6/8 Flats & mouth of the Susky trip turns into a wild one...

[whenican]

I launched this morn out of Tydings @8am. It was oh-so beautiful & calm.
I had to cut short the jibber-jabber @ the launch w/ the dogwalkers & retirees cuz I had to unload & get out on the water
before I was clogging up the boatramp. It was lowtide(again), but I caught a bunch of short
stripers on my 1st crossing of the channel.
I saw a few big carp jumping & splashing. The osprey followed me for awhile too.
I steered towards the susky & crossed under all the bridges. Between the rt 40 bridge & the rr bridge it seemed kind of shallow off to one side & the carp were as thick as molasses.... jumping & splashing & soawning everywhere- lots & lots of them. I saw a group of si kayakers on the HdG side & a couple spookmaster boats & 1 boat working on the bridge. I casted close to shore but no bites. I headed up to the I-95 bridge..... I'm enjoying my ff-less pedal adventure when just past the barges & ever so close to I-95 the clear to partly cloudy sky began to change on the horizon. In no time I passed the spookmasters & the yakers when the lady on the boat working the bridge came up to me & said a stormfront is moving in fast w/60mph winds forecasted. I thanked her & told her I had a feeling something was 'in the air' so I was heading back. I erred on the side of safety & moved to the town's launch next to the rr bridge. I saw some other si yakers & warned them of the storm. They ignored me. I rounded the corner & they were out of sight. Just off the launch I warned 2seakayakers who were practicing strokes. They sort of ignored my warning too until the winds nearly blew the nearby trees down & nearly flipped them. I hung on the backside of the big cement rr bridge supports until the wind blew too hard & I paddled to an out-of-the-way stone wall out of the full gusto of the storm. I looked back into the river & flats area & it was whitecaps & huge waves & torrential rain. I was mostly out of harms way but I still got wet. It was a cold rain too. A few mins later it was over & I ventured back out trolling. The big swells were pushing me where I wanted to go. No more fish bit on the return trip. Lots of debris in the water too! I looked around for other signs of life & I saw some paddlers returning also so that was good. The lady in the boat who gave me the heads up warning had to endure the full force of the storm. Back at the launch I was all dry & the sun was out. After loading I headed up to Cabelas & the same thing happened again w/ torrential rain. I pulled over to the DE Welcome Ctr so my kayak wouldnt flip my car over due to the winds....& here I am typing this for you as the sun reappears. Tight lines everyone!

[M1A4ME]

Wild how those seem to almost come out of no where, and how fast, too.

Several years ago, fishing at night on Summersville Lake with my brother, we started seeing some lightning in the sky off to the west. As it got closer I told my brother I didn't want to risk being caught on the water in a thunderstorm and we reeled in and headed for the landing.

He backed my K5 Blazer and trailer down the ramp and I put the boat on the trailer and winched it up before he pulled us up the ramp to the parking lot.

We started tossing stuff in the back of the Blazer and making sure we didn't have anything left out that might blow away. I was on the driver's side so I was looking across that big cove when the lightning flashed overhead. You know how you get that feeling, when you are seeing something your mind just doesn't make sense out of, you know something is wrong, but you don't know what, yet. Well, I had that feeling. The lightning flashed again and I realized I couldn't see the trees on the other side of the cove. My mind was still struggling with "why", when it hit me. Rain. Rain coming down so hard that trees 60 yds. away weren't visible.

I yelled to my brother to get inside and I took a couple/three steps and jumped into the Blazer. I was wondering why he hadn't go it when the rain hit. The wind was rocking that big Blazer back and forth and he still wasn't in and now I couldn't even see the boats in the Marina in front of me. Then I heard something, heard it again, looked at the passenger side door and realized I hadn't unlocked it. I hit the unlock button on my door and he jerked the door open and climbed in. It was too late. He was soaked. We waited till it quit raining, got back out of the Blazer and finished strapping the boat and rods down and headed home. It had cooled off enough that he didn't want to stay out there with those soaking wet clothes on.

The next time I saw a "white out" on that lake it was March snow squalls. Fished through 4 of them one day. Each one lasting a little longer and with less time between them before I decided to give it up and head home. Funny to look at the tackle box and see that heavy wet snow stuck to just one side of it and the top. To look at my snow suit and see the snow stuck to the left side of my legs and left arm, but not have snow on the rest of that green suit. Funny watching the trees/mountains at the back of the cove disappear and then as the squall worked it's way closer each point that ran off the hills and down into the water would disappear, till I could finally see snow flakes coming my way.

[EMSer]

Glad you found some after all that hard work!. I was thinking about you as the winds were howling this morning....

[Oldbayrunner]

I Launched out of Lapidum and was up by the Mill when I saw the clouds coming so I decided to use caution and head back to the launch. When I saw the weather brewing I flipped my VHF radio to weather and it didn't predict the storm in Harford until it was almost on me but my phone had sent a weather alert prior. I got to the launch, got my yak on the cart and pulled it up the ramp right as the rain was starting to hit. Fortunately I got over by my car, tethered my kayak to the leeward side of my car, which was a good thing otherwise the wind might have blown it away, and jumped in right as all hell broke loose. I rode it out then loaded my yak, Lapidum rd was a mess with a lot of tree branches all over the road but thankfully no downed trees in that area of the park. Glad you made it ok too.