# Best Stories Below The LL Dam (Ready Go)



## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

I can remember when I was about 7 my dad took us camping in the back of the old Chevy Step Side back when there was a decent camp ground. We launched at the old ramp at night in a wood Chriscraft. Eased downriver a ways set up a lantern and fished cutbait for anything that bites! Caught a bunch of fish all varieties. And I remember see old timers using whole chickens for monster gar. Some things you never forget. :dance:


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## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Another was about 4 years back I was throwing tandem baits and I would throw left to the current and hook up whites and throw right and hook up with crappie. Limit of both that day. I think there was ICE on the ramp!!! I know a few that will remember that year.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Big cat fish bite going on and all the gates were open, watched a RV try to pull a bay boat up the steep west side ramp.
It made several tries and when the boat settled on the trailer all of the way it was too heavy and the front wheel drive would spin the tires.
After many attempts a passenger got out while it was spinning in place and shouted, "Just hit it!"
The tires had blue smoke all around them, then they bust into flames which quickly spread to the hood/front of vehicle, everybody bailed out there fast! 
Man when the fire spread to the whole vehicle it burned to the chassis right at the ramp, with 60 foot or better flames and dense smoke, they cut the trailer loose and it rolled in the river with the boat, they got the boat off the trailer, not sure what happened to the trailer.
We caught some cat fish too!


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## rustyhook1973 (Aug 25, 2014)

shad slinger that made me remember the 1 and only time my grandpa went fishing below the dam... my grandmother just had to have a boat with tall sides,,,, we couldn't get a fishing boat so she made paw paw get a 16 ft cobia fish/ski boat ,,, man that thing was a tug ,,,, It had to be in the early 90s...we lanched on the west side ,,,,it was grandma,grandpa,mom ,little brother and me....we could not get the anchor to set so my grandpa sat there with the inboard running as we tried to fish ..I was casting out and caught a bird and reeled it in and we cut it loose of the tangled line ,,,about 2 hours of my grandma talking smack to pawpaw and it was time to leave..... now the fun began ,,, he had a 4 door olds with a 305 in it ,,, yep big old box,,,, after a guy helped us get the boat on the trailer it was time to leave,,, I remember pawpaw smoking the tires down that day and and it took my mom and grandmother sitting on the trunk lid to get some traction,,,, man that was some funny chit....I will never forget that day ,,miss my grandparents so much but they sure made it a funny fishing trip


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## Jimmy Blue (Nov 20, 2013)

Geez that's some funny stuff.

Isn't funny how you look back and laugh now.... might not have been so funny in real time.

I remember one time I was fishing and saw a cormorant with some fishing line tangled around his wing, decided I was going to 'help' him.... **** thing nearly removed my thumbnail.... good times.


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## cwhitney (Sep 9, 2014)

About 25 years ago I went below the dam to catch catfish with my dad. Richard, one of my dad's friends and Richard's father-in-law fished in a separate boat. After about an hour we had all put fish on our stringers except for the the father-in-law. He started reeling in and his rod was bending a lot. Richard was giving him a hard time and told him he had a tire. Once he got it to the surface we all realized that someone else had lost their fish stringer and he had hooked it. He got it in the boat and counted the fish and there were 9 of them. He looked a Richard and said "I caught every one of these fish". When the day was done, he was the only one to get a limit.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

I was at the Tube with my 10 yr old daughter and 7 yr old son. We were catching everything stripers, cats crappie everything. I had an anchor made of two 8" 600lb flanges welded together with two foot piece of 1" pipe welded on to that. My anchor routines to hang the anchor over the bow and hold the rope while driving the boat into position. Then I would ease off on The rope lowering the anchoring the water. 

Well I hung the anchor off the bow then started black to the console and I stumbled.and fell down in the boat. I had let go of the rope and down the anchor went. Thing is the rope was wrapped around my leg right at the knee. The anchor hit bottom the current grabbed the boat and I was being drug to the bow. I tried to pull some slack in the rope but the current was to strong for me in the position I was in. The motor was running so I got my little girl to put it in forward so I could get enough slack to free myself. I came away with a bad rope burn around my knee could have been much worse.


