Wapsi – Independence

Well, at least the weather was good. I can’t say much for the fishing, though.

From what I can tell, the new arrangement of the dam is going to cause some relearning. For those who have fished it before, the slackwater area that used to be on the East end of the dam is now a fairly heavy current eddie due to removal of the old hydro. Water now flows over the dam from bank to bank, although the dam is still broken by the short L shaped wall that used to segregate the hydro from the main channel.

Anyway, water was low and clear, and I left the waders at home – apparently a big mistake. There were very few places where I could find more than a foot of water. I have always speculated that the main channel runs along the West shore through the area below the dam, but have never marched out there to check it out. Probably next weekend, I’ll hit it again and take the waders with.

The old slackwater area has a lot of debris swirling in there that made it tough to fish, and there’s enough current in there now that I could not find bottom with a 1/16th oz jig. Didn’t ever find the fish, but if they’re not up at the dam area they’ll be on their way soon.

Haven’t been there since last sep., did you try the bend in the river downstream? I agree it should be real soon.

I’ve only explored downstream two or three times before, and spent most of my time working the smaller dam behind the cemetery.

Is the bend you’re talking about the one right there behind dairy queen? From what I can tell, that looks like the only hard turn the river makes before it goes under the highway. There was still a sheet of ice covering it, so I didn’t venture over to check it out. Ice should be gone today or tomorrow I would think.

If anyone wants to venture out this Saturday morning and check it out, I could see that happening. Need to run it by the wife, but nothing’s marked on the calandar.

Gianni, there’s no channel there at all. It’s all bedrock and varies from 6″ to 3′ all the way across. There’s a plunge pool where the water comes down, but you can get within 20′ of the dam and be knee deep. Send me a PM if you get a chance. It looks like we fish a lot of the same water.

Interesting – I’d always assumed that it was deeper on that side because the shoreline is so steep.

If it’s that shallow all the way across, then perhaps the bend downriver would be a good place to start looking for fish that are staging and waiting for a few more degrees on the thermo before moving up.

at this time of the year, the bend behind the dairy queen is your best bet to catch some ‘eyes. from what i know, it is the deepest water available closest to the small dam behind the cementary. however,if you are wading between the dam and the bend, any eddies created by breaks in the current, that you can find along the shoreline, can be as shallow as 2’ could also hold a few ‘eyes. these eddies can be rather small, i like to use just a floating jighead w/3″ minnow and let it sit in there.
also, there are a few spots in and around the hyway bridge that should be checked out
good luck!

Hit it again yesterday – still nothing going on at the dam, but a few more people out fishing it this weekend.

Only caught one fish – but she was the one to catch, I suppose. Big she-wolf pike caught on one of the downriver bends saved me from getting skunked. Couple self-portraits with the camera at arm’s length and back she went. Thick as can be – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gator that fat before.

Still iced over north of the RR bridge for what looked like about a mile or so. Also still ice in the sloughs by the hookie bridge, and lots of big splashes at the Littleton dam with the ice coming over. Water is still low & clear – this weather almost had me fooled into thinking it was spring.

I have waded this stretch many times, there is DEEP water on the bend by DQ- at least 12-15 feet at times- between the small dam behind the cemetary and the big dam is fairly shallow, no real defined channel. The east side is in general a little deeper but “wadable” under most summer conditions/water levels. One spot to try is while wading the west bank from the cemetary, there is a wall about 20 feet out from shore that drops about 2 feet. Not sure what purpose it serves but if you wade out to it and cast parallel upstream there are often smallies for the taking.
I may be up there this weekend visiting the in-laws and will probably put my big boat in above the dam. I never do great there, but there is some nice water- there is a huge backwater area with some duck blinds/etc that i have hit with limited success earlier in the year than now and would love to see if there are fish moving up shallow as the water warms.

Anybody else have luck up there?

Glad you asked – heck no I’ve never had any luck up there! Hopefully someone else can jump in and at least say there’s a fish in that stretch.

Right above the railroad bridge there’s a pretty deep hole, about 15′, and the channel runs along the west side there and stays about 7-8′ along that entire impoundment. The impoundment itself is only about 2′ deep throughout. I’ve drifted the channel several times thinking that there might be forktails sitting on the drop, but no such luck. I’ve taken a few eater-sized cats out of the hole by the RR bridge, and always thought the current through that narrows would draw some bass up onto the rocks there, but haven’t found that to be the case yet. Same with the bend at the north end of the impoundment.

I have seen guys pull bluegills off the edges of the duck blinds, and have also seen people take pretty sizeable boats farther north than I have been willing to go. Maybe there’s some gators hanging up at the north end around the backwaters and island sloughs.

I’ve also taken some crappies from shore right above the dam while fishing from the bank there by burger king. Also have seen a bunch caught below the dam at Littleton, so maybe there’s a good population in that stretch.

The last couple of huge floods (1994 and 2000 I think) greatly changed the upper part of the Inde impoundment. It used to be that even the biggest bass boats could run all the way up past the golf course, well into where the river channel was more defined after leaving the lake. Now, there is a 3 to 4 foot high sandbar across the old main channel and a trickle of water goes thru one of the remaining side channels. Alot of decent fishing in the upper stetches ended with those floods.

I have had decent luck in the river section just above the impoundment, but have not found a way to get a bigger boat up there. Let us know how you did.

There’s a point at the north end of the impoundment that comes out from the east shore and is essentially the northern cutoff for the lake. I’ve been a ways north of that point, but one day a guy was dumping a big tracker deep-v in at the ramp next to me and he took off full-throttle headed north. I was up past that point and he was still out of sight. Pretty sure he couldn’t sneak back by me in that size river.

Maybe I just haven’t explored it enough – it looks like there is still a pretty good stretch north of that point yet.

(Image taken from Mapquest web site)