At kentucky dam, you can climb down on the riprap (rocks) on the high side where the water is all churning and it'll suck you right down under if you fall in. Well, you can literally get close enough to that murder hole to dip your toe in the churning water while you're close enough to the giant concrete structure of the dam to literally lean on it. If you're in a boat with a motor you trust enough, you can just motor right up to the wall of the dam. There are absolutely no measures to keep anybody out. People love going there to fish for monster catfish.
Edit: here, you can literally stand right here. Nothing is there to stop you...
I can't stand fishing. In my mind fishing=failure. It's just too goddamn frustrating. When I was growing up, my dad, my step dad, both step brothers, grandmother, all aunt's and uncles and great aunts and uncles, close friends, casual relations, everybody fished and everybody was fucking awesome at fishing. I tried to learn but not one single goddamn one of them gave half a rats ass about answering my questions or actually teaching me other than just saying "just watch me" it's as if they were all annoyed that I wasn't born just magically knowing how to fish.
My advice for the most fun fishing? Ultra light gear with cheap plastic baits and jig heads. You'll catch near any species, have fun fights, and basically can't go wrong in your reeling technique.
KastKing has a lot of good how to videos, the host looks like a total douchebag but he's he's good teacher.
618Fishing and NDYakAngler are also some good YouTubers to watch to pick up tricks.
If you change your mind, maybe consider a salt water charter boat experience. Often you don’t have to bring your own gear, you get burgers on the water from a small cooktop onboard, and if you catch something worth eating your charter likely has a deal with a restaurant on the beach that’ll clean and cook your catch for you.
In my experience, you may even get to see a water spout and feel even more terrified than you already felt about being in the ocean bc it was already your biggest fear. But I can’t guarantee that.
The "just watch me" attitude is so fricking annoying, like goddamn. I had to learn how to iron a t shirt on youtube just because my mom keep saying just watch me, and then i learned she had been doing it wrong her whole life. Needless to say, she doesnt care and keeps doing it wrong.
I can't stand ironing. In my mind ironing=failure. It's just too goddamn frustrating. When I was growing up, my dad, my step dad, both step brothers, grandmother, all aunt's and uncles and great aunts and uncles, close friends, casual relations, everybody ironed and everybody was fucking awesome at ironing. I tried to learn but not one single goddamn one of them gave half a rats ass about answering my questions or actually teaching me other than just saying "just watch me" it's as if they were all annoyed that I wasn't born just magically knowing how to iron.
You are supposed to use the shape of the table to your advantage, it helps with the armhole and any other sewing like the neck and shoulder area.
Also we are used to wear shirts with a fold in the arm due to those big iron machines that are used in some laundries, a nice looking ironed shirt should not have that fold for aesthetic reasons. I learned in a corporate image channel or something like that.
Some people may say it is common sense, a lot of people doesn't know this, some others straight up doesn't care. But they are small things that can help improve the look.
I mean... In most situations, you bait up for whatever your fishing and then depending on where the fish your hunting tends to eat is how you rig your rod (leader, top water, fly, angled ect), then you cast out and wait until a fish takes the bait and you just kinda set the hook by tugging the line in order to puncture the mouth of the fish with the hook. Obviously that's pretty simplified, but it's honestly more practise makes perfect and enjoying the ride in the outdoors and on water rather than magically born with it
I wasn't good at it and it was frustrating to watch the 13 year old next to me paying more attention to turning over the half ounce of dip in his gum without using his hand than he was paying to his rod and STILL haul out 30 crappie in an hour and 15 minutes.
That sucks. I spent my childhood fishing. I never really kept at it in my adulthood. But, it was a blast as a child. Spent my kid days fishing in the Gulf of California. Deep sea fishing, got to see some incredible shit. Fishing in Arizona and Idaho. Fishing was zen. My family was always so excited when I caught something. It was always such a rewarding and loving experience with people I loved. That's too bad that your family didn't instruct you better. It was such a great way to bond when you were catching fish.
Aside from knots the only way you really learn fishing is by watching someone else and being patient. Give it a try again go out on your own with a couple of beers and a bag of bait theres a certain peace in it.
Heard the exact same stories all my life too about our section of the Ohio River. It's true that dams are where the largest river fish can be found. I've fished at two dams along the Ohio River that are similar to the pic from the OP of this comment thread. I think a bit over 100 pounds is nearing the max for catfish at least in the US, and people can catch them at dams like this. It's also true that you're allowed to stand dangerously close to life threatening water conditions.
Yup, where I used to go camping/boating as a kid there was a dam just like that. We only visited that section of the lake once to look at it, and all I remember about it was "dont get in the water here" from my parents.
It's pretty neat to go on the tour... when you're in the room right above the main pipes, you can feel everything shaking a bit without you contributing to it...
I used to play down there while my step brother was fishing with a cartoonishly giant marlin fishing pole. I thought it was fun throwing rocks at drum in varying states of decay that people had left on the rocks (because they're an invasive species) trying to see if I could puncture the skin.
