Warrior River

[warrior]

Since no one else has I guess I will.
As I live on and fish the Warrior I will share my insights on this wonderful river.
Let me begin by saying that my experience is mainly from the area known to outsiders as Bankhead Lake and the upper reaches of Holt (Bankhead dam tailwaters, known as Lock 17). With very limited experience fishing points south of Lock 17 or points north of the power plants ,Gorgas and West Jefferson, that are on the Mulberry and Locust forks respectively.
This is technically a reservoir but is riverine in nature. It's main purpose is to maintain a navigation channel for the port at Birmingport and the movement of coal and coke to points south. As such barge traffic is at a priority and when fishing these waters one should be aware of this as the river is narrow at points and must be taken into consideration.
Not much remains of the old river due to dredging and siltation, but what remains is much like is found in the upper reaches of this system. Historically this river ran over a rock bottom with a series of falls up to ten feet in height interupted by runs and pools with sand bottoms. One of the notable features of this river is it's soaring rock bluffs that hemmed in and forced this river to take sharp turns often doubling back on itself.
Well I'll leave off the rest for now while I gather my thoughts. Be back later with more.

[warrior]

In my experience to consistently catch cats on this river three things must be taken into consideration. Bottom composition, location in regards to holes and bends, and current. Of these three current is probably the one thing that determines whether the fish are biting. My prefered areas are outside bends with a decent sized hole on the outside and a corresponding flat or bar on the inside, the better holes always have a rock bottom. Avoid the runs or straightaways as these areas are generally devoid of cats especially if it is mud bottomed. Generally the only cats caught in these areas are smaller channels. Exceptions would be short rock bottomed runs or runs with a distinct deeper channel adjacent to a flat, blues often are caught along the edge of the drop. Of course any place that has an accumulation of logs and trees may hold a flathead or two.
These are only generalizations so far, I will continue with more thoughts later on.