The Dang Dam!

[Swamp Girl]

Note: I took most of the stream and river pics on the way back, not when it was low light. 

 

Well, this morning's trip wasn't for sissies. You see, the dang dam broke and one of my beloved swamps is now just a clear, shallow river. I reached it dragging my canoe down a trickle. I had to exit the canoe and drag about a dozen times, going and returning. I felt like I was back in northwestern Ontario, struggling through the bush. Being wet and cold was the hardest part.

 

 

The air was 48 degrees and the water was 54 degrees, so I had wet feet and pants legs all morning.

 

The river slowly grew in size.

 

 

And grew.

 

 

Unfortunately, my beloved swamp was now just a mud field.

 

 

Going down the little river, I could see the former banks.

 

 

Even though I was fishing in a very unlargemouthy place, I still caught bass. 52 in all. They were chasing shad, so I used my Yo-Zuri popper to imitate a wounded shad. They were well fed.

 

 

I caught some bigger ones too. Here are some lipped and gripped.

 

 

And I put some on the bump board.

 

 

Once again, my bag was over 16.5 pounds. I am proud of my consistency in very different environments. I was fishing shallow current today, but I do well in swamps and on ponds too. One more to say, "Thanks for paddling down the stream with me! Sorry your feet and rest of you got so cold on the way."

 

 

 

[Conrod]

Wow!! Great Job!!  Thanks for taking us along on the adventure 😁👍

[Swamp Girl]

In case you're wondering how I know the dam is leaking, the swamp and lake went away in a couple weeks. I asked one of the recently former waterfront owners what happened and he said, "The dam sprung a leak."

 

I plan to fish the clear, shallow river again this Friday, but the forecast is for sunny skies and the bite ended as soon as the cloud cover left, so I figure I'll have a shorter fishing session. I'm also going to launch right beside the broken dam so I won't have to struggle through the shallow upriver section. 

 

Here are my recent totals: 25, 20, 22, 19, and 52. Yesterday's session sure ended my string of quantity totals, but continued my string of catching solid bass.

[pdxfisher]

That is pretty wild. I guess all the fish are now concentrated in a smaller pool of water. Hopefully they can survive that in the long run!

[Swamp Girl]

12 minutes ago, pdxfisher said:

I guess all the fish are now concentrated in a smaller pool of water.

 

Exactly.

 

12 minutes ago, pdxfisher said:

Hopefully they can survive that in the long run!

 

That's my concern too. I wish I could transport some of them to my pond, but I think they'd die enroute. There is a canyon right before the pond. It's steep-sided, so the water is deeper there. I hope they all make their way there and winter over there. 

[TnRiver46]

We have a small tributary lake where they have made repairs to the dam twice in recent times, both instances they had to draw the lake down over 25 ft. Pearls were clutched but that was the best thing that ever happened to that lake both times. Upon refill there were tons of new trees and shrubs in the water with plankton compared to a blank canvas of gin clear water prior to the drawdown. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

We have a small tributary lake where they have made repairs to the dam twice in recent times, both instances they had to draw the lake down over 25 ft. Pearls were clutched but that was the best thing that ever happened to that lake both times. Upon refill there were tons of new trees and shrubs in the water with plankton compared to a blank canvas of gin clear water prior to the drawdown. 

 

I think they'll survive. The pond was just a river four years ago when the dam last leaked. They know the drill. 

[GreenPig]

I feel your pain on a busted dam.

[Swamp Girl]

7 hours ago, GreenPig said:

I feel your pain on a busted dam.

 

Thanks. I lost one of my best fishing spots and I'm guessing if it's ever repaired or rebuilt, it'll take years. 

[Functional]

6 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Thanks. I lost one of my best fishing spots and I'm guessing if it's ever repaired or rebuilt, it'll take years. 

I have some busy beavers over here at my job I have to get rid of every other year. They do a hell of a job in a hurry if you want to come down and nab the group. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 10/13/2024 at 12:10 PM, Swamp Girl said:

Well, this morning's trip wasn't for sissies.

Well Swamp Sis, if I had a thousand words to describe you, sissie would not be one of them. That looks like such a fun place to fish. Wet socks and pants is how I grew up . Difference between us is my swamp water was warm! 😁   Your water is not! 🥶

I love how the stream widened into a river, then a pond. Took lots of padddlin' to get there though, but as you know, the journey is half the trip! Thanks for taking us along. I hope to be river fishing tomorrow if work will let me. Hope the dam gets fixed so the waterfront property owner gets his shoreline back. That would be a serious loss to me.

[Swamp Girl]

10 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Well Swamp Sis, if I had a thousand words to describe you, sissie would not be one of them. That looks like such a fun place to fish. Wet socks and pants is how I grew up . Difference between us is my swamp water was warm! 😁   Your water is not! 🥶

I love how the stream widened into a river, then a pond. Took lots of padddlin' to get there though, but as you know, the journey is half the trip! Thanks for taking us along. I hope to be river fishing tomorrow if work will let me. Hope the d**n gets fixed so the waterfront property owner gets his shoreline back. That would be a serious loss to me.

 

Bob, my swamp brother, I loved that bog/pond so much that when a few properties on the bog/pond went on the market, I considered buying one of them. If I had, I too would have paid a waterfront price, but without water.

[Blue Raider Bob]

Got a humorous cold water story.

Way back in the day I was rabbit hunting with high school friends at the Loosahatchie River bottoms in west Tennessee. One idiot shoots a duck that flew over and the duck crashed on the other side of the river. We were not going to just let this idiot kill a duck and leave it, so we proceeded to try to cross the river at a logjam. There was snow and ice but we managed to, one at a time, cross the logs to this island. The last one across was "Idiot", and he slipped and fell on the log and dropped his Browning Auto into the river. Well, after listening to all the crying I could take, I asked the boys to build me a fire, and I stripped down and jumped into the river. It was about five feet deep, and I walked around until I stepped on the shotgun....took a deep breath, and went and got it. All agreed it was finders, keepers. The boys pulled me up and out and I went to warm by a very poor, sickly fire. Ended up pulling on my clothes while I was blue and frozen, and fetched the duck. After listening to "idiot" relentlessly crying about how his father was going to kill him for loosing his shotgun, I relented and gave it back. It was either his father was going to kill him, or I was!

"Idiot" didn't hunt with us again. We ate the duck!

 

[Alex from GA]

Your adventures always entertain me; keep them coming.

[Swamp Girl]

I love Brownings, Bob. Great story. You are half man, half honey badger. 

[Swamp Girl]

I visited the actual dam today and while it looks solid, the missing pond says otherwise. I'm going to launch beside the dam on Wednesday morning and fish the river again. Fingers crossed!