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**freedivernd** · 08-17-2009, 06:50 PM,

here's a video of a snorkel I had this past weekend.. never have I seen such a variety of fish in 1 school. Crazy. (I just uploaded this, so youtube says quality may improve as it gets finalized or whatever...)

Hydro · 08-17-2009, 07:23 PM,

wow, theres a ton of fish there... if you didnt surface i'd swear you were just in an aquarium

scubafreek864 · (This post was last modified: 08-17-2009, 09:11 PM by scubafreek864.)

This looks like the Big Winnie dam. Â If it is, I was told from a relative that they put a new bridge over the dam. Â To me, the bridge in the video looks like the old one, with the metal grates on top. Â When you walk across it, you can look below you, and see the water rushing out of the locks, and when a vehicle passes over it, you can feel the bridge move around. Â Kinda scarey. Â Is that the same bridge??

My family used to have a cabin on Big Winnie, and have fished the dam for many years as a kid. Â I have always wanted to dive that, but never had the chance yet.

Very nice video. Â Now I have got to get up there and do some diving.

Any suggestions on when to go? Â I know it is pretty busy with people fishing the dam, and don't want to get snagged by one of them.

Feel free to PM me with any details on the location.

**freedivernd** · 08-17-2009, 08:05 PM,

yup, some of this was filmed at Big Winnie. It must be a newer bridge as it's all blacktop across the bridge.
I went just as the weather was letting up so no one was there fishing. Some people showed up to fish the same time I did but the water was so low that they decided against it. Wasn't much flow through the locks so I think that's why the visibility there was decent.
It's hit and miss as far as having fishermen there or not.. but one thing good about BW is that there is a sign that says "no fishing from here to dam" but it doesn't say anything about no swimming, so that area is always open to do some swimming and it shouldn't bother the fishermen at all. If fishermen show up while I'm in the water, I try to give them some leeway.. I like to show them the video of all the fish I've just seen and let them know that if I affect the fishing at all it's because the fish are attracted to me (maybe it's my smell..) instead of their hooks.. I really try to stress to them as they watch the video that I really don't bother or scare the fish.. and in the water, I'm just another fish. They sure get excited when they see all those walleye!

scubafreek864 · 08-17-2009, 09:23 PM,

When we fished the dam, we would anchor our boats on the other side close to the signs, and cast up into the whitewater. The people on shore couldn't believe how many fish we boated, and how we were doing it. Some got a little ticked off when we had more than one boat anchored up. Had a couple of lures land in the boat from the casters on shore. I guess they were trying to tell us not to anchor over "their spot" LOL. We tried to hug the south shore of the river anytime we had more than on boat, but still got bombarded by lures. Had a great time fishing that spot, and it was usually on days we didn't want to venture out on the big lake with high winds, and whitecaps.

Now I have a real good reason to go back up, seeing we don't have a cabin on the lake anymore. Sad

I will just have to do some diving on the river, and camp in plug hat campground.

Did you get a chance to go downstream from the dam at all?

I know that there are some pretty good size holes along the banks where it curves around.

popolarbear · 08-23-2009, 10:15 PM,

awesome footage. i haven't been on the site for awhile, we just came back and the population of pan fish was much lower today than what your video looks. we saw your pike with the stringer also(6:10) and i had trouble trying to get a descent picture or video of the wash out hole but it showed up nicely in your video at 2:23 and 5:30. also saw a nice snapper probably 12inch shell. we had some people mention that they never seen anyone swim here. i got thank you for the post last year as it totally motivated me to road day trip this spot. any more recommendations??? i would love to do similar spots in the area if you know of any other good ones. we checked out the federal dam also but way too murky and signs banning swimming. farther down stream on the Mississippi i would think there should be some good spots.... oh and you left a ton of tackle as we got a fist full of odd stuff and left tons more.

**freedivernd** · 08-24-2009, 07:47 AM,

Ya, but I got all the good ones Tongue

;D.. actually, there's a few spots you can always depend on finding lures.. a person could go back there every weekend and find something. I always encourage the fishermen to put on some raps or muskie lures and go for the big ones. yup, fedd was bad this weekend.. didn't even go in.. (quite a few fishermen too though) Took the boat out on leech but had only 3' of vis everywhere I dropped in to 20'.. bad, bad, that's why the river is so bad I suppose.

popolarbear · 08-25-2009, 07:35 AM,

after more research into the area, there are tons of interesting potential spots that i think are accessable by shore. i am dieing to revisit. i would also argue that this spot is nearly as good if not better in some ways than the best Florida freshwater spring that i know of(blue springs). with some park management this could become a serious tourist attraction. I was supposed to go today to a local spot, but I'm burned out and spoiled, the local mud holes just doesn't appeal after that wounderfull and insane gem of a spot. ive been comparing my video this week to yours of last week, and your image quality is way beter. i also had alot of pictures with white planktons in the way. is that the time of day or angle of sun light or what. any tips or suggestions.
im shooting two low end cameras, a pentax optio that ive added the add on waterproof pouch(as this is my 5th optio in 3 years), and an olympus point and shoot.

**freedivernd** · 08-27-2009, 07:59 PM,

I don't know about the video quality.. I think I was there around noon and had intermittent sunshine. I use a Canon a640 in canon housing, 30fps, and I think it's 640x480... 480x320??? I rarely use the view finder, just point and shoot and hope for the best. Of course, I try to hold the camera steady and have learned that it's better to move it slowly when panning and better not to pan at all. And get close.. If I'm able and the fish will cooperate, I let the fish come to me, rather than me going to the fish. That's not always possible, but that's when I get the best shots. For still pictures.. no flash If you had white scatter in your still photos, it almost sounds like the flash was going off.