Alpena 9th St Dam Questions

[Rifleman99]

I'm looking to do some fishing by our cabin in Alpena. I have been down to the ninth st dam a few times and wanted to get some advise on how to fish there (plus, i'm new to the river fishing scene). Last time I was up I stopped at the local shop right by the river and picked some hardware (10 ft rod/reel, etc) My questions are on what should I rig up (casting spoons, or spawn bags, but I have never tried to fish with spawn before)? The last time I was out the river it was very snaggy. Some tips on technique or anything else would be greatly appreciated :chillin:.

Also, is there anything running in the last few weeks of Sept??

Thanks in advance

[Trout King]

If you want to avoid all of the snags use a bobber above the bait. Keep it just off the bottom, or at whatever depth the fish are holding.

[Rifleman99]

What type of bait would you reccomend and do the fish usually show up this early?

[east bay ed]

spawn and flies work well as do some spoons. i use drop sinkers and flies cast right in front of the dam let it float down past the rapids.

[Greenbush future]

What ever you dont use spoons or expencive bait rigs as you will re-tie at least half a dozen times. I swear they have steel rebar and chunks of concrete below this dam. Tons of snags, but you certainly will catch fish so stick to spawn and flies that dont cost much.

[wyldkat49766]

Clem's right there on the river is prob the shop you stopped at and ask him whats biting. He is usually very on top of almost anything that is hitting in the waters around Alpena.

[thousandcasts]

What ever you dont use spoons or expencive bait rigs as you will re-tie at least half a dozen times. I swear they have steel rebar and chunks of concrete below this dam. Tons of snags, but you certainly will catch fish so stick to spawn and flies that dont cost much.

That's exactly what's choking that out under there--concrete slabs with rebar sticking out. I remember one day we were up there and they literally shut the dam off for whatever reason. There was no water coming through and you could stand up on the bridge and it looked like about 50 dump trucks had dumped a bunch of concrete chunks all over the river bed.

[Fishndude]

:yeahthat:

TC is right - there are (literally) tons of old concrete and rerod in the water @ 9th Street. Someone told me once that when they removed an old bridge, they just left the chunks in the water. When the water used to be high, the fish just loved to sit in the eddies between that stuff. It was great for bobber fishing, and you could even bottom bounce if you had a good feel and didn't use too much weight. Anymore there aren't many fish, and you could probably leap from rock to rock, and just pick them up.:lol:

I remember when I first got some Korkers, and only people wearing those could deal with walking on all those big chunks of concrete to get to the untouched fishing spots. Now half of those chunks are out of the water, and everyone can climb all over them. Oh, for the good ole days, when there were fish everywhere, and nobody used skein spawn and bobbers for Kings.

As for Clems, I used to call them once in awhile, but their info was never real credible in my book. A lot of times when I called to find out what the water flows had been like, I was told they didn't know - and their store is right across the street from the dam. I can remember calling once, after a warm spell in February, and asking if the pool in front of the flood gates was open or iced up. Mind you I was calling because I would be driving up from Detroit, and it was 5 hours each way for me. They told me that the dam had been open to let some of the runoff from the warm weather through, and it blew all the ice downstream. So I made the drive, stopping to pick up a cartop boat, only to find that pool covered with 3 inches of ice when I got there. I ended up using the boat to break up ALL of the ice, and fishing it anyhow - and I caught a bunch of Steelhead, because nobody had fished them for awhile, because it had been frozen!!.
I quit calling Clems after that, and purchased any bait and tackle I needed from Wellmans (in Oscoda), which I usually passed on my way to Alpena. But that was merely my experience.

[ausable_steelhead]

Alpena is actually still alright fishing, just gotta hit it right. Bobbers work good, as does drift fishing if you use very little weight and light-line. I caught a 21lb hen king last fall, and we landed numerous fish in the 15-17lb range. The steelheading has fallen off alot, but you can still hit fish.

[wyldkat49766]

Well Fishndude, they have had the dam practically closed for the last few weeks due to lack of rain. But if you ever come into that problem again, feel free to shoot me a pm and I can let you know or check on it rather easily since I go into town a couple times a week.

[Fishndude]

The water below the pumphouse used to be up to the steps to the sidewalk, but it has been years since that was the case. The very best fishing I can remember was when they drained the lake above the dam, to work on a railroad bridge, a number of years back. They had to lower the level so much that water couldn't be passed through the power generating part of the dam, so they just had 2 floodgates open. The water was shallow, but was ripping through. We used boats to get to the middle of the river, whereas shore anglers could not wade through the raging torrent. We absolutly smacked Steelhead there for weeks. You could literally expect to hook fish on every 3rd cast or so. There were a ton of Lakers spawning, too; and if you used chartreuse spawnbags, they were all you would catch - but you had to let them all go.

The entire northern part of the State is just dying for rain, and I don't see any in the forecast. I have heard that we might be in for a record warm winter, so I might hit Alpena in December and January, when there is more water. I used to catch quite a few fish late in the year, there.