Claytor, 5 SEP 2016

[31airborne]

Got out for a few hours this AM, thinking I was braving the last of the holiday weekend boat traffic. Nope. Fog. I mean pea soup fog. I mean a 'what-in-the-wide-world-of-sports-are-you-doing-out-in-this' fog. While the fog kept the rec boaters off it didn't stop the bass and striper fishermen. They were stacked up at the state park ramp when I pulled in at 0530. Everyone got in the water OK. Was just a lil jammed up in the marina area while folks figured out what to do. Most erred on the side of safety and idled over to some of the community holes nearby. A few took the dare and blasted off into the mist. More on these guys in a bit.

I was part of the former, picking a main lake point just on the north end of the swimming area. I worked that point and the adjacent banks for about an hour or so w/ a spook and a jerkbait. Had one decent SM eat my spook. Another and a chunky LM ate my jerkbait. After that bite played out I noticed the fog had lifted enough to run safely. I motored uplake a few miles to a small feeder creek where I worked the main lake points and shoreline towards the back. This particular creek has some really nice rocky stretches - bluffs w/ some sharp drops. This turned out to be the best pattern for this outing (small profile jig). No monsters but the spotted bass were very active and hungry. I did boat a couple in the 1.75 to 2 lb range. Not bad for Claytor spots. Also found a good fluke and swimbait bite in a couple small pockets towards the back of the creek. Fish were shallow and tight to wood. No big ones but lots of fun.

As I finished up in this creek I noticed the fog was about gone so I decided to beat the rush and head back to the ramp. Major mistake. About half way back I ran into a pretty healthy fog bank with maybe 20-30' visibility. I bring the boat off plane and idle towards the shoreline, trying to keep out of the main traffic lane. I no sooner got out of the way than a bass boat comes roaring by running WOT. This goober passed within 15 yards or so of me. The wake spilled over the forward gunnel. He never saw me. Lights on and everything and he never saw me. I continued to idle back to the state park marina hugging the shoreline. I've got maybe a mile or so to go. As I make the turn into the home stretch three more boats come ripping by (altho' not as close as the first one). They were running side by side. Anyone they happen to come upon would have no chance of getting out of the way. I could only shake my head.

Observations: 1) It was a lil foggy out this AM. 2) Not hard to understand why - air temp was 55 at launch, water temp was 77. Any time you have that big a difference in temp you're gonna have thick fog. Water temp didn't come up much. Stayed between 77 and 79 for the 3+ hours I was out. Water is gin clear - easily 8-10' of viz. 3) Baitfish have begun to move into the backs of creeks and coves. I saw huge pods of gizz and herring everywhere I stopped. Some of these pods are holding off of small cuts. Others are suspended over the main channel. I did see some feeding going on around a few of the pods but I'm guessing they were stripers or hybrids. 4) The early morning fog had the fish scattered. I didn't have any bites on moving baits (other than the spook and jerkbait). 5) Not as many fish today as last outing but the quality was up a bit. My best 5 were maybe 10-11 lbs.

Most of the doods out today were practicing for the big Claytor Lake bonanza next SAT. Someone has put $50,000 (not a typo) first place prize money for this. That little lake is gonna get the hell beat out of it. I spoke w/ a couple of guys at the ramp while waiting to launch. One had heard they're expecting over 200 boats. For that kind of money I'm shocked it wasn't more. Supposed to be a nice weekend so the rec boaters will be out there too. It will be a mess. Ol' Airborne is gonna read about it in the morning news. No way I'm gonna get caught up in that mess.

Hope all are enjoying a safe, relaxing Labor Day holiday.

peace,
B

[Lipripper]

Thanks for the report and glad you caught some fish and made it back to the dock in one piece 

[flowerjohn]

Great report airborne.  Good you got some fish. What in the heck is wrong with people


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[Princeton_Man]

You're a brave, brave man brother! Great to hear the surface temp is dropping. I've been wanting to get out really bad and almost headed for SoHo Sunday but, I've been getting my prep done at home for Fall and finishing up a few of the tasks I started earlier in the year. I knew it would be a mess out there after 12:00, so I scrubbed the idea.