most awsome thing you’ve seen on the miss. river?

Its got to be two things for me. On a visit to Belleview Ia. dam one night just to watch the barges go through the locks we seen a big tow going through the locks. This tow was one of the bigger tows that i’ve ever seen. What happened is the pilot brought 1/2 the barges through the locks and cabled them off below the locks. He then went up and got the other barges and brought them through and the barge hands cabeled off the whole tow. This tow was so long that the pilot couldn’t go straight ahead because of a wingdam that was infront of him, it had to be atleast two blocks down river from the locks. He had to bring the front of the tows up river, against the current, twards the dam to get around the wingdam to stay in the channel. He put one prop in forward and one in reverse and poured the coal to it for about 15 minutes gradually bringing the whole tow to the barge channel while the tug stayed at the end of the lock. The diesels were just screaming and the propwash was coming up over the lock sides and getting people wet so they ran. He did this, bringing the front tow to where he wanted to be in the channel and put both props in forward and left the locks. It filled the whole downtown area of Belleview with diesel smoke and i don’t mean just a little smoke, it just blew me away the power that the big tugs have. I don’t remember how long the tow was but it had to be atleast 10 to 12 long and two wide, what a site to see. The second was late one night in dubuque we were out fishing through the ice in the middle of the channel. We stood there talking and doing things that you do at 12 o’clock at night when its freezing cold. We were used to seeing trains come up and go down the tracks on both sides of the river and itb wasen’t anything important we thought when we seen a light heading up river, we thought it was just the light from the locomotive. we watched it for about 15 minutes and the ice cracked a little. We thought just expansion nothing major. Then the ice cracked again with this light still way down river. Just then we seen the light move side to side and thought man theres 12 inches of ice on the river, could a tug be coming up river? the ice then started cracking louder and we thought lets get the heck off the ice, a tugs coming up river. We pulled our poles in and made it to shore and watched this tug with one barge only in front of it just pouring the coal to its engines also. We stood there in amazement watching huge chunks of ice rolling in front of this armour plated barge breaking this ice and this tug was just cruising its way up river raising he– with this ice. These chunks of ice were huge rolling in front of the barge and sliding out onto the river ice as it went by, car size with no problem. I’ll never forget it, It was and amazing site to see.

Most awesome (amazing) thing on the river is a great topic. Ours is also related to tugs and barging. My wife and I were camping on an island sand bar above Guttenberg for a week of vacation. One night at around 11:00PM we were sitting in lawn chairs on the beach when a tow with 9 units came up the river. As it rounded a bend about 1/4 mile below us three barges off of one side broke loose. Instantly there was a lot of noise on the tug as people sprang into action. The thing lit up with every spotlight on board being turned on. The pilot house was issueing orders over loud speakers.They struggled to capture the drifting barges as they backed down river. Two of the units were still connected end to end and the third was floating by itself. At one time the tug and remaining units were at right angles to the channel. The back of the tug appeared to be no more than twenty feet from the island and the front tow were actually pushed up against an island on the other side of the channel! They managed to capture the two that were cabled together and get the thing headed back up stream. Lots of gunning the engines with one in forward and the other in reverse. We had a great view of the prop wash and how near they were to the islands with all the lights going. The tug pushed lots of water up on that island! After two hours of maneuvering and with the two escapees captured the tow managed to push the third unit up onto a mud bar. The tow then continued up river. Mid-morning the next day a small tug arrived and hooked up with the beached unit, pulled it off of the bar and went up river with it. Made for an exciting evening, as I was sure the entire thing was going to be stuck there cross-ways in the channel for some time. Amazing power in them tug boats.

Here is WHAT I saw once when the lights went out…

This spring I saw one boat rear end another boat by Putnam slough. Luckily no one was hurt.

Gator Hunter

Came roaring into Dead slough lake one afternoon and saw >50 snowy egrets all take off at once. Kinda like the stuff you see in Africa.

Reefrunner, this one still gives me nightmares….

CAUTION! Remove all young adults near your computer before viewing!

This is a great topic !!