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## DEERHUNTER280 (Jul 8, 2006)

Back in high school, late 80's, I used to see several paddlefish caught out there... are there still any left?


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## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

DEERHUNTER280 said:


> Back in high school, late 80's, I used to see several paddlefish caught out there... are there still any left?


 Yes, I brought about a 3 footer to the boat the other day. Dbullard was with me and he laid eyes on it too.

Now, my story was with wife and daughter. I took them below the dam to do some white bass fishing. At the launch on the east side, I unhooked the boat from the trailer to back it down the ramp. My daughter was in the boat and my wife was supposed to grab the rope before the boat left the trailer.

I back down the ramp, and hit the breaks to slide the boat off in the water. All the rope is still on the front of the boat. My little girl has the look of death in her eyes as she if floating away. I said throw the rope, which she did, about 6 inches in front of the boat in one big wad.

daughter is screaming, wife is screaming and I have to bail off in that cold @#$ water to try and save my boat and my daughter. I finally retrieved the bow line and swam back with both of them in tow. I can't say what I said to my wife, but it wasn't pretty.


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

Yrs back before they moved the cable, limits of catfish along with 'whites' were fairly easy on lures with a Little George being one of my favorites. One day I had a speck jig tied on with a heavy weight to get it down when the unexpected happened. I had hooked a big fish when we remembered we had left the net on the boat with the wives on the bank. I asked the guy next to us if I could use his net to land the fish, he acted like he didn't hear so we asked again, he said NO. Now back then the boats lined up on the line in a way you could walk from boat to boat, so he was less than 10-15' away, I said we could pitch a line to him and he could tie his net to so as to not loose it, he then said HELL NO. By now I had the fish close to boat, I told the guy with me, when I bring the fish alongside boat put one hand in his mouth and the other in the gills and bring it in the boat. He was leaning over gunnel when the fish surfaced, it scared the poop out of him and he jumped up saying heck no, I aint touching that fish. I handed off the rod to him and I got into ready to grab it next time it came up. When he came up it was perfect, I grabbed it and came into the boat with it, was a 49lb Op and I had hooked it in the pootshoot with the trailing hook. We pulled anchor flipped the guy off along with some more choice words and went to the bank for some pics. Somewhere I have one of the pics of the fish...


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

pics of 'back in tha day' 79-80 no pics of the big Op but will find it


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## BigBuck (Mar 2, 2005)

*LLD*

Back before they installed the cable, my brother and I put in below the dam. It was called Damsite marina at the time. I had a 15' Montgomery Ward run about with a 50 horse Sea King motor. My brother was about 16. I had him stay with the boat, I backed down and launched. Parked the truck, walked back to the boat, my brother is sitting on the bow, the back of the boat had about 4" of freeboard left. I forgot to put the plug in. Yelled at my brother, jumped in and started the motor. Must of taken an hour to bail and run all the water out and get the plug in. We were throwing little George's and slab spoons up to the trail race, had to throw hard to get to where the whites were holding. One big cast with a slab spoon from my brother hit me in the back of the head. Knocked me down into the bottom of the boat. Hook was buried so deep we could not get it out, or at least he couldn't. Finished fishing about 2:00 PM, got home cleaned fish. I was tired so I went to bed. Got up the next morning, went to the ER to get that slab spoon out of my head. Got chewed out by the doc for waiting 24 hours to get the hook out. 
Good times. 
BB


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## Danny O (Apr 14, 2010)

Long rod burn! Anyone know the feeling?! A week ago I was at the cable introducing my 10' Ugly Stick surf rod to freshwater. Quite a bit of difference launching from a boat, especially in an 8 gate release flow. Good footing and balance is required to keep from getting wet! Once I got the direction down, I started honing in on distance. 75 casts later, I retreated to the shoreline with a 6", horizontal red streak burn above my right hip. That burn stayed tender for near a week, but I wouldn't trade that long rod fishing experience at the dam for anything. Can't wait to go back!!


