Simms breaks the tailwaters fishing into three distinct areas, each requiring an approach tailored to the specific conditions of that area. The first is the area very close to the dam, right below the discharge point, known as the "boils."

"Between the turbine discharge and the railroad bridge is one area that I drift-fish," he said. "The water here is always pretty shallow. Depending on the amount of discharge from the dam, we'll have between 5 and 9 feet of water. It may be shallow, but there's a strong current and the bottom is very rough. There are a lot of rocks, rock humps and other debris here. It's an ideal situation to find a lot of catfish in a very small area.

"This is a very short drift," he said. "When the fish are here, it's a pretty constant pattern of making a quick drift, motor back up and drift again process. While we'll catch some big fish here, the average size of the fish is 5 to 15 pounds. Most of the catfish will be blue catfish. I will occasionally catch channel catfish in the 2- to 5-pound class here as well."

Simms said that July is when the action on the larger blues begins to slow in the tailwaters and the action on the channel catfish actually improves. It is along this time that he makes the transition to the lake to fish for the larger blue catfish.

His gear is simple: He prefers medium spinning tackle for this type of fishing.

"Spinning tackle is just easy for most people to use and it gets the job done," he said. "I'll use 8- to 14-pound-test line with a 20-pound shock leader. I like a 3/0 Kahle hook. But there's a real secret that I think is the key to success and it is the crucial aspect of presentation. In this part of the river, I use no weight at all when drifting. I typically use chicken breast as my bait. Because the water is so shallow, I just let the bait tumble along naturally as I drift. I get hung up a lot less and catch a lot more fish. Essentially the bait is the weight. If there's not much water flow, I use a smaller chunk of bait. If there's a lot of flow, I use a larger chunk to get it down a little better."

Simms said that threadfin and gizzard shad are also very good baits, but by using the chicken breast he doesn't have to worry about catching fresh bait before each fishing session -- and the chicken seems to produce just as many bites.

The second section that he will focus on is the area immediately below this first drift. From below the railroad bridge downstream for several hundred yards can be a great place as well.

"Sometimes, the fish are not all the way up near the dam and I'll find them holed up here," Simms said. "In this stretch, there are some holes where the current will be broken and the fish will pile up there. Again, this is a good drift-fishing area because you can cover a lot of ground effectively."