Cumberland bad water

[SSKY]

just for entertainment purposes just wondered the worst water conditions that you have faced on cumberland. So I will guess that I would start. 15 foot bass boat put in at waitsboro at shin bone tornado watch no radio or warning until the big black cloud came over. turned the corner at the monticello water pick up on the race to home and my hat blew off foward at 45 mph downwind and then took a four footer in the chest with 50 degree water and then drove a trough of a wave to a little cove to dry my pants.#2 thought I could fish before a snow warning and then get off quick. The flakes came down in buckets and could not see to drive back. when i got back i thought I was smart because the snow was fresh to back the trailer down on the lakeview ramp and jackknifed and stopped before I was bottom food, by the time I got to a covered slip at burnside I had 5 inches of snow on the bottom. If the marina was not there i would have sunk, Any other stories?

[mhall]

My gosh I have so many I don't know where to start. The one that sticks out in my mind the most was an afternoon I took my daughter, she was young then out fishing/swimming and just playing. We were having a grand time when I started noticing the horizon turning black. It was in the direction of where I needed to go to get back so I thought I'll be smart and go towards the dam and avoid it. It worked, for awhile then it just got black everywhere, uh oh, here we go. I drove from the dam to Pleasant Hill ramp at the confluence of Caney and Wolf in as bad a thunderstorm as I've ever seen. Thought about beaching it but there was so much lighting I was afraid to get near any trees. I put my daughter as low in the well under the front windshleld as I could and covered here in towells. Lightning was litterally striking near the water's surface as close as a 100 yards in some cases. It rained so hard that I had to just keep my bilge running and we were standing or sitting in the water in the bottom of the boat. Wind was tremendous and many rollers was splashing over the bow. My daughter was crying and I was trying to console her but it was bad and I was afraid for her safety. I talked to the big guy upstairs several times and just kept going towards the ramp. When I got there I was whipped, I felt like I just went a few rounds with Chuck Liddell. My wife was at the ramp crying and got her baby out of the boat and into another car. Man did I here about that one later, I made a bad call, but I've dodged a many of storm on the lake but not these. The National weather service said that Jamestown recorded 3 1/2 inches of rain fell out of that one in less than an hour. Since then I haven't tryed dodging as many, lol.

[UYKY]

fog -> 4 trips in a circle (before GPS) and i headed to the ramp.

hail storm at DALE with 2ft waves and golf ball sized hail hitting me in the face. all the time massive bolts of lightning were coming down on the lake.

fished in late feb at home in WV and had a freak snow storm while on the lake. was about 2miles back in a no wake fishing area. by the time i had idled out to the main lake, i had 2-3in of snow piled up on the boat.

[mhall]

fog -> 4 trips in a circle (before GPS) and i headed to the ramp.

hail storm at DALE with 2ft waves and golf ball sized hail hitting me in the face. all the time massive bolts of lightning were coming down on the lake.

fished in late feb at home in WV and had a freak snow storm while on the lake. was about 2miles back in a no wake fishing area. by the time i had idled out to the main lake, i had 2-3in of snow piled up on the boat.

Had to laugh, the fog oh Lord the fog. Cumberland has fog they haven't even made movies about. Stayed out by myself too long one night and the fog from Hades rolled in. I spent the night, I had too, LOL. I could barely read my watch, no exaggeration.

[bereabasser]

was on weiss lake in alabama one time and had a tornado come in on the lake...fortunately it was uplake from us but we still got pounded with the wind,hail and rain...we had our pontoon and johnboat beached and after the storn the pontoon was on top of the johnny

[CATCHEMALL]

I was about 12 or 13 and lived in Texas at the time. I was at my aunts house and she lived right on a small lake. Probably 100 or so acres. Me and a friend were in a 12 foot john boat on the other side of the lake from my aunts house and the sky started to turn black. Before we had a chance it was upon us and all we had was two paddles to try and out run it. We were paddling so hard I thought my arms were going to fall off but if we stopped the wind would push us backwards. ( had it been calm we would have been up on plane no doubt.) A bolt of lighting hit so close we could feel it in the air. Kind of a static feeling. When we got back my aunt was as glad to see us as we were her but boy did she ever talk bad to us. I learned that day that mother nature can get you in a hurry and you better not tempt her.

