# Roller current below the dam.



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Man I am excited about the striper fishing that should be kicking off below the dam, Bruce's report will get everybody fired up when he posts pictures of some fighting zebra fish.

I wanted to add to the general tone of caution about fooling around in the river when the discharge is this high. 
Some exciting pictures from Bruce will drive some people wild with fishing frenzy and maybe tempt some into trying it, without the knowledge of how dangerous it is.

That _back current_ (flow towards the gates instead of down the river) is caused by a powerful roller current where the water falls from the gates and hits the standing water. It just rolls like a big cylinder of water with super power.

This back current is not always obvious to the untrained eye, and is very dangerous as it pulls straight to the powerful roller current under the falling water.
Once caught in this roller current objects are held in it just rolling with it for long periods of time and relentlessly pounded by the falling water and onto the bottom before changing hydrodynamics push it out into the downstream current.

The reason the cable is approximately 200 yards from the rocks is because many years ago a big discharge inspired a monster white bass bite, and the cable was only about 30 yards from the trough and rocks.

Some fishermen on the west side of the channel at the cable loaded up on white bass like everybody else was doing and then when they had all they wanted the pulled anchor to leave before starting the hand crank outboard.
This was a huge mistake, as the back flow stated pulling the boat to the gates and the outboard got flooded and would not start.
They were pulled into the falling water and disappeared, later the bodies were recovered badly battered by that roller current and the rocks under it.
Their wives sued, and won, part of the settlement was for the TRA to make the tailrace safer, so the cable was moved back to about 200 yards.

When you are anywhere in the river basin when the flow is this high the loss of power or anchor will leave you at the mercy of the river currents and if you get caught in the back current, you can bend over and kiss your behind goodbye, because no one can help you in water that powerful.
Please be careful 2coolers.


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## Ducktracker (Aug 1, 2011)

Great points, I'm not that mad at the fish yet I will wait till the lake clears up.( if it does ) Be safe!


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## Ken.Huynh (May 30, 2014)

Really good info. Thanks for sharing. 


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## Catfish Kyle (Mar 7, 2016)

Good advice Loy, I was not aware that had happened, I may have still been overseas in the military. I have fished the lower Trinity at the locks and dam off of I-10 when the water is high and fast buy myself, good fishing, but a bad call on my behalf. I think I went threw 3 pares of shorts that day. LOL !


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

We lost 2 young men behind the spillway at Lake Kimble several years ago much the same way Respect the water, the fish aren't worth those chances.


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## Gofish2day (May 9, 2006)

Great point Loy! and very very true.
Wear your PFD anytime at the dam. Also, take that throw cushion they make you carry in the boat. Put someplace where you can get to it. If someone falls out, you will need to throw it to them. Matt always keeps one handy.


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## whackmaster (Apr 2, 2010)

Thanks Loy. Great information.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

The current down there is indeed a strange critter. You can find regular currents back current, rollers, and at times spots that seem to having almost no current at all. I have seen large whirl pools. Events that would be no big deal somewhere else happen so fast down there they become life threatening.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

I haven't seen a video of it, but I believe it ..... that forces like you describe can actually keep a basketball underwater.

I am fascinated by physics and forces. The TRA tells us that they are releasing 55,600 cfs right now. Each 1 of those cubic feet weighs over 62 pounds!

So, thank you Loy. I hope to read great reports here about fish caught. But I don't want to read threads about something grim.

Since I like to use my john boat this time of year instead of lake boat, I won't go below the dam right now. Funny, I have used it way upstream half way to Dallas under similar flow, but the water doesn't act nearly as crazy up there since it has not been injected through those gates. Many times I have actually felt my aluminum boat twist from giant whirlpools up there, but below the dam makes that upper river seem like child's play.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The roller current that occurs where there is a drop, or fall of the river is a strange phenomena. 
I used to work at both a boys and later a girls wilderness therapeutic camp. The boys camp was on the Neches River and the girls at the very head of Kickapoo creek, or very near it. 
You had to cross it on a low weir type dam with giant culverts in it to get to the camp. 
The main objective of a "camper" was to achieve all of their goals and get to go home.
One of the girls achieved her goals and earned her way home.
Kickapoo was raging, way out over it's banks and you could not see the weir dam, just a hump in the flow of water.

The camp director was adamant that the girl get to go home on the date that had been previously set, even though the high water had shut off any vehicle from crossing.
To make it across he and the girl put in a 19' Gurman canoe about 250 yards downstream of the crossing. Maybe more, I was not there.

However later after the event in which they were sucked into the roller current of the crossing drop and held underwater for long periods oi time, barely escaping with their live, the director told me the story.
He said that as soon as the girl pushed the canoe off of the bank and they entered the stream he could feel the pull of the back current and knew they were in desperate trouble. He stated that there was absolutely nothing he or the both of them could do to fight the pull of the current and that quickly they were at the drop, rolled over and then held under water by the current.
He said he could feel himself being rolled over and over in the powerful current.

Struggling to survive he felt a chance as his air was almost out to hold onto the bottom.
Which he did briefly, and then gathered his legs under him and shot up and out as hard as he could.
By luck he made another side current that carried him back to the bank that he had started on. His two Saint Bernard dogs had jumped in and one was drown in the roller current, not to be found for another day, one survived.
The girl had somehow been swept of the roller current and into a current that carried her across the creek to the other side near the crossing where her parents rescued her.
The 19' aluminum canoe was crumpled like a drink can with huge cuts and it was very twisted up.
The power of flowing water, especially with a drop that creates a roller current can be very deadly.
So I am going to wait until I can go catch me some of those bad boy stripers below the dam when it's much safer.
The older I get, it's weird. It's like if I trip or stumble or loose my balance in any way, the ground/floor comes at me so much faster, lol!


