swamped by water then sank to the bottom. 

After a few hour of tricky ideas we manged to get the boat to shore and drain the water then get the truck out. On the ride home we had a two Flat trailer tires, after the first one I had to leave my brother on the side of the road in the pouring rain with the boat while I drove 26 miles to get another tire. 

One the way back to the boat I got stuck behind miles of traffic backed up on hwy 29 after a semi truck lost his logs.

Needless to say I wont be going back for a while.








Oh We also broke two rods in the process as well


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

CatHunter said:


> Oh We also broke two rods in the process as well


Sounds like my luck.


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