Have to say the most awesome thing i have seen on the River was 2 or 3 years ago — Was on Pools 7 & 8 i think ( it was in LaCrosse ) for Wisconsin State BASS Federation Tourney — we were prefishing on Friday in a back slough somewhere – the air temp had to be about 80 but back there it was 105 deg. + ….

I was so darn hot – we were leaving from fishing a shaded area, just got the boat turned around, and heard some splashing, here was a doe and her 2 young fawns playing in the water. The fawns were chasing each other and making a ruckus! it was so fun to watch. Let alone the first fish of the day was a 4 1/2 lb largemouth .. prefishing that day made the whole trip.

One would be when a couple of springs ago my dad and I were flipping a beaver hut in a backwater. All of a sudden, 3 little and 2 adult beavers come swimming out!! The big beavs were a bit irritated by us, but the little ones swam right up to the boat out of curiosity and one looked as though he was trying to crawl up the transom and get in. It was cool just to watch them, and to hear that big tail slap of a beaver. They are BIG up close.

Another was one time out duck hunting on opening day when during the afternoon an osprey decided to come fish our pond. You could see out jaws drop when on his second plunge into the water he came out with an 18-20 inch dogfish!! The water couldn’t have been more than 2 feet deep, and it was a cutoff backwater pond. I have no idea how it would have survived the winter. Watching an osprey fish is WAY COOL!!

There are many many awesome sights on the river. Get out at daybreak when the ducks are really around and check out the sounds and sights of 10,000 ducks geese and swans flying around. Truly awe inspiring.

A couple of years ago…probably more cause time flys as we age.
It was a bright February Day I was fishing the Backchannel..using my bow mount for jigging.
I was coming up on a beaver hut and I saw movement..so I sat down and was still my eyes were drawn to the movement cause it was rather large and I was bearing down on it.
To my surprise it was a pair of river otter’s and they were grooming each other..I think??? Otter’s are not my bag so lets say they were playing…
It was my second siting of river otters to date.
But this was the coolest cause I got to watch them for about 15 mins…until they spooked…They are fast very fast when they want to be…
They sure make swimming look easy ….

I’ve seen this same scene!!! Lucky there was moonlight…

The most awesome thing i’ve see is when the girl I was with
pulled up her top and gave me a good look at the twins… needless to say it made my day. and no camera with me either darn it

Last winter a friend and myself were fishing a wingdam when a eagle swooped down in front of my boat and picked up a fish. That bird could not have been more than ten feet from us when it did it. The eagle then flew about fifty feet, landed in a tree and started to enjoy it’s lunch. Just a wonderful sight.

Many years ago I was staying with some relation in LakeCity. Storm warnings were issued that night,the wind blew and the rain came down in sheets, My uncel and I decided to take a drive down town to see if we could find a place open to buy some batteries. On the way we pulled over next to the city park to look at how wild the lake was. To our amazement we watched the old wooden fishing barg lift up in the rear and sink down in the front as the waves broke over top of it. If anyone remembers that old barg,this thing was huge! And to actually be there to watch it sink was awsome.

I watched two guys in a bass boat try to run over a narrow sand bar while traveling over 30 mph. They did not make it. The awesome part was, half a dozen walleye boats, left an excellant, frenzied bite to pull them out of the deep 40 degree water they were catapulted into, then, when they were found to be uninjured, pulled their boat off the bar and got them on the way back down river. It said a lot to me about the character of fisherman in general, and walleye guys in particular!
Rooster

I was relaxing on a sandbar watching a barge go by when a boat with a couple guys in it pulling a skier start manuvering in front of the thing. Sure enough the guy wiped out. But instead of picking him out of the water the brainiacks turned and brought the ski rope by. All the while the barge came closer and closer. I had never seen anyone die before and thought it was going to happen that day. The guy had one shot at getting up and staying alive…luckily he made it. I guess this doesn’t count as awesome but it was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen on the river.

Anyone else ever see the group that water skies on the ford dam strech of pool 2 in the winter? Amazing or just plan crazy? Im not sure. They claim to be out there every weekend. The comment I got from one of them is that there are to many boats on the river in the summer to water ski.