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## BigBuck (Mar 2, 2005)

*The Dam*

Thanks Loy. I fished the dam for many years before they moved the cable. I remember when those two drown. Thankfully I had an old timer warn me of the dangers when the river was up, and I heeded his advise. Kind of like fishing the jettys. Always crank your motor, let it settle out, then pull anchor. I got pushed into that back flow one time, I was glad I had a 50 horse on my boat to get out of it. Really weird. This was about 1974 or 75 I guess. The lure of easy fishing will get people to disregard common sense sometimes. 
Everyone stay safe down there.
BB


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## RB II (Feb 26, 2009)

On a much smaller scale, but possibly more people can relate, is when you are tubing on the Frio or other rivers and float over a small waterfall, the water will flip the tube and can hold you in that roller current for quite a while if you can't push off of bottom. 

As SS describes, that volume of water below the dam can flip a big boat and crush it.


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

I kept count of the people drown on LL and below the dam. The count reached 33 when I left to work overseas in 1973. The was 33 souls lost in the first five years after the dam was closed and started to fill. How many since then?


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I have not kept an actual count but I can remember 7 more separate incidents of someone drowning since 73. I bet that is a low estimate though.


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

In the early years of the young lake there was some thing to damage or overturn a small boat every 50 ft. 
Logs, bridge railings, barbwire and chain link fences and other crazy inexperience boats were some of the hazards I encountered in those days. No body had a big boat. The average ******* had a narrow 14' jon boat with a 10 hp Johnson.
In '74 I had a 15' Skeeter front steering with an 80 hp Merc. It drew a crowd at every ramp when I launched. A real beast of a boat!!!!
And no one had a clue what a young ocean that lake could become with a 25 to 30 mph wind. 
I know of three folks that were struck by lightening in Kickapoo. two injured and one dead.


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

I ran all over it from the mid 70's to the mid 80's in a 14x42 alumacraft with a 15hp Johnson. Went thru 3 tornados when I graduated to a 20hp mercury. One thing I did learn was respect her above or below the dam, sometimes you don't get but one chance.


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## ML56 (Dec 30, 2008)

Great post Loy, seems I recall some firefighters( up north) doing a water rescue a few years back, getting caught in a hydraulic and being killed. Here's a scary example, this guy was lucky to survive, probably wouldn't have if not for the other kayak's, look at how long he gets hammered. -Mike


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## texcajun (Feb 22, 2009)

Not to mention how many near misses their have been. My good friend's dad was somebody's guardian angel about 2 years ago.

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?p=4994373#post4994373


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

My ex wife, one time saved a fellow at the channel by the tube, straight across from the west ramp.
We had launched on the east side boated across and I let my two young kids and ex wife there to play on what used to be a very pretty pristine sandbar right where the two currents meet. And she could fish there as well.
I walked up to the gates on the west side bank. It was not 200 yards back at that time and great striper fishing could be had at the cable which was only about 35 yards from the rocks.
Live sunfish caught with mealy worms right there were terrific bait. 
The stripers were bigger back then and getting one 15lbs or better to the rocks was always a great challenge! They were that big on a regular basis, and ones to 18 and 20 were caught.

I was doing just that and my daughter came and said "dad you better come back!".
I hot footed it back to see my very unhappy ex wife glaring a fellow who was curled up in a fetal position on the sand, WELL away from the water.
The story was people had been crossing the channel of the tube to go do what I was doing by wading across the tube channel.
The chute still discharged water then, and the discharge had increased since this guy's last trip I suppose.
My ex said he started across with just a rod, got in over is head and the current started sweeping him away as he could not swim. His three kids were going crazy screaming on the bank across the channel.
My ex eventually got two boat cushions out the boat( which was beached hard on the sand) and with one under her she paddled out and pushed one to him.
She said he lunged at her and tried to climb on top of her and she kicked away but held onto the cushion strap and towed him back.
He still does not know how lucky he was, she only went after him to keep our kids from seeing him go down the last time.
I offered to take him back across in the boat, even not speaking English it was evident he did not want to go near the water.
Eventually I got him in the boat where he laid down in floor spread eagle until we got across.
Tears all over from his kids and him when when he stepped out on the bank where they were.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

I think I helped a guy once down there; I say think because I honestly don't know what would have happened. Ha had been wading out near the cable on the east side, and just got in too deep and got carried away. It looked serious to me but I don't remember if I had to pull anchor or was already mobile. I nosed my little john boat up to him and he hung on for dear life. He didn't have the strength to climb in, and I didn't try to pull him in for fear I couldn't. Instead, while he hung on the bow and I could see his hand so I knew I wasn't running over him, I used engine power to get him back to the bank. I sure didn't want to give it much gas for fear he would lose his grip, but just made sure I was making progress. I honestly don't know if he could speak English. It all worked out.


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## MT Stringer (May 21, 2004)

The local news is reporting a boat was discovered capsized in the San Jacinto river between Good Times Marina and the dam. Two bodies have been recovered. No further details yet, but sounds like a familiar scenario. I always hate to hear that.


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