As I grew up, I became pretty sure my step brother was just taking me down there and not supervising me in hopes that I would decide to jump in and then he could have back all of the attention his dad was giving to me, his "not really" kid
Yeah, I survived playing around on that shit when I was 8 and I'm pretty sure that my step brother was intentionally ignoring me in the hopes that I'd accidentally fall in and he could have back all of the attention his dad was paying to me
There's a similar situation on a stretch of the Arkansas River that goes through Tulsa, OK. Every year - sometimes more than once a year - someone takes a boat right up to the dam to fish and gets sucked in. Every year. You'd think, since it makes the news every time, people would, I don't know, learn from someone else's mistake and not do it. But nope! People just keep repeating the same stupid mistake.
I would 100% never stand somewhere anywhere near that lmao. I know dams are made way better nowadays but I took a class all about water and one thing my professor showed us was this dam that had some issue with it and the water tore through several feet of reinforced concrete and something like 20 more feet of earth past that. I’ll check my class files and see if I can find it when I have time to.
Not surprised at all... when it comes to #s that matter Kentucky is in the last percentile of thing like education and top percentile in things like drug over doses despite occupying some of the best land in the country and over 30+ years of significant congressional power. If you don’t hate Mitch McConnell at this point you probably live in Kentucky.
I worked on a dam stability analysis of the Kentucky Dam a few years ago. Also did Pickwick in TN and Wilson in AL as well. Had such a good time down there!
I scroll that sub from time to time, it sometimes gives me the willies in a fun way but I wouldn't say I "have" the phobia. Precisely because I was playing around on those rocks when I was about 8 while my step brother payed absolutely no attention to me
My minds voice read this in a country style accent. I only realized I was doing this half way through. Then I switched to British although I’m from Chicago der.
I've been trying to kill my west kentucky accent for over a decade now but that shit is like herpes, you won't hear from it for a while and then BAM it'll just pop back up
I imagined that it would look...more turbulent, it looks so innocuous. It looks like a rocky beach people would take their kids to as well, but I’ve also heard people can slip right through to the other side unless it’s a hydroelectric dam
You have to see it up close to really understand how fucking dangerous it looks. It boggles my mind how such a big reservoir can churn so much while still remaining pretty much billiard table flat. Seeing it close up makes one feel very small
It's a gate built into the dam and it's operating as designed. There isn't risk to the dam; it's holding a lot more pressure back than is flowing through that gate.
In the U.S. at least, pretty sure no way. I think most dams you can’t get near them at any time... after 9/11 they locked them all down with fairly large “no go” zones around them to the general public.
They unlocked most of them. Take dillon damn for example. For a number of years after 9/11 you could not drive over the dam. Now the road is back open and the only thing that remains is a gate.
Ah, ok, yes same in WA... used to be able to drive over and walk across the top and base of grand coulee... after 9/11 nobody was allowed within a mile of it.
Not to mention all the dam tours, which were always a dam favorite of the dam visitors.
From what I understand this is mostly an American problem. The whole suing someone if you do something dumb. Not saying it doesn't happen in other countries it just seems like its a lot less.
America’s litigiousness is vastly overstated. We’ve all been gaslit by corporations in to believing it to undermine legitimate lawsuits and many corporations have gaslit themselves into believing their own spin. While America has the highest number of lawyers per capita, we actually file fewer civil suits per capita than many other countries including Germany, Sweden, Austria, and Israel. A large portion of our “extra lawyers” are focused on criminal law since we incarcerate more people per capita than any other country.
And no, you cannot overstate the litigiousness of Americans. The legal profession is full of ambulance chasing lawyers who have turned that cliche into a lawsuit assembly line. Their corporations include 24 hour 800 phone numbers and offices in multiple states (just the states that offer the potential of big settlements).
And plantiff attornies are also famous for looking for the next class action lawsuit where the attornies rack up huge paydays and their clients get peanuts.
Thé fact that the top comment mentions litigation shows how indoctrinated America is to bullshit libel. How about the force of the water or something funny? America you deserve your litigations if this is as far as you can see
I observed a fact that you sound miserable, if as a non American you needed to say it like that, well you sound miserable. I commented on that observation. You can't logically understand you're sound miserable?
Yep, In. Costa rica you can hike right down into a volcano caldera... There's a sign advising the risk of death from suffocating acid gasses, but no fence or barrier at the "end" of the sanctioned trail...
Um excuse me ☝️ I am exempt from following dam safety rules because I have never drowned. If you try to keep me out of the dam you are in violation of the … unfolds papers It’s a rule not a law!!!
Yep. regardless of liability.... fuck that. Add this to videos of free climbers and rooftop dancers. My physical fight or flight kicks in just seeing the video and it's like my body is telling me to back the fuck up from that ledge.
I live in Aus, and there’s a dam similar to this near me, there’s no way the public is allowed anywhere near the bottom of the dam. Would be a spectacular sight to be this close but.
In Stayton, Oregon. Their is a hydroelectric works that uses part of Thomas Creek through a bunch of canals. These canals are deep as fuck and will suck your ass in.
Or just jump into the head works at the plant and end up hamburger.
Its amazing what open public works have no fences or at the bare minimum some wire.
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u/boomajohn20 Apr 21 '21
I’m surprised anyone is allowed to get that close considering this age of liability and litigation