Having had the privilege and opportunity to have sought gamefish in reservoirs created by the construction of huge both earthen and concrete dams all over the country, I’ve been told literally dozens, if not hundreds, of times some of the legendary stories that always seem to “float to the top” when being informed about the lake being visited.

By way of reference, I’m referring to lakes in Georgia, Alabama, South and North Carolina, Tennessee and a multitude of others across the 50 states and Canada. Wanna hear about a few?

The most repeated – and too often believed – is that there are huge catfish lazily making their way in the deep waters in the area of the dam that are big enough to swallow a human and that fishermen should not venture into those areas. I’ve heard this in virtually every lake I have visited. Is it true? No.  How do I know? I have fished in Lake Lanier since 1958 literally thousands of times and I’ve never encountered such a fish and do not know of anyone who has.  It’s an interesting prospect but not true.  In all these years, someone would have viewed, caught or at least hooked one of these guys.  Furthermore, I’m told that across the land area covered by 37,000 water surface acres, several old towns and homes with cemeteries that were opened over the years since the 1950s via the wear and tear of the waters and the resulting ghosts occasionally show themselves to the lake’s visitors. Bull.

If some graves were emptied by the lake’s waters and not prior by family or city/town exhumation, the bodies would have long since decayed and no longer exist. Did this create ghosts? No. I was once told that on Lake Texoma, a border lake between Texas and Oklahoma, in the fading light of the upcoming evening, one can see Billy the Kid, walking the banks. What a stretch.  I’ve been there and missed Billy.

I was once told that during certain times of the year on a Tennessee Lake I fish occasionally, that giant schools of hybrid bass will gang up and try and turn your boat over. Been there and it never happened. Of course, occasionally strange occurrences will take place that are true. I was at Lake Seminole, boated quietly and having lunch at least 200 yards from the nearest shoreline, a six-foot rattlesnake (are they not all six feet?) swam over and tried to crawl over the transom of my boat, I suppose to just say hello. It’s true. I have multiple photos and three witnesses. When I tapped him on the head with a fishing rod, he backed off, coiled up and rattled a warning all while floating on the water. I asked a local tackle store operator near the lake if that was unusual. He told me, in no uncertain terms since he was “local,” that rattlers do not swim. My reply was that the one I encountered that day certainly was capable of swimming and did at the time but cruised away after I rejected his warning. True story that time. The most far-fetched are the most interesting and least likely to be true.