Rocky Gap/Lake Habeeb

[toyomo]

Hi all I am going on a camping trip this weekend to Rocky gap state park on short notice and decided I would bring my kayak along. I have been trying to find out as best I could what would be biting there and trying to figure out a game plan for fishing there. I hear that trout are there should I expect to still find some this late in the year? Possibly in deep waters? Any pointers would be truly appreciated as ive yet to catch a fish on a camping trip always more of an afterthought but this time I am pretty determined. Thanks in advance.

[gkreps]

Toyomo, archeryrob and I have fished there and the water can be very clear, there are LMB and panfish thru out the lake. The problem is the grass coverage is very thick, use floating lures and jigs or soft plastic back in the coves. You have to be very stealthy cause of the clear water.

[Wavy Davy]

There are some enormous rainbow and golden trout there. They stay deep and are not easy to catch. At one time, Habeeb held the state record for LMB, caught on a nightcrawler/marshmallow combo.

[archeryrob]

Think weedless! I started catching some as I was not prepared for that amount of weeds on a small jerk back over the weeds. Texas rigged worms and such would be a deal, or weedless jigs with a creature bait.

[toyomo]

Hi all. Just returned and fishing wasn't really worthy of a new post but it wasn't due to lack of fish as much as it was the fact that I didn't spend very much time fishing due to the group I went with and scheduling etc. All tips I received were spot on. Thanks to all who gave advice. Special thanks to Memorymaker who gave me a bunch of in depth tips and tricks about locations etc. Unfortunately I ran out of time and only caught 2 smallmouth at night so didn't get pics. I would like to note some things I learned just in case someone searches the forum like I did for advice about fishing Habeeb Lake.

-Water is amazingly clear like gkreps said. Im talking some of the clearest water ive experienced. Probably 10 feet or more of visibility. Easy to spook fish just like he pointed out. Also makes this lake really beautiful.

-Water depth up to 75 feet and average depth of 30 feet per a sign on one of the trails. In Hot weather it would make sense trout and other fish are gonna be deep.

-Extensive grass beds as archeryrob pointed out and im not sure if this is a good or bad thing. The fish I caught were in these grassbeds casting from shore. Weedless would be best here and also could interfere with mirage drive but water quickly deepens and in the deeper areas I guess light doesn't reach so this isn't an issue if you're searching for trout from the yak.

-Memory maker recommended shiners and catching them with a seine if possible. Approaching the water you could see huge schools of shiners in the shallow areas so clearly natural forage here.

-Huge crowds of people. I would suggest maybe a weekday if possible. Campgrounds essentially full, beaches packed. There is a casino and resort/golfcourse here as well as boat rentals. I practically got rammed in my kayak by some people in a canoe as well as no respect from anyone when I tried to troll, people would basically just hit my lines even though the lake is big still seemed like people everywhere. Even at night when I quietly went to the lake around midnight to fish around docks there were various groups of people in that area. First kids shot off fireworks and ran away 50 ft from where I was fishing, then drunk kids being loud and disturbing the quiet atmosphere.

-Snakes. This is why I fished the docks rather than walking trails looking for a better spot late at night. Warned by a ranger of both copperheads and rattlesnakes and in the afternoon did in fact walk up to a copperhead snake. Luckily it just stopped in its tracks about 6-7 feet away and let us pass without incident.These are venomous snakes so be careful.

-Bait. I searched for a tackleshop where I could buy some bait and had very poor luck. Drove a good distance only to find google listed a place that a local told me burned down. Then went to walmart only to find nothing but earthworms and artificial. Campstore also had earthworms so that was a waste of gas. I did locate a store called "The bassin' box" about 6-7 miles away which carries minnows and other bait. Friendly people and when I asked if they had bloodworms they looked at me like I was crazy lol. Said there is no bloodworms in that area and literally wasn't sure what a bloodworm looked like. Also recommended to use minnows in deeper areas like others told me.

