K Dock Ramp Conditions

[Sam]

Well, hopefully you slept in a bit this morning... we had a pretty good storm down here until 8:00am or so. Good cloud cover right now, and not oppressively hot, I'd sure like to be out there right about now!

No, we didn't sleep in. Since there hasn't been much on here lately about upper B.S., I'll post a complete report.

I took a chance on the ramp, and we launched at K Dock about 5:45 a.m. The low road is completely underwater and from the launch area you wouldn't even know it existed. There's enough of the parking lot still above water to park maybe 8 rigs. The courtesy dock has been moved to match the water level, and launching out of the parking lot is fine - no problem at all, though having 4WD made me feel a lot better about it. Someone really got to spinning in the rocks when the water level was higher, leaving a couple of 2' deep trenches right in the middle of what remains of the parking lot, so you've gotta work around those.

We headed straight for Mincy Flat and trolled with deep running plugs for less than 5 minutes. I had a good fish on that sure felt like a walleye, and it got off. A real impressive wall cloud was coming up fast from the west, and we figured we'd better run for it. We ran at top speed (a blistering 30 mph) all the way back to K Dock Marina, and fellas, I was getting seriously worried. Somehow we beat the rain, but toward the end of the run the sky had turned that purple/green color, the wind had come up, we were busting through serious waves, and the lightning was continuous. The Marina had ONE empty stall and we ran right into it and tied the boat off. (Lucky Sam.)

The next hour was real exciting and we were sure glad we'd gone back to the Marina instead of trying to find shelter in some private dock. Without shelter, that storm would have sunk us - it was as bad as any storm I've been through, ever. I've never been on a dock that big, moving that much - it's kinda interesting watching gas pumps go up-and-down three feet while you're doing the same thing. I think we're lucky that lightning didn't hit that metal dock and get us anyway, but it worked out OK. Inside the dock we took shelter from the blowing rain behind a big cruiser that was up on a lift, so I finally found a use for one of those things.

By 7:30 it had started to slack off and a lady who works at K Dock Marina and her teenage daughter arrived to open up. There were a couple of guys who live locally there by that time also, and I've got to give a BIG plug to that business. The couple who own the Marina were out of town, but I've never been treated better, anywhere. They've got a real nice tackle shop and restaurant, the slips are full, the docks are in great shape, and it's obvious they're running a great business. They were GLAD we'd been able to find shelter from the storm there - and I'd probably have had to fight the ol' boy who used to run that place if I'd pulled into one of his slips.

The cooking is good, and the prices are reasonable. It was still raining, so we had breakfast - and I had two eggs, two sausage patties, a big plate of hashbrowns, two pieces of toast, and coffee for $4.95. From now on when I go to K Dock, I'm gonna launch the boat and pull into the Marina for breakfast - a good business like that deserves some support.

Back to fishing - we got disappointed. All the reports we heard from the local guys were good, the weather and the cloudy day were perfect, the fish were on the scope, and we couldn't get them to bite. We trolled on and around a bunch of flats all the way down to Mincy Creek and back, we crappie fished my usual summertime banks, we threw swimming minnows to flooded trees and brush, and we didn't do much. We caught a whole bunch of short bass (11"), the smallest walleye I've ever seen (11"), one barely-legal crappie, and all the bank perch we wanted including a few that were big enough to keep. The sun came out and it started to get real hot about 2:30, so we threw the few fish we had in the livewell back and called it a day. Still, we had a real good time - and we even survived, which is a plus.

The only thing I can figure, that bad storm terrorized the fish and they quit biting. I've known that to happen before, and I don't know that I've ever had good fishing after real bad lightning and thunder. So that's all I know, and guys, if you get a chance give the K Dock Marina some business. As we left, they even told us to be careful and be sure and start early to run back in there if another storm came up during the day - and that's sure different from the way things used to be.

[Forsythian]

Good read Sam... thanks for posting!

Sure glad that slip was open. I would never had guessed there'd only be one left.

[Martin]

I talked to Rangerman Wed evening and he had a fairly rough (slow) day in the same part of the lake you hit Thursday Sam. So yesterday he put in at Tucker Hollow and worked towards Lead Hill and he got into some real nice, quality walleyes. I should let him report on how and where but it sounds like the fishing is a little better down around Tucker and Horseshoe Bend / Lead Hill. He also got at least some of those keepers on a Walleye Runner or similar bait.

I'm stuck at work like Forsythian. wahhhh.......

[Sam]

it sounds like the fishing is a little better down around Tucker and Horseshoe Bend / Lead Hill.

I bet it is. I've got a friend here in town who was going walleye fishing yesterday out of Buck Creek. I'll see him today and get a report - and I bet they did a lot better there. Seems to me when it comes to walleyes, the areas around Horseshoe Bend and on down can be a lot better.

Still, one the guys we had breakfast with yesterday is staying on his houseboat there at K Dock Marina. He'd caught a 22" and a 24" walleye, and some shorts, the evening before casting off the back deck of his houseboat. (Sounds like the new Marina owners are a lot more liberal about such things.) Another of the guys at breakfast lives on Hogan cove, and he's been catching walleyes regularly off the flats there.

I think it was the thunder and lightning show that really hurt our fishing yesterday. Walleyes always scope good for me, and we could see lots of good-size fish right on the bottom in 22'-24' on the edges of all those flats - while we ran 20'-22' running plugs right through 'em. Oh well, next time.