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A 41-inch catfish moves along the bottom of Atlas Pit. The huge cat has a 33-inch girth.Roger Hanson photoSurprise! Atlas Pit isn’t bottomlessKiwanis Pond always has been the subject of stories. This 10-acre body of water, for-m e r 1 y owned by the Atlas Sand Gravel Co., was said to be “bottomless.”A crane supposedly sits somewhere in the murky depths, its extendedboom - —........countlessfathoms below the surface. Supposedly, a submerged truck sits on an abysmal road near ghostly underwater buildings, still waiting to be filled. According to Atlas folklore, anything short of the Loch Ness monster could dwell deep down under the pond’s placid surface.A lot of those stories went out the window when the city bored holes in the ice during the winter of 1990 and sounded Kiwanis Pond. Its maximum depth proved to be only 37 feet. So much for subterranean cities.A few years later, city Parks Director Tom Presny hired recreational diver Roger Hanson, a teacher at Franklin Middle School, to take underwater pictures and chart the pond. The purpose was to make a map of the bottom and assess the kinds and number of fish that lived in it. The city recently had put money into the area, adding a paved parking lot, electricity and a pier. With an accurate inventory ofwhat the pond actually held, it could be better used for fishing.Hanson and another veteran diver, Mike Black, began the project during the summer. But they had a difficult time seeing much. Alga bloom limited visibility, as did massive weed beds-some towering 20 feet from the bottom. The only way to see things clearly would be to wait until the onset of fall, when the plant life began dying back.When the cold weather set in, Black, a local ophthalmologist, acquired a “dry suit,” enabling him to withstand cold-water dives. Hanson already had a “wet suit,” which, although less comfortable, also would allow him to operate in the cold. By November, the water was almost crystal clear, and visibility was 40 to 50 feet. It was time to see what was really at the bottom of Kiwanis Pond.By the time they had finished, shortly before last Christmas, most of the legends were put to rest.“We found lots of junk,” Hanson reported. “There was a dredge and bucket, and a bunch of other stuff that had been left behind by the gravel company, like railroad parts, pipes, barrels and large metal cages.”Other items had been left by the citizens of Janesville-refrigerators, beer bottles (one still capped), bikes and a 1955 car license plate, not to mention a good supply of golf balls, fishing poles and other assorted litter.Perhaps the biggest surprise was the concrete basement. According to one source, when the pit was expanded manyThe big catfish cruises along the bottom of Atlas Pit.years ago, sand was mined from around a small house that bordered the property. The foundation slid down the slope and ended up on what is now the bottom.But there was more than junk. The divers found walleyes, carp, trout, bluegills, perch, suckers and bass (the world record for largemouth bass taken through the ice came out of Kiwanis Pond). The fish were not as abundant as in the waters of nearby Lions Beach, but some were quite large.The biggest was discovered during a nighttime dive inDecember. Hanson was prowling around a submerged tree in 30 feet of water when he saw a gigantic tail. It was attached to a monstrous catfish.Black saw it, too.“I’ve been diving for 18 years,” he related, “but this is the biggest freshwater fish that I've ever seen.”Hanson measured it at roughly 41 inches. Then, he attempted to bring it up to the surface.“I held onto one of its fins for a while, and it didn’t go anywhere. It seemed sluggish, probably from the cold water.Roger Hanson photoWhen I tried to grab its mouth, though, it did a back roll and got loose. Then, I saw that there were five more big cats by the tree.”The pond now is well-charted and most of its mystery removed. No Loch Ness monster lives there. But you might have trouble trying to explain that to that big catfish, which still must be wondering what it was that swam out of the night and tried to cany it away.D.S. Pledger is an outdoors columnist for The Janesville Gazette.
Newspaper Details
Janesville Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Jan 23, 1994
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Hedberg P.
Wisconsin, USA 15 Jul 2023
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