Dow Lake, Strouds Run State Park 8 OCT 2016

[CybrSlydr]

Today was the big day - the first time my brother and I ever got on the water to go fishing.  They offered canoes, boats and other watercraft for rental and the best part - anything that you could paddle or pedal was only $10/hr!  Vastly cheaper than most places we've been.  So, we jumped at the chance.  We rented an aluminum canoe.

At this point, I figured the fish would practically be jumping into our canoe since we could actually GO where the d**n things were since we wouldn't be tied down to the shore.

That's not exactly how it went though...

Being 100% honest, two people in a canoe terrified me.  Every single little motion of either of us sent the thing rocking.  I felt there was no way in the world we could both fish from the thing and not get dumped.  So after about 10 minutes of this, I told him to take us back to the slipway and one of us would get out and the other would continue on.  My brother got to continue in the canoe.

That's why we don't have any pictures of both of us on the water - I didn't feel nearly stable enough to even try to get into my backpack and get the camera out, let alone try and fish.  I think next time it would work much better if we each got our own kayak.

So I went and fished around a point near the north side of the beach and sort-of followed my brother and his floating with the current. 

Eventually I ended up on a dock on the south side of the beach while he continued to float south.  He got quite a bit away from me - far enough I couldn't get a decent picture with my camera!  He says he wasn't that far off but we could barely yell at each other and hear.

We both fished rattle traps, senkos, swimbaits, cranks...  Not a single bite again - for me or him.  I even bought a net thinking for SURE, THIS TIME we'd finally catch something.  Nope. 

That said, I can't fault the lake - it's gorgeous!  And we picked two gorgeous days to visit (we also went yesterday as we thought the boat house would be open on a Friday, but it wasn't - so we came back today since the sign said it'd be open on weekends in the fall).  The next 3 pictures are from Friday, the ones above are from today.

We are certain to return in the near future, when we have a little more money to spend on separate kayaks or, once I get a boating license, something with an engine (Pontoon Boats are $40/hr). 

Fingers crossed that... someday, sometime...  We catch a dang fish!!!

[Dwight Hottle]

You both had fun do that's all that matters. Keep fishing and the fish will come. 

[WIGuide]

Pretty lake! Keep at it, and you'll get some fish. I'd be looking to save up some money and get my own craft. Those rental prices might be cheap comparatively, but I could see myself wracking up a pretty big bill in a hurry.

[YoTone]

everyone who bank fishes always says, "man if i had a boat id rock this lake"

but when time comes its never as easy as you thought. 

keep at it though eventually you'll figure things out.

[blckshirt98]

Good to see you still going out, tough luck on the bite though!  Canoes are the dodgiest water vessels I've ever been in, they should all have optional outriggers that you can attach!

[CybrSlydr]

13 hours ago, blckshirt98 said:

Good to see you still going out, tough luck on the bite though!  Canoes are the dodgiest water vessels I've ever been in, they should all have optional outriggers that you can attach!

We've been going out about once/week, typically Fridays as I don't have class then.  We've just gone to the same places we've already been, the AEP lakes, and haven't caught anything so I didn't really see any reason to post something about us going to the same place catching nothing.

When we go somewhere new, I'll certainly post a report then.

For now, I believe I'm going to save up to get one of these guys -

Cheaper than a boat, easier to store/transport than a boat, etc.  Though, of course, this means I'll have to get a trolling motor, a battery, a fish finder...  lol  It's never simple with fishing, is it?

[blckshirt98]

Hmmmm, that pontoon has a platform already built for a battery and a trolling motor mount...good price too.  Been looking at kayaks but those are a pain to transport, but this will fit into the back of the Forrester.