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It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but
each time I enter the locks it is overwhelming. The locks are
about 10 football fields in length, and as wide as a football field.
As you enter them you blow your horn or pull
the horn on the approach wall to let the Lockmaster know you are
there. After you enter you tie up your bow
to the moveable posts (which are painted yellow at this dam), the
doors are closed behind you, then you hear
a series of sirens and horns that warns people that the lock is
being lowered or filled, in this case it was being
lowered.
It was kind of spooky in there this day, as I was the only boat
in there. I had looked at the Lowrance before the sirens had started
and the depth was registered at 65 feet, it took a mere 13 minutes
to go from 65 feet
to 17 feet, quite awesome when you think about it considering the
size of the locks when you are in them.
My 16
foot boat was dwarfed by these huge concrete walls and these enormous
gates, but I survived my
first episode in the locks. I fired the motor up and idled out all
the time looking up and around at the great
structure. I motored down past the retaining wall and turned the
corner and was not prepared for the next
surprise.
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Water was rushing past me like I had seen many times fishing
the Ohio River. What I wasn't prepared for was the deafing noise
of the water exploding from the gates. It was terribly loud,
like the roar of a jet plane and me standing behind the engines,
just happen to be I had a pair of ear plugs in my jacket. I
now carry ear plugs as part of my needed equipment for the boat. |
Again
I was in awe as I looked back at the huge structure, water was rising
about twenty or thirty feet into
the air and it looked like a giant boiling caldren. But my attention
was drawn away from the dam area when
I looked down at my Lowrance. On the screen it was black with bait
fish and arches everywhere. I happened to look over the side of
the boat and tails and backs were coming out of the water right
beside me. WOW!!!
I was on the mother load of fish! It was a regular catfish smorgasboard
and I was in the middle of it. I had
never seen anything like this but have heard people talk about it.
Since
I was marking baitfish and predator fish this was where I was going
to anchor down, what happened
next I was totally unprepared for. I was a long way away from the
main gates, so I motored towards the dam
about 100 feet and dropped my 22-pound Crabclaw anchor with the
bow facing the dam. It grabbed and I
started to get poles ready. The water was rushing by at a pretty
good clip, but I had fished in rougher conditions than these. I
baited both poles with live shad about 6-10 inches in length and
dropped them to
the river bottom.
About this same time I heard the sirens go off and looked towards
the dam area and noticed that several of the gates had opened up
and these gates move up and down in a pendulum fashion, After about
2 minutes
the boat rotated 180 degrees and now my stern was facing the dam
and the bow was looking downstream
and a fish had picked up a shad and was surfing towards New Richmond.
My first thoughts were that of utter
panic because I knew water was going to be spilling up over the
transom any second but it didn't happen. The opening of the gates
had caused the water to be pulled back towards the dam area even
though it was rushing by me.
So after I got my heart out of my throat I had to get all of this
mess straightened up, lost the fish, lines where tangled around
the anchor rope so I lost about 30 minutes of fishing time. Now
that I had been totally broken in to the dam area I was ready to
fish.
For the next
two hours life passed by in seconds, these were the most exciting
time of my life that I have ever had on the Ohio river. I was forced
to go to one pole because too many things were happening with two.
I was carrying about 75 shad in my forty gallon tank and they were
very frisky, good thing because when I lowered them over the side
they were being pulverized before they hit the bottom. The water
depth was 36 feet and I was fishing the head of a washout hole.
Active cats
feed at the head of a hole and resting fish are down in the bottom
of the hole, but resting cats can get turned on in a hurry when
you drop lively shad to them. I caught a lot of fish that day, from
blue cats, to channels, flatheads, stripers and I landed a paddlefish
that I thought before I saw him could be the biggest flathead that
I had ever landed.
It took two
hours to go thru 75 shad. I lost several big fish that day because
they had spooled me running for the dam. I feel these may have been
stripers or blue cats because of the sheer speed that they unloaded
the line off of my reel. I had the drags tight and my gloved thumbs
were pressing hard on the spool, had the pole leaned back as far
as I could go and just never could slow them down. I'm sure glad
that I carry lots of extra line and reels in my bag. This is the
one time that I have felt sorry for the shad that I use for bait.
I had pulled several of them from the water and they were torn to
shreds or their sides where skinned back, but these were what the
fish wanted. Thats why they were here. It was dinner time - Catfish
style.
Fishing the
Dam area you have to use your head and you have to be safe. First
and foremost, never take your PFD off!!! Conditions
change rapidly in this area, so keep a knife near the anchor rope
in case a tree decides to push you down towards New Richmond - you
can cut the anchor rope loose and drift till you get free. I have
a milk jug tied to my rope so if I have to cut free I can come back
and retrieve my anchor. Third (and this is my own personal preference)
stay as far away from the gates as you can. At the Meldahal Dam
they have a Do Not Go Beyond This Area line that streches
from the Ohio side to the Kentucky side and you are not allowed
to go beyond that. For me it is just too close to those gates. When
there is very little water flow then I will get near them, but I
am still cautious with my approach.
When fishing
this area look for holes and pockets in the river bottom. There
are not a lot of rocks in this area
- only along the shoreline - but I have marked a lot of timber and
large debris areas going away from the dam area where the water
starts to settle down.
I use a lot
of live bait here and never have used cutbait except when the water
is very quiet. When it is boiling live bait is the key, but cutbait
should work just as good. I like using live bait. Carry plenty of
sinkers with you because there is a lot of trash on the river bottom
and you will get hung up.
Fish the tailwater
areas as soon as the water temperature approaches the 55-degree
mark. Fish and baitfish head for this area and the fishing is great
until the cats decided it is time to start the spawn. That is around
the 70-75 degree mark but there are always cats in the tailwater
areas. When some leave, more hungry ones arrive.
My wife Lynn
has never fished the tailwater areas, this year will be her first
time and boy I'm glad I have already been through what I have. Together
we will enjoy the thrills of fishing for cats at the Meldahal Dam
Tailwater area.
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
I can be reached at at my email address<plange@woh.rr.com>
or look for me out on the "Brown" this spring but,
when the river warms up then I'm off to there!
Thanks,
Tim "Doc" Lange
Doc's
Website: <http://www.hookedoncatfish.com>
Ohio River Catfishing at it's finest.
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