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With the weather opening up for us in West Virginia after the big snow storm a buddy and I decided it was a good time to hit the water. This lake does remain fishable 365 but if you cant get to the ramp due to 3 feet of snow well you know how it is. Weather forecast for the day 54 air with 5 mph winds at 10mph gusts. So we made the trip 1/31/2016 to find a beautifully calm lake (normally there are small whitecaps due to steady winds regardless of anything else). So of course once we saw this anomaly we were even more excited to have made the trip. Once we unloaded we began our journey to one of a few warm water outflows from the power plant. This lake is used to provide cooling water for the Dominion Power plant attached, its said the 1200acre lake is fully recycled every 48hours. The water temperature never gets below 50 and in summer can get over 100. We made it to our first spot. We began with 5 angler, 3 adults 2 teens. Not 15 minutes into our trip 2 lines became entangled near the warm water outflow. Mind you this outflow is not a trickle it comes out with some force, you can cross it in a stable yak but its still wise to go around if your not familiar. While the one teens father tells him to just undo his bail, he ignores him and paddles steady and perpendicularly into his fathers yak 20yds or so from outflow. Upon impacting his dads yak his father overreacts to it and end ups in the drink. At this point I had made the journey through the outflow water to fish the other side away from people and didn't know what was going on I heard the commotion but had just reached the other side and was rigging to make a cast. I turned around at the noise, not really knowing what I was seeing for a second I mean the guy was on a Jackson Big Rig surely he couldn't be in the water. Prior to us departing the ramp he laughed and said he wasn't even sure the life jacket would hold him up because of the layers he had on. The first thing that replays in my mind. As I realize what I'm seeing I throw my rods into pole holders and immediately get turned around. I can see he has a good hold onto his kayak and my buddy has the other side. He's not struggling to stay afloat but he is having trouble kicking his legs and is steadily going towards the current. I kick it into high gear and manage to get across the outflow water rather easily and was able to cut them off with just enough time. The tail end of my yak was slowly getting sucked into the outflow water but I was able to have my other buddy grab the front of my yak enough for me to grab the outflow concrete wall and allow the wet one to get fully to safety. It was definitely a team effort and I am not sure it would have ended badly but I definitely ended the best possible way for what happened. I cannot imagine what could have happened had he actually gotten to the current. One good thing was nobody panicked including the guy in the water. That was the worst and only bad part of the days trip. After that he actually stayed and fished well over an hour in his damp clothes. The sun was beaming down and we reached 60degrees air with mild wind. However his boys went back and stayed on the boat ramp not long after the incident. After those three departed my buddy and I ventured up to one of the more calm outflows that ripples into the lake and we casted and caught there from 12-dark. We had very high numbers but low quality. This lake has no limit on what you keep of channel catfish because it is so over populated. That said most ranged from 5-9 inches with few 12, I did managed one over 17". and 2 schoolies. My buddy caught 3 LMB, 1 striper, 3-5 bluegill and numerous channels... All in all it was a great way to open up 2016 for us. Enjoy the pictures and be safe. ALWAYS wear the PFD you never know when it will save your life.Mt Storm17.jpgMt Storm05.jpgMt Storm01.jpgMt Storm02.jpgMt Storm07.jpgMt Storm08.jpgMt Storm09.jpgMt Storm03.jpg
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2016 Hobie Mirage Outback Olive
LOWRANCE Hook7 -
2016 Hobie Mirage Outback Olive
LOWRANCE Hook7 -
Great write up. Glad the guy was ok after going over and into the water. Those are some scrawny catfish.Comment
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Yea very lol they have so much competition for food its ridiculous. My buddy dives there and says its nothing to see a few hundred on a dive. Not many over 8-10"... but when the rest of the world we fish is frozen over I'll gladly take it haha we did manage a few decent fish.Originally posted by DanMarino View Post2016 Hobie Mirage Outback Olive
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