McAlpine or Medahl Dam info help

Can anybody give me some advice on fishing in a 17' fiberglass bass boat below McAlpine dam in the "fast water"! I saw ky afield Tom farmer and others fish there catching drum or hybrids on his show. How do you get to it and more importantly how do you stay alive? ... Besides wearing PDF at all times. I have heard about big boat eating rocks on the approach. Just a little nervous but would love to try it. I have fished below locks 6-8 on ky River and had great luck. You never know what species might be there any given day? Thanks for your comments.

[QUOTE=Rob1678;556948]Can anybody give me some advice on fishing in a 17' fiberglass bass boat below McAlpine dam in the "fast water"! I saw ky afield Tom farmer and others fish there catching drum or hybrids on his show. How do you get to it and more importantly how do you stay alive? ... Besides wearing PDF at all times. I have heard about big boat eating rocks on the approach. Just a little nervous but would love to try it. I have fished below locks 6-8 on ky River and had great luck. You never know what species might be there any given day? Thanks for your comments.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure Tim had a guide if he was fishing the upper dam. Please don't try to go up there without knowing the way.There are several boat eating rocks.It's one of the largest sedimentary rock formations in the world,and I venture to say there have been more boats lost in this area than any other place on the Ohio.I'm down there every Fri. and would be happy to show you the way.. at that pool. PM me and we can work it out. Be careful out there. Chuck

Chuck is spot on. It can be very sketchy at times to get up top. For instance, fishing up top today would be ok, just getting there would be a bit tough. They currently have 23 ft of dam on at the lower and you must cross that current to get up top. The forecast is for the river to come down the next couple of days. Perfect for me since I'm off on Mondays and Tuesdays. I'd be happy to show you the correct path to get up there if you could go on one of those days. You can pm me if you are interested. I only target hybrids and stripers. Good luck and stay safe.

Ok, that's enough to scare me from trying it by myself. How does the heavy rains affect the Ohio. Do they let her roll after heavy rains in ky and IN or are they pretty constant?

Rain that falls upstream directly affects the flow. Try calling 502-775-5056. That's the recording for McAlpine. I also check the web for the levels. Rain that falls around Louisville doesn't really affect it as much. The river fluctuates constantly, that's why it's important to reference the above tools to plan your trip to the river accordingly.

[url]http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/?m=real&r=ky&w=map[/url]

You just have to go and start you a notebook and keep track of at what levels you can go where and do what. Pretty soon you will have an idea of what river level covers what and how deep and how much flow that is.

[QUOTE=riverrat12;556953]I'm sure Tim had a guide if he was fishing the upper dam. Please don't try to go up there without knowing the way.There are several boat eating rocks.It's one of the largest sedimentary rock formations in the world,and I venture to say there have been more boats lost in this area than any other place on the Ohio.I'm down there every Fri. and would be happy to show you the way.. at that pool. PM me and we can work it out. Be careful out there. Chuck[/QUOTE]

Listen to Chuck .... its a big zig zag you have to run