Q:: Spruce Run..LOW? Launch OK?

[Eskimo]

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Judging by the massive number of boats and sailboats on the water this past weekend, I would say there is no problem launching boats into the water.

The low water and crowded conditions seem to be making some people act nutty. This past Sunday evening, I anchored my ten-foot kayak in a quiet cove because there were too many boats trolling around to paddle the open water. While I'm anchored, this boat comes up behind me and this guy starts reprimanding me for not having a bow light. I started to explain the law law to him, but he wasn't listening, so I just let him yell at me for like three minutes and he moved on. When he got about a hundred yards away he hooked a bass and started screaming and carrying on like an overly dramatic porn star during the "money shot" scene. I have no doubt that all that noise was to get my attention. It was very important to him that I acknowledge that he caught a fish. Weirdo.

Earlier that evening a guy in an enormous 19-foot bass boat drove right up to me, and from a few feet away asked me how I was doing. I couldn't believe someone would get that close to me in a boat that big to ask a stupid question. I suspect he just wanted to look inside my kayak to see what baits I was using.

The week before, I had a guy "wing me" with his big boat and ask me if I wanted the hybrid he caught. I declined, and was about to question him as to why he killed a fish he didn't even want, but I decided I didn't want to have that conversation with him. He continued to troll around getting close to me again and again.

With the water levels this low, I was able to spend the afternoon padding into coves and getting out to walk the shoreline and pick up fishing lures. I have fun doing this and can see how lure trends change from year-to-year.
For example, a few years ago I found a lot of umbrella rigs, but this year I haven't found any. From that, I theorize people are using fewer umbrella rigs.

The thing I'm finding this year that I haven't seen before are European-style carp feeder rigs. These are various pieces added to a rig that deposit some chum or bait near the hook bait. Most of them are just small coils of metal, but some are quite intricate. One of them was a contraption that looked like a tiny bird cage about the size of a baseball. It was crafted from stainless steel wire and had a spring-loaded door on the bottom.

The other new thing I'm finding are tiny drones or drone-like toys. These probably have nothing to do with fishing, but rather reflect new types of toys people are playing with at the campground or elsewhere on the shore and losing in the water.

The vast majority of snags are just bare hooks. There was either live bait or plastics on those hooks before they broke off. The object that snagged the most hooks was a long piece of rope attached to an abandoned anchor. There were so many hooks in that rope, I was afraid to touch it.


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