Epic Wind Storm!

So, this is a little behind; but Friday Cody (the nephew) and I went out to work on a few bass and then shoot for some stripers.  It was amazingly hot, so we figured the fishing would be interesting at best, and certainly were not expecting too much until after dark.

We headed to Claytor after I got home from work and were on the water fishing by 7.  We were fishing the main body working some deeper structure where we hoped the bass to be holding out and where I found them last weekend.  We were struggling so we opted to get the skunks off the boat with a couple of gills pretty quick.  Then went back to work.

Cody ended up working a 6" motor oil colored worm, while I was working the same black and chartreuse jig and a small swim bait.  I did miss a couple bits and a very aggressive bass who came off the shoreline and attacked the swimbait three times, and I just COULD NOT get a hook in that fishes mouth... Shortly later Cody missed on a good deep hit off his worm.  It was starting to cool down and darken up when things got... Interesting...

So I knew there were a couple of storms heading our way and expected to ride out one storm around midnight, if accuweathers forcast held true, then fish after that until the next set came in then head out.  Well, I got a couple texts ... "Bad storm coming this way" from Cody's mom, and "Apparently there are some very severe storms coming through, please be careful".  Well these warnings and handy to have, and having a smart phone I popped up a weather map and saw ALL of WV covered with storms; but I couldn't get the maps to animate...

A couple mins later, Cody's getting more texts and my wife CALLS.  She seldom calls when I'm fishing unless somethings up... so I answer and she says "You might wanna get off the water now...the trees are blowing sideways."  At about the same time I got another text from Cody's mom saying that it just hit there, "OMG". 

Needless to say, we strapped things down and headed to the dock.  WIDE OPEN.  A few mins later Cody's girlfriend who lives about 1/3 of the way between the lake and our homes said they just got hammered.  We get close to the docks (heading from uplake to the public ramp, we were at the last turn where all the cliffs are.) and we can see some clouds rolling in...they look unhappy...

We make it to the cove and start quickly towards the docs, probably exceeding the no wake speed but I wanted to get up and out of the water before this storm hit and judging by the clouds moving over head its getting close.  We get to the doc, Cody holds the boat over and I hop up and start up towards the truck and I hear it coming.  I look back and there's a wall of debris, dust, leaves, water, I don't know what all coming our way and BOOM it hits.  Trees are cracking, limbs falling and I'm in the middle of the woods heading to the truck!  I am about to hop in, and suddenly its dark.  Powers out.  I had just installed some LED lights on the trailer so I turn them on and head back to the water to get the boat.

Tree limbs are everywhere!  Dust and gravel is flying all over the place, twigs and leaves are flying by and stuff is falling all around.  I get back to the road to go down to the water and there two trees down.  On partially blocking the road the other had fully blocked it, but someone already moved it.  So I go past and try to back down to the water.  Mind you all this happened in literally a matter of minutes... MAYBE THREE from the time it started... I started to back in the trailer and was too far to the right and got my tires in some dirt.  Fearing rain to start, I pulled back up and kept having to work up and back to finally get the trailer lined up and not hit the doc.  The problem was I'm used to backing up using my mirrors; but with everything going on, I couldn't hardly see the doc - so I had to look over my shoulder to back up.  Thank goodness I installed the LED lights or I wouldn't have been able to see anything...

So finally I get the boat down and loaded, were probably looking at about 7 or 8 mins now.  We take the truck up to the top and lock down the boat and get pelted again by dust and rocks.  We got things locked down and took off only to find the road looking like a tornado came through.  Cody got nailed in the head by a flying limb (which came from across the cove... which is a long trip) He was no worse for the wear, but then ended up getting dirt and gunk in his eye.  Lucky for him, his time spent working with metal lathes etc taught him how to get stuff out of your eye and he was able to get cleaned out quick and easy.  So were off... and apparently so was the storm...

We had light winds and few sprinkles afterwards, but the worst of the storm was gone... we had been out in the whole dang thing!  And I can tell you... I have NEVER seen anything come up on you so fast and so powerfully.  It was kind of scary to be honest...you couldn't see much of anything so we didn't know if there was a tornado or just wind or how bad it was going to get etc.  Apparently 80+ MPH winds and a number of small spin up tornadoes will do that.  Did we get hit by one?  I don't know.  I can say I personally did not see any funnels, but  I did see a bunch of dust devils in the parking lot so there was rotational winds of some sort.  But I cannot begin to say we were in a tornado.  I can say that a few miles away a classmate of mine was on the river fishing and personally saw a funnel cross the river below them... so, I know there were some around!

