Pickwick Lake is the

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

created by

Pickwick Landing Dam Pickwick Landing Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Hardin County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The dam is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1930s a ...

as part of the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

. The lake stretches from Pickwick Landing Dam to

Wilson Dam Wilson Dam is a dam spanning the Tennessee River between Lauderdale County and Colbert County in the U.S. state of Alabama. Completed in 1924 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, it impounds Wilson Lake, and is one of nine Tennessee Va ...

. It is one of the few lakes in the United States to be located in 3 different states. Pickwick Lake has excellent sportfishing areas, including the Wilson Dam tailwater at the upper end of the reservoir, noted for record-size smallmouth bass and

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

. Another favorite spot is the discharge basin at Colbert Fossil Plant west of

Sheffield, Alabama Sheffield is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Shoals metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 9,039. Sheffield is the birthplace of "country-soul pioneer" and songwriter Arthu ...

, where the warm water discharged from the power plant attracts fish during cold weather. The lakeshore plays host to two state parks: Tennessee's

Pickwick Landing State Park Pickwick Landing State Park is a state park in Pickwick Dam, Hardin County, Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. The park is situated around the Pickwick Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River, and is named for Pickwick Landi ...

and Mississippi's J P Coleman State Park. Pickwick Lake is the north end of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which provides a water transportation route to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. Yellow Creek Cove is home to the Yellow Creek waterfall and is a popular destination for boaters. A rope swing off the top of the waterfall has been present for many years.

References

External links

Tennessee Valley Authority: Pickwick ReservoirFishing Pickwick Lake
Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Crappie, and Sauger

See also

References

External links

Further reading