The Botel at Pickwick Dam

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Originally Posted by SlabLapper4sure

I loved those killer little hush puppies they had!That should have been saved as a historic landmark.Stayed there many times especially while sauger fishing.

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Steve, that was when Bill Bellis and his wife owned it. They would come to a boat show in Memphis and Mrs Bellis would fry some of her famous hushpuppies at the event. I lived in Bartlett at the time. When they owned it, it was a fishing camp with rooms and the dining room where they would cook your catch for you. There was a tackle and bait shop at the end. Bill Bellis retired prolly 30 years ago.
The Botel that was just demolished was owned by a lady out of Florida, so I was told. It had become a night spot with live bands, karoke, swimming pool and outside bar. Not what it used to be, Steve.

I thought Pickwick was protected from flooding because of the Tenn-Tom waterway? We have some friends who have a cabin up river from what most people think of when they think of Pickwick but still technically part of Pickwick, I asked him a couple weeks ago if it had been flooded after some of the recent floods and he told me they never flood because Pickwick drains into the Tenn-Tom. They are on one of the flat, water level lots on Sunset Beach rd near Florence AL but the cabin is behind the 100 year flood line. He did mention that an island and a big sandbar that he had taken us to in the past had both all but washed away because of the high water though. I've never caught crappie around their place but here is a nice smallmouth I caught off his neighbor's dock week before last while we were down there.

Attachment 380726

BigKyd, that was not the case this year with the tremendous flooding the ocurred just below Pickwick dam. Lots of people were flooded, houses slid off the bluff. The Botel was damaged badly. Below the dam is the Tennessee River, or the tailwaters of Kentucky Lake.
Pickwick Lake has become a good bass lake. Crappie fishing is tough, unless you're a local.