Disney

On the summer vacations we took to Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, when I was young, going to Disney was one of my favorite trips. That’s not DisneyLand, that’s Disney, Oklahoma. Here’s the story.

Disney

 

On some of the summer trips we made to Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, my Dad would take us to Grand Lake to fish below the Grand Lake dam at Disney, Oklahoma. Occasionally, they would open the flood gates and let water out of the lake for a while. Then, they would close them, thus trapping thousands of fish in pools in the area below the dam. My Dad kept up with the water release program and shortly after they had had the gates open for a while, we would take a fishing trip and work the pools below the dam.

 

The Grand River Dam at Disney, Oklahoma. Occasionally they opened the gates on the right side of the picture and trapped fish in the pools in that area. We parked on that road to the right and walked down the hill to the pools. Sometimes my Mom would go with us and sit on a blanket under a shade tree and read a book.

 

 

We used spinners and we would catch a large variety of large fish below the pools. We caught crappie, black bass, rock bass, channel cat, blue cat, drum, small mouth bass, and sand bass all from the same pools. Traversing the rocks around the pools was a bit tricky, but I was young and enjoyed the challenge. We always caught a large string of fish that we cleaned and put on ice before we headed back to Sulphur Springs. My grandmother Lucy would have a delicious fish fry the next day when we brought fresh fish home.

 

On several occasions, we hooked some very large fish in the pools. Usually, they would run, double the pole over and snap the line before you could blink. On a couple of occasions they actually snapped the pole in the middle. In the words of Forrest Gump….. “fishing there was like a box of chocolates, because you never knew what you were going to get” I believe my brother Craig was old enough to go with us on some of the trips to Disney.

 

There were some fishermen below the dam that were after spoon billed catfish. You had to get a permit to go after them. I believe they noodled them out of the pools by hand. We saw many 75 to 100 pound spoon billed catfish hauled out of there.

 

The large Spoon Bill Catfish like they hauled out of the pools below the Grand Lake Dam art Disney.

 

 

I’m not sure whether they still open the water gates like they used to, but we had some good old times below the dam at Disney. I believe I liked this more that I would have liked DisneyLand if I had ever gone there.

 

My sister JerrylDine, my brother Craig, and I about the age when we fished below the Dam at Disney. My Mom was trying her hand at sewing then as evidenced by the shirts Craig and I were wearing. Believe me she was a much better artist than seamstress.

Thanks for reading Disney,

Hawg Jaw Bill