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

Another time we were there fishing from the bank still before the cable was moved, it was dark and 2 older black guys were 'snagging' and doing OK with a cooler almost full. 2 wardens walked up to check what they had, we listened to the wardens tell the 2 that they had been watching them 'snag' the fish which IS ilegal, the 2 guys were arguing with the wardens saying there was no way they saw them doing it. One of the wardens walked to truck and retrieved a night vision pr of bino's. 1 of the black guys looked thru them at the top of dam where the wardens told them they were at watching......He said "God Almighty, you boys got us" they had close to 50 with several short ones. They didn't look in our cooler BUT we had nothing YET


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Before they moved the cable I was standing on the line throwing a cast net.
Caught a big op, about 25 pounds it and it fell out at my feet in a pool.
I kicked it up out of the pool and it swam off.
The guy next to me went berserk and walk past me across the line. Throwing his net like mad.
A cable cop was at the top of the hill and first yelled then used the bullhorn.
The guy was oblivious and the cable cop had to work his way down the hill.
That was a trip to jail for him.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

At the tube my 8 yr. old son hooked a big 20-30 lb. paddle fish. Everyone around us stopped fishing to watch the little guy fight that fish with all he had. Keep in mind this is using a Shimano Chronarch on a light popping rod. They all cheered when we got it to the boat and made the release.

He is twenty now and was just talking about that event a few weeks ago when we were at the dam. While it is on a different rod he is still using the reel at the LLD catching stripers on traps and I use a matching reel. Both were gifts to him and I from my Dad. I asked him last Saturday evening while catching striper "How many fish do you think we have caught on these reels?" his response "No way to count that high, Daddy."

Guys take your kids fishing even if it means you don't get to fish as much because you have to help them with everything. I promise you that even should they stray, they will always remember the times Daddy took them fishing. I miss You Daddy!!!


Take A Kid Fishing!!!!!

Dale


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

"Guys take your kids fishing even if it means you don't get to fish as much because you have to help them with everything. I promise you that even should they stray, they will always remember the times Daddy took them fishing. I miss You Daddy!!!

Take A Kid Fishing!!!!!

Dale[/QUOTE]"

Well said Dale.


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

AMEN!!! Mine take me these days


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

We have been fishing under the cable when the TPW came in with generators in their boat with leads in the water shocking (catching)fish for the fish hatchery. I have used a telephone with my dad YEARS back and never thought a scaled fish would surface BUT they netted some really big stripers and catfish. When they showed up the bite was over....


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## stuckinfreeport (Sep 13, 2012)

wet dreams said:


> We have been fishing under the cable when the TPW came in with generators in their boat with leads in the water shocking (catching)fish for the fish hatchery. I have used a telephone with my dad YEARS back and never thought a scaled fish would surface BUT they netted some really big stripers and catfish. When they showed up the bite was over....


 Yep, when they showed up we would pick up and head down river.

Stared fishing the dam in '72 with a buddy, his parents had a place at Shilo Ridge. They would haul us down to the river early and come back mid afternoon to pick us up. We were usually hanging around just on the dam side of the northern most boat ramp that is now Browders. My goodness , can't even start to think of all the fish we caught and people we met down there through the years. My fondest fishing memory was probably around '77 or '78, before the cable was moved, we had a small jon boat and 6 hp evinrude and would go across the river to the rocks on the west side and fish off of them. There was a pole in the water straight north from those rocks and we would cast big feather jigs toward that pole and would hook up with really nice stripers. Biggest ones we actually could get up on the rocks were in the 25 lb. range. Really nice hybrids also. Got some pics somewhere, will have to find them and post. Also remember when the crawdad farmers from Louisiana would come to the dam in the late winter and spring and catch gizzard shad. They would bring in refrigerated trucks and haul those suckers out of there by the thousands of pounds.


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