Big
Fish
Stories
RECORD CATCHES COMMON
ON COMPANY LAKES
by Chuck Chandler
RECREATION
Winn trolls just yards from his house on Lake Martin.
36
Denny Winn Denny Winn sometimes wonders if he's died and gone to heaven.
After retiring to Lake Martin 10 years ago, Winn wakes up every morning and feeds fish
at the end of his pier. Two or three times a week, he drives his boat to Goat Island and
Chimney Rock, stops at Kowaliga Restaurant for a meal and heads back
to "paradise," where he drops another gallon of feed to awaiting bass,
bream and catfish as the sun goes down.
A former superintendent of Bouldin, Yates, Thurlow and Lay dams,
Winn can see the microwave tower of Martin Dam from his house. The
68-year-old still reminisces about catching the huge striped bass he reeled
in on March 31, 1983, down there in the far corner of the dam tailrace,
on Yates Lake.
"It really shocked everyone," said Winn. "Nobody thought there were
fish anywhere near that big in the landlocked lakes. I never dreamed I
would be the guy to catch the biggest fish."
Biologists examined the big bass and said it was from a state stocking of Lake Martin. They
weren't sure how it got in Yates.
Winn
