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Nice Job! How was launching the boat with the water levels this low and what launch did you use. The last time I looked at the Yough on Google Earth it showed the lake at draw down. You could see some of the rocks and boulders that are out from the shore lines. Thanks for the update.
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I use to have a white boat. Well I got a nice scum coating on top of coal dust. I live by a coal mine and was following the street cleaner I swear all that does is make the road wet thus flinging coal dust now of course wet onto your vehicle and anything your towing.
Ok so more about the lake and fishing. My buddy and I arrived at the lake a little past 9am and we fished to 3pm. I would have fished longer by my wife sent me a text that she was sick.
We put in at the dam. As you can see from our photos the lake is getting low, I think it is down maybe 40 or 50 feet. There was about a half dozen trailers in the lot. The ramp is still go but is now long and steep. I would leave your boat secured until you reach the water. No of course they pulled the courtesy docks. So you have one choice if your by yourself, you have to beach your boat on the ramp. However if you have a buddy you can get close enough to the shore for them to step on to the bow. I did this to the right of the ramp. The bank was even with my bow and plenty deep enough. The guy prior to me used the curb on the ramp but I think my choice was far better.
The lake! I got spoiled from last year as the lake was near full pool into November. Well it's a new lake today. Shoal are extended such as the first point on the right coming from the dam. There is actualy a new island off this point. No you don't want to even think about going between it and the point. Give it a wide berth to the left.
There are a few others new shoals on the way to the Rt 40 bridge. My advice no need to run wide open until your sure of the new low spots. Now your not going to get that far into Maryland and well you can't go any further. I want to get down to the bridge that is on the Maryland side, you can only see this at low water. I didn't get there. A Procraft was doing it's best at mudding. Good thing he didn't get stuck. So that ended that choice.
How about the fish? You know I would get to that part. They are big and as luck would have it we even landed a decent large mouth. A new lake but the same fishing just new spots. The best i can tell you is to still think shallow water. We did very well with solid rocky bottoms and the first bass came out of 2 foot of water. In fact the large mouth that my buddy is holding was caught in less than 10 feet of water, close the the bank with a rocky bottom.
We were catching them on a home made soft bait that is brown looks like a frog but has a skirt near the head. You use a lead head with this bait. Maybe if i get around to it i will post a photo.
Today was our prefish for the tournament next weekend. This weekend I am hoping I can buy some time to give it one more prefish. Another person told me the lake will be down another 2 foot by this Saturday.
To be honest the fishing is fantastic. I can't give too many spots away because they will be out of the water in a few days. So look for a hard rocky bottom first in 10 foot or less range. Look for slides or larger rock piles going into the water. It is worth it to try some of the new shallow flats. Heck we even caught some of them on mud flats. Trust me you will find large flats in the 2 to 4 foot depth you never knew was there. Watch out for the few stumpst hat are now just below the surface. Btw there are also some large rocks just below the surface too. Maybe make sure you have a second prop if you must run the lenght of the lake wide open before taking time to learn the new shoals.
What happened with my trusted Senko Today? Thats a question I would like to know the answer too. I guess it has to have one off day.
As my year report on the Yough is winding down I hope you found it interesting but more important I hope it helped one or two of you to find some fish.
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I doubt you will get in the water by Saturday
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Don't know but I will find out this Saturday. The tournament is on Sunday. However I can get a boat on just about anytime. In fact a friend of mine was fishing out of his boat under the original Rt 40 bridge a few years ago. There is actualy a road that you can take to the lake and drive onto the bank and launch a boat. Then you park on the bank. Pretty easy to do. Now I'm not saying you might not get a ticket but it is used a lot by locals and a few others that know about it. However when they close the launch at the dam you don't have many other choices.
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I'm not sure at what height the dam is a no go. It was right at the divider last Sunday where it changes to single lane. Not sure how much ramp after that
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You have about three pickup trucks length of the single lane ramp left.
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I just called the office at the lake, and the lake level that they say the launch is unusable is 1391.35 and they are predicting it will be at that point around the 27th of october. As of this morning on there website the level is 1395.08.
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And the count down starts, lol. No big deal I have fished this lake since 1988 and you get use to the ups and downs with the water levels. Though last year spoiled me since at this late date the lake was around normal pool. Not a big deal in life, I just don't like dodging the shallows parts. I pretty much know how the main channel runs and it usually fishes extremly well this time of the year.
It's a flood control dam. I guess we should just be happy it's there.
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