# Meldahl Dam Revisited



## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

I made my second trek of the summer up to Meldahl Dam tonight. The first time was simply a scouting exhibition where I checked out the new facilities, but tonight I actually took some poles and did some fishing.

They were running, I'm going to say two generators on the far side of the wall.
There was plenty of current, no baitfish, and my three hours of efforts produced two small smallmouths, within two feet of the shore. I was throwing a Johnson Silver Minnow and pretty much letting it be taken wherever by the current.

A local, who was joined later by other locals, was fishing right up against the wall with one of those gynormous spinning rod/reel outfits, throwing a chucker and what looked to be a swim bait about four inches long. He said that he had caught 10 stripers Monday morning, with the biggest being 10 pounds. While I was watching him Monday night he caught at least five more, each about 4 or 5 pounds each.

There was no way that he could reach the generated water on the fly, but anything thrown along the wall was carried post-haste into the white water and that is where the stripers (possibly hybrids) were. He was later joined by other locals, but he was the only one I saw who was catching fish.

In an earlier post, I decried the fact that the walkway to get to the waters edge was zig-zagged and made the trip three times as long as it should be. That is in error. The zig-zag path is indeed there, I assume to make it assessable, but there is a concrete path to the right side of the restroom building which will take you on a straight line to the water's edge. The paved area alongside the water stops about 200 feet short of the wall, which requires some mountain goat climbing over large chunk rocks. The younger you are the easier it seems to be to make that trip.

One word of caution before making the trip down that path. Make sure you realize what a hike it is going to be to get back up there. Going down is easy - coming up not so, especially for this 69 year old who had to make a couple of stops to catch his breath.

All of the water passing through the dam/hydro was coming through the generators. There were no gates open on the main dam structure. I saw no boats and did not fish the sand bar. That will be my next outing, probably sometimes after labor day. .


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## Ajax (May 16, 2008)

Thanks for the report. Sounds like things have slowed down due to the heat. I'm surprised you didn't see bait fish. They were thick a few weeks ago. Fishing should be great this fall when the temps drop.


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

^^ The only bait fish I saw were a bezillion tiny pin-minnows right at the shore's edge.
They will all jump and scatter everytime my spoon came through them.

There were other guys throwing rooster tails, and one guy throwing a large version of a subuki rig.

The only person catching any fish at all was the local up against the wall.
There were others out on the "pier". They were too far away from me to be able to tell if they were catching anything.


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