This is one of those times where if we had waited even a couple minutes longer we could have been in dire trouble... luckily I had told my wife my plans and she knew I was planning on waiting out the first storm of the night... and she as well as Cody's mom were both quick to let us know that more than just a normal storm was on the way and we were smart enough to listen and quickly get off the water.  The water is dangerous enough, add a storm and it can get very dangerous...add a storm like that and it can become fatal.  As an example, WDBJ 7 was reporting 5 missing boats on Lake Moomaw, and they weren't even sure how many people were in them... This is a great example of why it is so important to let people know what your doing, where your doing it at and what your plans are.  And even moreso to respect mother nature.  We got lucky.  Things could have been much much worse, we came out unscathed... not everyone did...

Hot summer day

So my wife and I headed to Claytor for a short mid-day trip Sunday.  Mind you my wife seldom fishes, so shes generally on the back casting deck sunning, or reading, etc - just enjoying the water.  We got there at about 1pm and IT WAS HOT!  Like 90+ hot!  Surface water temp of about 86!

So we headed out of the public ramp amongst a slew of other boaters and jet skiers, knowing it was going to be busy and rough waters.  I had no idea how busy...

This was like memorial day busy!  I wanted to fish a location with stumps north of DeHaven that I had never focused on before so we headed up... holy cow.  I only have a 16 foot Skeeter and we were taking it slow but dear lord it beat the tar out of us.  We finally get to where I want to fish and the wakes are aggravating but the heat is worse.

Quickly I shed out of my shirt and my wife begins to sun bathe ... then get nauseous... which is a first.  Surprisingly, in the middle of all this heat, noise and sun we did see a HUGE Deer.  I'm guessing about five year old and his rack is going to be MASSIVE!  He already had at least 8 or 10 clean tines, and it looked like maybe a paddle on the left.  I'm guessing the spread was 20+ inches easy.  And he looked healthy!

Anyway, it was so hot and so rough that after maybe an hour or so of fishing the bank line (and finding Bass, although I only landed a gill) we headed further up the lake to escape the crowd and cool off.  So up to lighthouse bridge we go.  We round the corner, and realize we're not the only ones hanging out under the bridge...there's like 6 or more other boats doing the same.  We stopped for a bit, but it was even hot under the bridge!

Now if you haven't been under the bridge, its a LOW pass bridge, so low I broke my rear marker light on it once... So generally it's very cool -- NOT TODAY!  IT was still HOT!  We were aggravated from the sheer number of people, and cooking from the heat - so we headed back home.  And even in that short time, managed to get a decent sun burn.  I can only imagine what people got who were out all day...Sheesh!

Anywho - this is exactly why I love fishing mid-week -- I love the peaceful quiet lake.  The mirror finished surface, a slight mist rising, hearing the sound of nature - not the man made sounds that a busseling summer day brings....

Earlier this year

I just ran across this pic that Bruce took on one of our trips earlier this year.  While the trip was not bad and we caught some nice fish, Bruce lost a bruiser largie... probably in the 20" class, 5+lbs.  She was a nice, nice fish...

We fished hard but only had minimal success...again everything came off white baits.  Seems to be a trend for us on Claytor anymore, lol.  Here's one of my keepers from early that morning.

Flatheads and Stripers

Big fish of the trip...

He thought he was a striper!

Well, it was supposed to be flatheads and stripers... It ended up being a few gills and a bass, lol.  Check out the log for more details but let it suffice to say that the "big trip" we planned for Cody's graduation was a complete and udder bust...

Back on the water

Finally after too many missed trips, we are heading back to the water... The boats cleaned up, my new fishing lights are installed (16 feet of RGB LED's... oh it will be bright!)  Probably too bright until I get the control unit hooked up.

This is more of a guided trip for my nephew as a Graduation Present... Hopefully some whiskers and linesides end up in the boat!  Hopefully I'll be posting some pics!

Tight Lines!

Moncove Lake

One of the many salamanders...