Two summers ago I was out fishing with bowfinhunter on pool 1 near the 694 bridge and we beached the boat on a island to do some fishing and there were all sorts of nice wood snags around the shore of the island, perfect for jigging some piggy cats rite lol, or so we thought. There was a nice swirl of water next to one, and bowfin quicky moves in there and drops his cutbait there to try and give it a nice snack. He is squating right at the water line jigging between the branchs trying to get it, another large swirl and we are talking about how big this cat has to be, both of us staring at the water trying to get a peek at it, well then this HUGE beaver jumps out of the water at us only about a foot between us and its made a big splash, bowfin is doing some sort of backwards crab crawl trying to put some distance beween him and the beaver . Took about 20 minns before my ribs stopped hurting from laughing so hard . We didn’t get many fish that day, but sure was a fun day out on the water and that’s what its all about.

Cattin_Addict

Hmm – this is a tough question. Could be sleeping out in a bag (no tent) near the bank at a wildlife refuge in the fall and having huge flocks of ducks coming in so close they would be banking off you if you were standing up. Could be big flocks of white pelicans on the Missouri River – either in the air doing those circles or just filling up a sand bar. Could be the really big blue catfish we saw just this summer sitting half way out of the water at the end of a wing dike. We motored right by and he didn’t move. I told my tech that he must be snagged on an abandoned trotline, but when we went over there to release him, he just swam off. Darn near put a bucket of water in the boat. Might be having 150 pounds of silver carp jump into my boat on the same day (all four of us in the boat were hit.) Might be surfing on the barge wakes in a canoe when I was young and immortal. What a rush, in every sense of the word. Might be the big alligator snapper that was on our trotline. We wrassled him into the boat, then he proceeded to chase me out of the boat. I thought my uncle was going to shoot him and in the process shoot a hole in the bottom of the boat, but he put the point of the 22 into the shell beside the neck and just pushed him to the side, and the turtle went over the side. What a mess of tackle and lines that was. A lot of excitement for a while. When the turtle went over the side, I decided the right place for me was back in the boat again, but there were not many places not scattered with treble hooks. Might be seeing an eagle take a duck. Or one taking the gas bladder from an Asian carp that we had just thrown out on the water (probably wasn’t that great of a meal) or seeing a nest full of baby eagles.

A few yrs ago a good friend of mine and I were prefishing down below the boat houses at lawrence lake and both of us must have looked up at the same time & then at each other, why we thought we were seeing things. Looked like bare butts & t__s bouncing up & down at a volley ball tourney. Then we looked up toward the boat houses & nude people were walking every where. Needless to say we spent an awfull long time prefishing that area. I’ve been there many times since but just could’nt duplicate the pattern
An other time I was riding back with B. Chandler in his 90 MPH boat back to the Lansing weigh-in and we were running a little short on time so we did’nt slow down for the barge wave. First time I ever flew across Three huge waves in fact the only time and hope never to do it again Jumping the spill way did’nt even raise an eye brow in comparison

Heres another, I was up north of a Harpers Ferry in Iowa doing some summer scouting for the upcoming bow season and was near the river up on the blufs. I drove twards the river as i’ve never been on this road befor and came to the edge of the bluffs. The road continued down the bluff side to a cabin area below but i had to stop. I got out of the car and looked at the river and seen close to i’ll bet 6 to 700 hundred acres of lillypads in bloom. Huge pads with huge flowers that year that ran all the way up and down the river as far as i could see. Snowy egrets, blue herons, ducks, everywhere. There was a couple of beaver and muskrat hutches mixed in too. When the lilly pads are in bloom in a beautiful spot its a site everyone should see.

I haven’t seen it yet but one day this week they will be steering the new Bridge across the Miss into position at La Crose and setting it down on the piers. I understand that the barges it is floating on will be flooded to lower the structure onto the piers after it is turned 90 degrees in the main channel. There will even be a live web cam to document the whole thing.