Ackerman’s cut

Can someone tell me what the deal is with the water ‘boiling’ in Ackerman’s cut? I assume it’s just where the current from the main channel meets the backwaters, but going through there for the first time this weekend was a little scary, especially with the water so low.

From the looks of the surface, I thought I was going to hit a dam, but the depth finder said it was still 60′ of water! The boat spun a 180 on the way out. A little bit more power and attention was paid the second pass.

I fish that stretch of river quite extensively and have always been told that the water boils there because of the extreme depth. It is in essence a huge hole. Don’t know if there is any truth to that or not, but the is another small area like the one in Ackerman’s in the Peosta channel in Dubuque and it is only a few feet from shore. There again the water in 40+ feet.

The large “boils” are from the two closing dams which were constructed using large chunks of rock. The combination of the current forced through the narrows and these dams make for the only “rapids” that I know of on the river. These dams are deep and I’ve never seen the water low enough that they would ever present a problem. How’s the fishing around Ackerman’s and Cassville slough?

Thanks much for the answer, Cresthawk, I’ve always wondered about the boils there myself and suspected just that, some deep closing dams.

Not sure if my depth finder was lying to me or not but when I went through Ackerman’s cut 2 wks ago, I got a reading of 6ft on top of the dam from my flasher.River was about 1ft above normal pool.

As far as the fishing went, completely a waste of time. I fished in the slough, in the main channel, and in the cut for about 4 hours with nothing to show except 1 big ‘gill and probably the smallest channel cat I’ve ever caught. I don’t know what the deal is, but I just can’t seem to boat a walleye unless I’m on a lake. Tried trolling, bouncing, jigging, deep, shallow, rocks, sand, you name it. Pretty pathetic.

I read the same depth going over the dam, about 7 feet or so. About 15 feet of surface travel takes you from 65 foot depth up to 7′. There must be a whole load of current heading into the slough to make the surface boil like that, even with the closing dams.

Gianni, did you try the spillway a little ways above Ackermans cut on the Wisconsin side. I’ve caught walleyes flipping the rip rap with ringworms between the closing dam and the spillway. I’ve also seen walleye fisherman fishing where the water flows through the spillway. Did you try any of the feeder creeks for northerns? The bite seems to have disappeared after the big drop in water temperature. I fished this weekend down by the Hurricane Chute areas wingdams. Had almost no success trolling or casting. Still a beautiful day to be on the river though.

It certainly was a beautiful day to be out. Man, were the power-boaters out in force, too! Did you see the boat pulling the parachute? Looks like a pretty good time, as long as the driver can stay clear of the power lines.

I fished the closing dam above the cut, the downstream side of it, and a limited portion of the upstream side. I drifted crawlers & casted cranks along the rip-rap. Caught a couple of gills. There were a few fishermen right up against the dam, so I kept an eye on them – they didn’t seem to be breaking any arms reaching for the net. All in all, lots of people coming and going, all fishing right around the areas I was in. Nobody doing much catching from what I could see.

I figured that the cold weather would have scattered the pike, and my 7-year old was driving me bonkers. We were in a blue & white Bayliner bass boat. Probably be a couple weeks before I can make it back.

The reason the closing dams were put into Ackerman’s cut was because of the head difference between the main river and Casssville Slough. More and more water was going through the cut and if left to nature, eventually the whole main channel would have migrated into Cassville slough. That is the reason for all the rock and the closing dams, to reduce and restrict the amount of water entering the Slough.

I have read where no passage is recommended thru Ackerman’s cut when the water is high. The place gets really rocking. Been thru it when water is normal and that is scary enough! The best way to do it is to just blow thru. You aren’t going to catch much right at the cut anyway. Respect it and excercise caution. Just a note but that is one palce that the Miss is in charge.

Completely agreed. I would give a hundred bucks right now for a picture of my face when the boat started spinning. I didn’t think there was much real danger, since the surface was relatively flat, if not calm.

I didn’t want to blow through too fast, as it was my first time through as a driver and I didn’t know if there were any hazards or where they would be if there were. From the looks of the surface, it’s not hard to believe that the rocks were only a foot down. I didn’t know whether or not to believe my depth finder or not!

Lesson learned #562 from FTR. Thanks guys.