So, yesterday we (we being the bulk of the family about 15 people or so) decided to take advantage of the free fishing weekend in WV and headed to Moncove Lake state park.  Moncove is in Monroe County WV near Gap Mills.  It's a beautiful little area, and well worth the visit.  We ended up setting up in a place that didn't really give us the best fishing opportunities; but sometimes successful fishing isn't the most important factor...

Brenda with a nice gill

Well, things did not go according to plan. We did hit Moncove, but we ended up in about the worst possible position for fishing; but a great place for a family outing otherwise. We ended up right near the playground. So we had a great mix of sun, shade, and things for the kids to do. Unfortunately, that did not translate too well for fishing. We were on the inside edge of a huge flat of lilly pads and we had bluebird skies all day. Timing wise, we hit from about 11am through 5pm or so. Prime fishing times huh? lol. The water depth I'm guessing was maybe a few feet at the deepest spots we found. So, suffice it to say, fishing was tough. And no, we didn't even end up renting a boat...however, I think if we had we certainly could have improved our odds even in these conditions.  But we did still catch a few.

Bruce with another perch

 We caught: Bluegill, Bass and Yellow Perch. But the bite was slow and well earned. Most came off well place worms fished or drug along the bottom. I caught a couple off of a beetle spin with a grub on it. Had the skies been overcast I think we would have done much better on the pan fish.

I will say, that unless you knew the lake had been drained, you would have not been able to tell. It looks exactly the same. The lily pads and cattails were all the same and those on boats were all fishing the same areas we used to fish years ago. Given the numbers of fish we caught in horrible fishing conditions and location I think it's safe to say the lake has definitely recovered.

Brandon showing off his "lunker"

The bass were mostly small, I think maybe a total of two were over a foot. But, I think that was more relevant to positioning vs what's in the lake. BUT - every single fish we caught was extremely healthy. I didn't notice any parasites, or any other prominent fish illness. It is still early in the season, so that may change if there are any issues as summer progresses. Given the number of small bass and pan fish in general, the breeding stock must be doing well so there should be plenty of forage.

Christian enjoyed his first cold wet fish on the belly... lol.

I think the lake is doing well, although we didn't get the opportunity to really "test" it; I think what we saw was proof enough that she will be ok. Maybe next time I will get to try for some of those channel cats and see how they are stacking up too!

Tight Lines!

Upcoming

Hey guys!  I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that this is still deep in the development and design portion.  I plan on adding a few more sections over the next week or so then really get into the blogging part.  It's just a matter of having the time to get everything set up the way I want it.

I will be posting some log's and such while I finish the design, but my posting will be a little more limited in terms of writing articles etc.  Please bear with me!  Overtime I will get things settled down and have a consistent flow of info.

Thanks & Tight Lines!

Hello!

Ok, so I guess I should probably start this off with a brief introduction of myself, and what I hope to achieve with this little blog...

So, I'm David.  Long story short, I've been fishing basically my entire life.  I absolutely LOVE it!  But, it's not just the fishing I love.  It's all the things around it too (reading, contemplating ideas, sharing thoughts, etc).  I get just as excited about seeing someone else catch a fish as I do when I catch one myself; and NOTHING beats seeing a kid catch a fish, especially their first fish.  To me, that is what fishing is all about...

With this blog I hope to do a few things.  I hope to share info with people who are interested in fishing and may find something I post useful.  I hope to create a resource, over time, where people can come and learn things about fish and fishing that they may not have known.  I, like most anglers, like to tell stories.  So, I hope to share memories that I've made over the years, and read stories from other anglers.  That's the really fun stuff!  I also hope to begin a somewhat more consistent fishing log than what I've been keeping over the years.

Please bear with me over the next few weeks (if anyone shows up by then) while I work on getting the look and layout set up the way I want.  I have developed my own websites over the years, but using this blogging software is new so it may take me a bit until I get things looking the way I want.  PLEASE feel free to give any comments, good or bad, about anything.  Ideally this will become a place where people come to visit regularly and we can create our own little community where everyone comes and shares their ideas and thoughts. 

I will be making more posts about me, and my past over the next little bit to fill in some blanks.  I will also be posting some articles I've written, and info I've gathered over the years to help give the blog some decent depth.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to post them!

Tight Lines!

David