# Boating accident last night....



## gotwipers (Mar 31, 2007)

Did any one else see the boating accident up at Devol's last night? Pretty scary sight, I got there as they were trying to pull the boat to the shore. I think the people are ok, but I guess they tried to anchor up close to the whitewater and threw the anchor. Once the anchor hooked up the boat immediately capsized. Just a reminder of how fast things can go bad, and that when fishing in that type of water a life jacket can mean the difference between a story and a funeral!! Be safe, good fishing!


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## napsax (Feb 15, 2008)

Where is DEVOL'S; & where is white water on the Ohio River??? I have yet to trust anchoring on any river...especially rapid waters. It seems too dangerous. What are the "Do's & Don'ts" on anchoring??? I have a 17 ft. deep V fiberglass Trophy 90HP; but, I still want to be careful on the Big O.


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## gotwipers (Mar 31, 2007)

sorry napsax...Devols Dam is the first roller dam on the Muskingum river from Marietta. It is a roller dam so there is a huge volume of water coming over it. For about 20 to 30 yards it creates whitewater with rotating currents that if you were to get too close to you could be pulled into the dam. My first time down there we learned pretty quick what a safe distance was because we actually started to get sucked upstream towards the dam! I am not sure but I think the guy threw the anchor across his boat from downstream side to upstream side, when the anchor finally hooked up and pulled tight the tension on the rope flipped the boat over.


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## Buckeye1955 (Jan 30, 2007)

The good thing about the river at the Devola dam is it only about waist deep other then right where the water falls off the dam. The old island is only about 50 yards below the dam and there is about a foot of water there now. They drive trucks from the west bank out on the old island at normal summer pool. About 2 feet deep. I saw two kids wading out on the east side even with the inside of the outside lock wall on Sunday and they were only stomach deep. Keep your boat about 100 feet below the dam or slightly closer and you'll be fine. When the island was there, we would camp on it and take a canoe up to the dam and let it fill up and sink, then we'd float back down to the island. I've slid off of the Devola and Lowell dam many times as a kid. They used to allow you to fish off the apron out on the dam. You can walk under the apron clear across the river at normal pool and it is about chest deep. My dad one time walked out under the apron and reached up through the water and grabbed a buddy's ankle that was standing on the apron. One mighty surprised fisherman! Leaped clear off the apron! The big catfish used to lay under there and you'd bump into them as you'd walk along. A life altering moment! At the lowell dam one time we had slid off of it all day on the west side and there was an old man fishing on the apron on the east side. We were parked on the east side and as we moved back across the back of the dam I got too close to the edge and the water took me over. I rolled over and sat up to slide off the apron and took the old man in the back of the legs. Threw him about 30 feet in the air! Dang near beat me to death with his fishing rod when we came back up for air......

I saw a fellow anchor at Lowell one time with a chain bolted to the front of his boat. When they went to leave, the anchor had become stuck in the rocks. They rowed around in a circle and the one guy pulled and pulled. No luck. So both of them went up in front and gave a mighty yank. The boat stood straight up and dumped them both in the water with all their gear and it was still stuck! Don't know how they finally got it out of there. Good idea - carry a wrench!


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## gotwipers (Mar 31, 2007)

LOL, sounds like you guys had a blast down there buckeye! The water was up a little bit when these guys flipped , but I bet it was one scary moment for sure. I know it is pretty shallow but I didn't know it was that shallow. We marked holes on the graph that were 7-9 feet deep in the center of the river at the big pool. You actually slid off of the roller wall? Yeah the chain probably isn't a good idea when fishing up there! LOL I use old coffee cans filled with rod and concrete, and carry a sharp knife in case we have to cut the line...


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## Buckeye1955 (Jan 30, 2007)

Yea, we wore old tennis shoes. At lowell the one year there was a big snag hanging down from the apron into the water below. You could climb up the snag back onto the apron and there was a rope tied to something up and over the dam. You'd keep your toes down and walk slowly back up the dam holding onto the rope. The dam was covered with moss. Very slick! The other option was swim down around the wall to the beach and walk back up above the dam again. When you came off the apron the plan was to be sitting up and land feet first. In the summer pool, there wasn't much water coming over, but it would throw you quite aways out. When I was down there Sunday, there was still some pretty good current and just the top of the rocks were showing by the lock wall on the east side. Probably still 2-3 feet above summer pool.


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