lived here for 40 yrs don't remember the mo. to ever be closed.
I mis-spoke. You are right. Used to be that the river was open, up to the first vehicular crossing. But beyond that crossing, there was a season.
I remember fishing Apple Creek, under the bridge below University of Mary Hill. There was a low-head dam there. You could fish the down-stream side, but not the upper side, unless you were a kid trying to catch pike, who would be able to feign ignorance, if the law should ask why you were fishing on the wrong side of the dam.