Chapter 11- The River
Pinti Field to Canal Dam & Landing
Discovery: Adventure in Downtown Rome -- Who'd A Thunk?
June 6, 2001, 60 degrees, Sunny
I
told Denny this discovery trip was going to be very exciting or very boring.
In either case it would be short. We were exploring the Mohawk River from
Pinti Field to the Barge (Erie) Canal and on to the old riverbed, a total
distance of 2.4 miles.
I had canoed the river from below Delta Dam to Pinti
Field a few years ago and had fished the canal near the Rome Dam a number
of times. However, the mile or so of river in downtown Rome between Pinti
field and the canal was new to me.
I had checked a topo map of the area the night
before and it indicated we would have to pass under two bridges and go
around two dams. That morning I visited the dam where the river empties
into the canal, and discovered a crew building a Canal Way Trail bridge
across the river where there had been an old road bridge for many years.
They pointed out a spot on the west bank of the river where we could beach
the canoe and carry it around the end of the dam.
Denny caught this beautiful brown trout soon after we launched the
canoe at Pinti Field.
After parking Denny's car at the Riverside Marina,
we drove up to Pinti Field and launched the canoe at 10:10 a.m. The river
was high and streamside vegetation, which was mostly willows and soft maple,
muffled most of the city noises. Ten minutes after we launched Denny caught
an 8-inch brown trout. Five minutes later he landed a 14-inch, beautifully-colored
brown. When we stopped to photograph the trout, I noticed that wherever
trees didn't line the bank "bamboo weed" did. It was already shoulder high.
We had encountered this prolific import further up the river and on other
tributaries. In many areas it grew so thick it was impossible to walk through.
Fortunately, we were canoeing, so we continued downstream;
backyards and houses on our left, willows on the right. At 10:35 we came
to a short rapids that dropped into a pool at a sharp bend in the river.
There was enough fast water to float the canoe on the outside of the bend,
but it ran up against a pile of logs and trees. I avoid these situations
whenever possible, so I walked the canoe through the shallow side of the
rapids while Denny fished the downstream pool.
Except for the sight of houses through the trees,
the Mohawk in this area is a wild looking river. Trout were rising, and
swallows and waxwings were swooping low over the water, getting their fill
of a hatch-in-progress. We also saw a number of mallards and a few mergansers
along the riverbank.
Upstream from the East Dominick Street Bridge, we
could see the back of the dark green Savoy Restaurant on our right. Except
for almost getting tangled in fishing lines angling down from atop the
bridge, we slipped under that bridge without incident. We almost got in
trouble at the railroad bridge.
Wooden pilings were clearly visible below this steel
truss bridge, but until it was almost too late we didn't see the low wooden
dam. Fortunately, the right end was open. With a few hard paddle strokes
we crossed the river and slipped through the chute. Now that was fun!
As we passed through a wide stretch of water, a
house and church on the right, brush and trees on the left, trout were
rising everywhere. Denny caught a small brown on a gold spoon.
We had to lower the canoe with ropes and then
walk down the log at the end of the dam.
At 11:00 we came to another dam. This one was about
five-foot high and made of blocks of cut stone. It too was open on the
right end, but there was a good 3-foot drop to the water below. We paddled
the canoe to the left side where silt had filled behind the stone wall.
While I looked for a way to get the canoe around the dam, Denny fished
the pool below the outlet.
The banks were high and the vegetation very thick,
so carrying the canoe around the dam would be a tough go. We could lower
the canoe to the water below, but I didn't want to try getting into the
canoe from the top of the dam. Denny solved the problem by noting a log
at the end of the dam that we could walk down and maintain balance by leaning
against the wing wall.
I grabbed one end of the canoe and started to walk
towards the log. Denny grabbed the other end, took a couple steps . . .
and slid down the muddy bank behind the dam. In an instant he was lying
in the water. Except for the initial "Damn!" his reaction was quite philosophical
and perhaps a little facetious. "Guess you have to pay the price when you
catch fish."
We had explored the lower half of Delta Lake the
day before. He caught all the fish, as he had that morning.
While Denny emptied hip boots and wrung out shirts
and socks, I tied a length of nylon rope to each end of the canoe. Five
minutes later we lowered the canoe down the front of the dam, Denny grabbed
one of the ropes and walked down the log. When the canoe was safely on
the bank below, I walked down the log to the bottom of the dam.
It took me two days to catch this fish ... but I didn't fall in.
After passing homes on the right and an old power
station on the left, we saw several drake mallards under the overhanging
branches of a big willow. I cast my gold spoon to a partially submerged
log. The lure stopped. Damn! A Snag! That snag pulled line from my spinning
reel and jumped clear out of the water. A few minutes later I landed a
19-inch chain pickerel, my first fish in two days. It was 11:30.
The
carry around the canal dam was uneventful and fishing below the dam and
in the canal was unsuccessful, so we paddled past the Canal Park, under
Mill St. Bridge and on to the channel that leads under a railroad bridge
to the Riverside Marina and the original course of the Mohawk River.
(See Discovery: The
Lost River)
At 12:15 our discovery trip was over. In a little
over two hours we had canoed seldom-seen water, saw wildlife and wild places,
avoided disaster, crossed dams and caught fish . . . in downtown Rome.
Who'd
a thunk?
Follow the path of this discovery trip by clicking on Mohawk Valley Maps: by Maptech.
Type Rome, select New York, press GO!
Select Rome, N.Y.
