lake got nasty

[Matt_Magnone]

hit the lake today to find awesome fishing but that ended when the monsoon hit! definitely a first for DVL. saw it raind and blow a few years ago, but i really dont think it was as bad.

saw the storm coming and didnt think much about it. saw clouds, heard thunder... blah blah blah. my thinking was, if the lake staff heard the thunder and saw the lightning ; im gonna get kicked off the water. so i played the run and gun game to make use of what little time i had. i was in the back of a cove on the south shore and ran across the lake to the north shore. got there and the bite just wasnt there. no wind, no life.... dead. well 5 casts to a target with no love and i hopped in the seat and went to make it back to the spot i had just left. i looked at the clouds and there was a wall at the base of idylwild. literally a straight line almost of gray...rain. im thinking i really gotta get a move on it and get more fish in the boat. i ran literally straight across the lake back into rawson and that cloud line i saw was almost above me. drop the motor and get to fishing when i heard what sounded like a dumptruck or something. just loud commotion. it looked as if a dust devil was forming on the road thats at the perimeter of the lake. well something caught my eye and across rawson on the opposite i see the same thing simultaneously. what the hell? so instead of running, i kept fishing and just checked it out. i saw this 'whatever' run the hill side then it was gone. tornado? who knows. it was as wide as rawson and on a defined edge of clear sky and clouds. i fish some more and then make my way around the back and start working my way out to the mouth when the wind came up. came up so fast it almost threw me off the front deck. wow... maybe i should bail so i could make it out before the storm hits... yeah right.

at the mouth of rawson i see a tumbleweed flying through the air from one side to the other. GREAT!

blasted out of rawson and as soon as i got past the island hump i hit a wave that shot my boat up in the air and pitched my boat sideways and had me looking at the water. backed off the throttle and brought it down to 5mph. cruise for a bit probably even with eucalyptus trees then get absolutely pounded my hail and rain. wind started picking up like something i've never seen. i swear the gusts were 60+. long story short..

had rollers almost higher than the boat at one point. couldnt make out land for a good 20 minutes. speared a couple waves with water filling my boat up. couldnt run more than 5 mph from rawson to the ramp. really intense. im in an aluminum 18ft V hull bass boat made for rough water and honestly thought at one point i wasnt gonna make it back to the ramp. too far to get back to shelter hide out and too far from the ramp. i just had to charge it. looked in the boat for my lifejacket only to find that i left it at my shop. VERY stupid. never ever EVER go out without one! my new motto. needless to say all i had was an orange kids one. im not too proud. put that BEAST on and went for it.

yeah boy!


for you guys that dont know me, i charge my boat through just about anything and i was sketched. never been in anything like that. got to about art berry's point and saw lightning striking off to the point to the left of the launch. i was still out in the open and nowhere near shore so i had to suck my nuts up and punch the throttle so i wouldnt get blasted. needless to say i broke the 5mph in the ramp and 25 on the water. i could care less. my lifes more important that a speed limit. the bigger bass boats without a doubt could have beat that water up. for me in my aluminum, it took a weeeee bit of finesse to get back.

basically the whole point to this is to tell you guys that your lives are more important that whether or not the guy in the other boat thinks you look like a dingbat in a lifejacket. im really guilty of hitting the water without one. never again. this storm came up extremely fast and had such huge force that a fellow fisherman even commented it was pretty sketchy. he had boat problems in it.

FINALLY get back to the ramp to find out that the waves were still crazy. ended up having a cleat completely ripped out of the boat. awesome...

here's a video right when it started right before it got nasty as hell. if i were to try and get up on top of it i would fall into the next traugh and spear the wave getting more of the boat submerged.... as always, the go pro fish eye makes it difficult to grasp whats happening at a distance.

http://youtu.be/_Cl0QIi4CTU

[sumguyx103]

damn thats crazy...

[ben0606]

Glad everyone made it safe. I got hit hard earlier this year pretty bad when I was coming in from the eucalyptus trees. Waves hit me so hard I almost flipped my 17 ft alum bass boat. I had never been in waves that big boy was I scared. Put my life jacket on and only did 5 mph. I could barely move as I was getting slammed for over 30 min. No shame in wearing a life jacket especially when it could save your life. I didn't have as bad as you today but I am very wary with white caps and crazy wind. Again glad you made safe to fish another day.

[Voice-of-Reason]

That looks like an average afternoon on Lake Isabella. I have caught air on 5' rollers and whitecaps at Isabella more times than I care to remember. Yes the first time it scares the crap out of you but it's fairly normal conditions at Isabella.

[HawgStalker]

WOW!!! Mother Nature is no joke! Im glad to hear you and hopefully nobody else got hurt.....

[Pete Marino]

Bro be careful out there ...when you see that stuff coming you need to make tracks and bail out because that stuff gets dangerous....sincerely!!!
Its not something to ignore because in one minute things can become extremely dangerous..

Pete

[HawgZWylde]

Dang dude, HE was definitely watching out for you man. Like Pete said, those sudden squalls can be deadly real frigging quick. The last two times we went out, those cells stayed just to the east of the lake, but we had our eyes on them all the time. We've been caught a couple of times on DVL in a bad situation and it gets real hairy out there. Kwin watched it today from the West Dam observation point. He says he has vids of it hitting DVL. It'd be cool if he posted it. Glad you made it ok bro. Now walk out there right now and put your life vest in the boat...

[Marley]

I watched that cloud from my office in Ontario just getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Then it compounded with tight, snow-white little upwellings all over it with those dark little nasties running around the outside. All I could think about was that somewhere was getting a pounding to remember, although at the time it looked a little far east for DVL. Must have been about that time you saw that wall on the mountain.
I'm glad you made it off the water safely.

[SOUTHPAWSTICK]

Fished a Tournament at Mead with weather like that. 6 foot swells; just like the ocean. Not fun!!

[Hometown]

Just a little advice dont run straight into the waves try to hit them at a little angle and do not get in the trough.glad all is good