Dawt Mill Dam

[Wayne SW/MO]

Will the dam begin to wash out in high water? Some structures can stand over topping but not the added hydraulics of increased pressure in a breach.

[Brian Wise]

So do you think that is the only reason, or do the floods push them out? I'm sure they can hang in there and find places to hold, but didn't know what you thought. I'm not the expert, but I bet you know a lot more as far as what happens to those bigger browns all the sudden. I'm scratching my head.......wondering. Also, from what I can tell, most of the browns hold from Blair down to Dawt and rainbows hold up from Blair. Seems like River of Life always has a plentiful supply all the time. Do they stock right in front of there on purpose or is that just a normal spot they hold in and the MDC stocks?

It is hunting. You have to look for the best conditions if you can only fish the river every now and then. You don't go to the White and 'expect' to hang a 26" brown on low generation....no difference here. Since November, we have averaged around 400 CFS with 2 spikes of water. We 'do' catch big fish on low water but they are few and far between......but when we get spikes of good, colored water (like we have had recently) we do---and it was retarded last weekend.

The river is stocked with browns from Blair down. From Blair up hasn't been stocked with anything in almost 50 years. That is why you will catch more NUMBERS of browns on the lower section. But even stockers move and if we get a rise after a stocking we have seen numbers of stocker browns even above the Falls (not very often though).

[Brian Wise]

Will the dam begin to wash out in high water? Some structures can stand over topping but not the added hydraulics of increased pressure in a breach.

The hole in the Dam has eroded a little more with every high water event we have had since it breached.....Which is just fine with me.

[Jeremy Hunt]

Thanks for the advice Brian. I'm just not seeing what I saw four years ago and I've been over there about the same amount of times each year. I've also done better on the spikes with the water a little stained. Do you think these browns hold different then they do in those slow moving tailwaters? It seems like they like to hang in the faster water where the shoals start instead of hanging in the back.

[Brian Wise]

It completely depends on the water. When water is "prime" (and this isn't a certain CFS, it is a certain color because 1000 cfs that has been falling out for a week is a totally different color than 1000 cfs that is still rising) we catch a lot of bigger fish somewhere pretty close to fast water, or right in it. Fast water with a skinny seam against the bank is pretty prime, but the biggest fish we have caught have pretty much all came from tailouts where it starts to get deeper below the riffle.