Thread: what are your thoughts on removing the Rodman Dam?

Originally Posted by Opie1

I know some of you fish the area. Curious on your opinions.

William McQuilkin: A good business case for restoring the Ocklawaha

As in most issues there two sides to every story on taking the dam out. How ever something needs to be decided because of dam is in need of repair and needs to be either fixed or taken down.


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I hope they repair the dam and not tear it down. I only get to fish it 4 months each year. Super, super, fishing there.

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I first learned about this issue back in the late nineties when I moved to Gainesville. I remember conducting the funeral of a lady named Marjorie Harris Carr. She was a champion for ending the barge canal and lead the charge to destroy the Rodman Dam. Her friends were passing out “Free the Oklawaha River” bumper stickers. I placed one on the back window of the hearse for her final ride, and her family loved it. A photographer for the local version of Pravda took a picture and it was published in the next edition, along with a story recounting her life. That was when I learned about the feud. A local judge called the next morning to scream at the funeral home owner about that picture. He wanted to keep the dam in place, and had a bad dislike for Marjorie’s intentions.

Well fast forward a few decades and those same feelings still exist. I know many guys that want to keep the dam in place. They like to go fishing there because the fishing is good. Bass Master types mostly, but a few crappie guys claim they catch the big ones in there. I suppose they do, too.

This past Spring I took my wife to where the Oklawaha meets the reservoir and we rode around in the boat. We didn’t fish or stay very long as we wanted to see something pretty. That place is not pretty at all. We left and went South a ways and launched along the Oklawaha upstream from there and it was gorgeous. The water is shallow and flows at about 5 mph. The banks of the river are as wild as any I have seen. There were alligators everywhere and they didn’t slide off their logs, rather they just stared at us. No way you would dare take a dip there I promise you. tricky to navigate as there are sunken logs the entire length. I managed to get us upstream about two miles. We ate lunch, took pictures, had some fun, never saw anyone else, and then drifted back to the truck.

She asks me all the time to take her back there. I think it was easily her favorite trip. The river is Old Florida and a must see. I did a write up on this site about our adventure. Based on what I have seen, I would choose to dynamite the dam right now.

BTW- there is another earthen dam in the area. It is across the Alligator Creek. This is a small creek that flows from lake to lake and supplies water to a few of the local lakes. Rumor has it that the huge company in the area damned it up to flood their dry land area so they could dredge sand. They do this using barges that pump the sand ashore. I heard that it is cheaper to do that than to bulldoze the sand. They sell the sand to make roads, concrete, etc. Well in sucking out this cheap sand they have managed to lower the lake levels in nearby areas. People who own houses along these lakes are wondering why their lakes suddenly lost all their water. No one wants to mentions that it is this company being greedy that has done it. Personally, I suspect they pay bribes to our local fruitcake politicians to keep this good thing going. Several people have told me so and I believe them. Some folks go into politics to make money for themselves you know.

I would like to see that dam get demolished as well.

I used to bass fish a good bit and I fished Rodman many times and used to be a proponent of save Rodman Reservoir. After I started looking at the history of Rodman i realized what a catastrophe this thing was from an ecological standpoint. This was a failed project and at some point you really need to right the wrong. I'm all for tearing the dam down and restoring it to what it used to be. In twenty or thirty years that place can be just like a it was 70 years ago. It definitely would be better for the Ocklawaha and the entire St Johns River ot runs into.

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They've been gunnin' for RODMAN for 30 years or more!!

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