Scott: Walleye Fishing

[Mark Hofman]

I talked to the missus last night about going about walleye fishin'! My birthday weekend is out, but any other open weekend is fine. Her only reaction was to ask that I promise not to take my PFD off while we're on the river. I told her we'd go out and drive (the truck) by the section we'd fish to see how safe/dangerous it looks. I'm still a might nervous about bein' on that river.

 

[Staci Matheis]

Drive up to Clarksville, we'd be fishing in the tailwaters of the dam.



I generally don't put in at the ramp right there; I use Hamburg Ferry which you reach just on the north edge of Ellsberry.



DON'T go looking if the river is high - it'll scare the "TOXIC fumes and solids" outta you! Check the link below for the tailwater level (tw) at Clarksville (Lock and Dam #24). If it's over 17', I won't go out.



me!
http://lms61.mvs.usace.army.mil/dresriv.html

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

MOfish,



Quit bein such a big chicken and go fish!!! I had a buddy that wanted me to go spearfishing with him at Gavins Point Dam on the NE, SD border. I said no problem till I found out that they weight themselves to neutral buoyancy and then they JUMP IN THE FRIGGIN SPILLWAY (about 1/2 mile long)which is flowing at about 6 or 7 hundred million gallons a second and then they spearfish as they get blown out the other end. They used to get some good fish (big cats and such would come up in the spillway to get the fish chewed up by the turbines). If your weights were wrong, you could get smashed on the bottom (too heavy) or tumbled in the foam (too light).



I gracefully declined to participate.



TOXIC (not a TOTAL idiot)

 

[Greg Meyer]

Toxic... That's sounds like it would take at least a half idiot to participate...Yeah and then they probably cleaned their teeth with "Dud" blasting caps....

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Resulted in a lot of bumps and bruises but no major injuries. One guy did get stuck in some funky downdraft rip current and couldn't swim out of it until about 2 miles downstream. Diving in fresheater reservoirs is not my cup of tea. Monster cats, gar, and other assorted species that if they wanted to could latch onto a fin and hold you down for a few days. Anywhere that has clear salt water, Margariatas, Pina colodas, rum and tequila, usually are my choice spots for diving. I have gone in with sharks, but at least you can see them for a loooong way. Got pinned under a piece of coral one time and I had to shed my tanks to swim out but no major incidents. Went face to face with a 6 foot barracuda but I think the oil slick I put out as I swam away threw him off.

 

[Mark Hofman]

Yeah, Scott and my wife are also concerned about my perceived lack of intestinal fortitude when it comes to being on a river.



It goes back to the long-ago days of my youth, when dozens of our townspeople were killed by being sucked into "potholes" in the Uncompahgre River. Not all at one time, mind you, but they would go for a swim in that river and just disappear. There were tunnels in the underlying sandstone carved by the current. The water would pull them under and into one of those tunnels and that would be that. Bodies were only recovered about 50% of the time.



You'd think people would learn. But drinking lots of beer does that to you.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

We get it on Champlain every winter on the ice. Every year, some yahoo goes through and they find him in spring. For what? Ice fishing???? LOL One guy went thru with one of those ice sailing buggy things, they found him 40 miles away in like June, nasty! I saw a guy one time, run his snow machine up to about 100 mph and "skip" across an open stress crack about 25 feet wide over 100 feet of water. Said you couldn't beat the rush. I'll take his word for it! DUH!

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Mo, you're not plannin' on goin swimming I hope. Water's a little chilly for that. My rule of thumb...Respect the water, never fear the water. I had a little run in in your part of the country....a place called Lake of Three Fires if I remember correctly, a buddy and I were jumping off of some pretty high cliffs into the lake and we were trying to get to the bottom. Neither one of us could "touch" Soooooo, me being the #1 fool climbed higer on the cliffs and knifed into the water feet first, hands plastered to my sides. I hit bottom and sunk in mud up to my knees...needless to say I was pretty much $crewed. My buddy saw the mud mushroom come up in the water and knew I was in trouble. He got down to me and helped me dig my legs out. We were both breathing water by the time we got to the surface. Lemme tell ya...that hurts!!



I respect the water!



TOXIC

 

[Bill McElroy]

hahahahahahaahhahahah.....Now THAT was a visual!!!...a Toxic-sicle!! hahahahah

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Yeah, but the "cloud" wasn't mud and Three Fires is now a dead fishery!!! LOL

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Re-Named 4-Fires.



TOXIC

 

[Mark Hofman]

Respect the water....but fear it if Toxic is around.

 

[Mark Hofman]

Rob, it really was mud.



The question is, "How did all that mud get stirred up?"



Toxic, holding his breath, silently counts....



"Three"...



"Two"...



"One"....



"IGNITION!"



(Damn, still stuck!)

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

If I coulda achieved ignition it woulda been like a warhead outta a submarine!!



TOXIC