[vmky]

I think I have a toss up between two trips. 1st, striper fishing the head end of Beaver Creek, started to rain very heavy then when it stopped, the fog rolled in. I had put in at the dam! Started getting dark and cold. Used my GPS for the first time...couldn't even see the front of my boat!!! I stayed in the channel barely on plane when WHAMMM!!!! I hit the no wake bouy at Beaver Creek Marina. Thought I was going to have a heart attack!...2nd trip.. Put in at Conley Bottom and ran down to Thomas Branch to striper fish at night in spring. Everything went great till about 3am. when we started back to the ramp. Went about 2 miles and hit the worst log jam I have ever seen. Solid debrid from bank to bank. Shined my spotlight up the lake and couldn't see water anywhere! Put the trolling motor down and got out the push pole. We got back to the ramp as the sun was coming up!!!On a side note......Funniest time on the big C...... Took my 2 brothers striper fishing one spring night. After a few hours my older brother still hadn't caught a striper. Then finally he gets a taker on his blackbacked sliver. He set the hook and the line took off in the sky!!!!!Then a weird sounding scream..WHACK..WHACK...after a 10 minute battle, my brother finally got his sliver back from the harron..I couldn't even help him because I was rolling on the deck laughing so hard......

[LarryG]

years ago, when the ramp at lilliycreek was first opened, and the black top was new, started to back down, and couldn't stop. Jack knifed the trrailer to slow me down, and slid side ways to the waters edge. But did that stop me?Finally got the boat launched, and went fishing. Put the boat back on the trailer, and couldn.t get enough traction to get up the ramp, thank God there were some other guys and all of us helped each other get out of that place. Went back several yrs later, and noticed a parked trrailer, four wheel type, with all the tires gone, have never gone back. Fog, snow, rain, and even two tornados, but its just a part of being a guy who needed to fish on his days off. Retired now, and I pick my days.

[mhall]

years ago, when the ramp at lilliycreek was first opened, and the black top was new, started to back down, and couldn't stop. Jack knifed the trrailer to slow me down, and slid side ways to the waters edge. But did that stop me?Finally got the boat launched, and went fishing. Put the boat back on the trailer, and couldn.t get enough traction to get up the ramp, thank God there were some other guys and all of us helped each other get out of that place. Went back several yrs later, and noticed a parked trrailer, four wheel type, with all the tires gone, have never gone back. Fog, snow, rain, and even two tornados, but its just a part of being a guy who needed to fish on his days off. Retired now, and I pick my days.

Larry, I urge everyone not to use the Lilly Creek Ramp especially at night. I think the thieves actually live down there in the woods just waiting. LOL.

[Cheese]

I like to Striper fish at night in Dec so there are too many fog stories to recall. About 2 am, you gotta be at the ramp or expect to be there until morning.

Back in the 70's (when I was real young) my Dad and I were fishing in the spring for Bass. I can't recall which creek (maybe Caney) but a storm blew in and we just hunkered down in the trees (normal high water). At one point the rain stopped, there was complete silence, and the sky/air was kinda orange. After a few minutes, the heavens opened again and it stormed for another 15 or 30 minutes. When we got back to Jamestown Dock, we learned that a tornado had gone through just over the ridge from us.

Striper fishing in Dec 3 or 4 years ago, bro in law and I put in at Lilly and went up Caney. It was 50 degrees but just kept raining all night. We finally gave-up about 4 am and took the boat out. I could see sheets of water running down the road at Lilly from the parking lot to the actual ramp and that the drainage ditch was full of leaves so no water was going there. I could not get up the hill. I would get about 10 feet and both tires would just spin until the truck stopped. I gave-up and we parked blocking the ramp and took a nap. About 7 am (still raining) a guy woke us up and wanted to put his boat in. I told him I would be happy to move if he would pull my trailer to the top of the hill with his Bronco. He did and we got to go home.

Got the living tar beat out of me on Lake Gaston in a 14 foot Seacrest once too but that was just painfull. Never really scary.

[Mean Morone]

What is up with that fog? My buddy and I got stuck in that stuff back in Greasy. We are very familiar with this creek so our goal was to at least find the shore. We did and worked our way out to the mouth. We figured all we had to do was follow the shore until we got to the point on the right going out. All we had to do was go staight accross from that point and we would run into Jamestown Marina. Yeah right! We tried three times with no success. We would end up back behind the island evey time. The last time my buddy says he is locking it in. He puts his elbow on the side of the boat and doesn't move the wheel. Finally we see lights. It is now 5 a.m. We spent most of the night going in circles.

[DYNATRAK]

I got one. First year I had my boat, took it to Ashland to have a cover made for it. I took a detour to go fish the lake down by Louisa, can't recall the name. Anyway, it's late November, saw one boat on the lake as I was putting in. I get up a couple of arms in the lake and BOOM, the skies open up and it starts raining like I've never seen before. I'm high tailing it back to the ramp, bilge pump going, water up to my ankles in my boat, I'm thinking crap, i'm going to have to beach this thing.

i pull around the point of where the ramp was, well guess what, not there. i must have taken a wrong turn somewhere on a lake that i haven't been on before.

i did a whole lot of praying, finally made it back to the ramp, wind had a pontoons sun screen split in two, it was flapping like the U.S. flag.

i got the boat loaded, drove down the hill to the Arby's and just about had a nervous breakdown when i got in the bathroom. soaked from head to toe (rainsuit was no match for that monsoon).

i was a wreck.