Wheeler Dam Tailrace
The Wheeler Dam tailrace sits at river mile 274.9 on the Tennessee River — the cold, current-fed head of the Wilson Lake pool below TVA's 1936 Wheeler Dam, famous for year-round smallmouth, wintering sauger, and spring white bass.

Dam Face / Tainter Gate Discharge
Direct tainter-gate discharge below Wheeler Dam — 60 spillway gates with 542,000 cfs combined discharge capacity, deep scour hole, concrete face, and current-driven eddies against the lock walls · Vertical jigging spoon for sauger on suspended shad; 3/8-oz hair jig drifted through the eddy line for smallmouth; heavy bucktail and swimbait for stripers when the gates run · Winter + Spring

Lock Wall Eddy (South Bank)
Slack-water eddy inside the lock approach on the Lawrence County side — 110 ft x 600 ft main lock and 60 ft x 360 ft auxiliary lock raise and lower traffic 52 ft between Wheeler and Wilson pools, and the eddy below the lock walls holds bait · Drop-shot and float-and-fly on the slack-water edge for smallmouth; live shad or medium shiners for stripers; jigging spoon for sauger in winter · Year-round

Downstream Chunk-Rock Current Seam
First quarter-mile of chunk rock downstream of the dam on the north bank — classic current-seam water where the tailrace boil breaks into defined eddies over broken bedrock and riprap · Live threadfin shad rigged on a medium spinning rod (Brian Barton's published October-November Wilson pattern); hair jig for smallmouth; 3-inch curly-tail grub for sauger · Year-round — peak fall and winter

Second Creek Rocky Points (Downstream Edge)
Gravel and chunk-rock main-river points just downstream of the Wheeler Dam tailrace where the current breaks into the wider Wilson pool · Drop-shot and float-and-fly for cold-water smallmouth; football jig in summer on the same rock · Winter + Summer

TVA Wheeler Dam Public Access (North Bank)
TVA-managed public ramp on the Wilson-pool side of the dam — direct access to the tailrace, Alabama State Route 101 (Wheeler Dam Highway) crosses atop the dam · Short run to the dam face — the classic DIY launch for anglers fishing the tailrace on a winter sauger trip or a fall live-shad smallmouth trip · Year-round

Wheeler Dam Tailrace — Lake Center