Overall impression this is a very nice lake. I marked a ton of fish in the deeper areas on my fishfinder but I literally ran out of time and had to leave before I really had a chance to put all the things I learned together. I would like to return here again probably with a different group of people who are more fishing oriented. If anyone from this forum ever wants to set up a trip here I would love to do something like that.
Again thanks to all who responded it is much appreciated.

[gkreps]

Hi all. Just returned and fishing wasn't really worthy of a new post but it wasn't due to lack of fish as much as it was the fact that I didn't spend very much time fishing due to the group I went with and scheduling etc. All tips I received were spot on. Thanks to all who gave advice. Special thanks to Memorymaker who gave me a bunch of in depth tips and tricks about locations etc. Unfortunately I ran out of time and only caught 2 smallmouth at night so didn't get pics. I would like to note some things I learned just in case someone searches the forum like I did for advice about fishing Habeeb Lake.

-Water is amazingly clear like gkreps said. Im talking some of the clearest water ive experienced. Probably 10 feet or more of visibility. Easy to spook fish just like he pointed out. Also makes this lake really beautiful.

-Water depth up to 75 feet and average depth of 30 feet per a sign on one of the trails. In Hot weather it would make sense trout and other fish are gonna be deep.

-Extensive grass beds as archeryrob pointed out and im not sure if this is a good or bad thing. The fish I caught were in these grassbeds casting from shore. Weedless would be best here and also could interfere with mirage drive but water quickly deepens and in the deeper areas I guess light doesn't reach so this isn't an issue if you're searching for trout from the yak.

-Memory maker recommended shiners and catching them with a seine if possible. Approaching the water you could see huge schools of shiners in the shallow areas so clearly natural forage here.

-Huge crowds of people. I would suggest maybe a weekday if possible. Campgrounds essentially full, beaches packed. There is a casino and resort/golfcourse here as well as boat rentals. I practically got rammed in my kayak by some people in a canoe as well as no respect from anyone when I tried to troll, people would basically just hit my lines even though the lake is big still seemed like people everywhere. Even at night when I quietly went to the lake around midnight to fish around docks there were various groups of people in that area. First kids shot off fireworks and ran away 50 ft from where I was fishing, then drunk kids being loud and disturbing the quiet atmosphere.

-Snakes. This is why I fished the docks rather than walking trails looking for a better spot late at night. Warned by a ranger of both copperheads and rattlesnakes and in the afternoon did in fact walk up to a copperhead snake. Luckily it just stopped in its tracks about 6-7 feet away and let us pass without incident.These are venomous snakes so be careful.

-Bait. I searched for a tackleshop where I could buy some bait and had very poor luck. Drove a good distance only to find google listed a place that a local told me burned down. Then went to walmart only to find nothing but earthworms and artificial. Campstore also had earthworms so that was a waste of gas. I did locate a store called "The bassin' box" about 6-7 miles away which carries minnows and other bait. Friendly people and when I asked if they had bloodworms they looked at me like I was crazy lol. Said there is no bloodworms in that area and literally wasn't sure what a bloodworm looked like. Also recommended to use minnows in deeper areas like others told me.

Overall impression this is a very nice lake. I marked a ton of fish in the deeper areas on my fishfinder but I literally ran out of time and had to leave before I really had a chance to put all the things I learned together. I would like to return here again probably with a different group of people who are more fishing oriented. If anyone from this forum ever wants to set up a trip here I would love to do something like that.
Again thanks to all who responded it is much appreciated.

Toyomo, if I had known you wanted to fish with live bait I could have saved you a lot of wasted time and sent you right to The Bassin Box. they are an account of mine. Jim and Robin are good people, I still think Robin is the grand mother to Elvira next time you want to go up there let me know and if I'm around I will go with you, or you could just come up and we can hit the Potomac for some small mouth fishing.

[Mike]

Toyomo, thanks for this follow up. I'm heading up there later this year, my wife's doing the Rocky Gap triathlon in September. I was just going to scout the area out on that trip but now I think I'll bring the yak and rods thanks to your report.
-Mike