Fog at Starve Island May 16th Fog at Starve Island May 16th Fog at Starve Island May 16th Fog at Starve Island May 16th
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Monclova, OH
    Posts
    331

    Default Fog at Starve Island May 16th

    There was heavy fog hanging over West Harbor from 7:30 until when my 15 yr old son and I left at 9:00, so I drug my feet. It was tough to see the channel and the day marks heading to the lake, but I watched my compass, chart plotter and used my eyes. Boats were coming in at 9:30 and they were left of center in the channel due to the thick fog. As we left West Harbor and headed north toward Mouse Island it was difficult to see and all we heard were an occassional boat horns.

    Once we got to Mouse the fog lifted and we saw boats north and west of Green, and some boats between S Bass and Kellys. We headed toward Starve Island to work that area where we would be protected from the wind. We set up in about 28 ft of water a quarter mile SE of Starve trolling west. The fog rolled in again. We were running a west course along S Bass pulling four rods with a Bandits in Gold Black back, Chrome Blue with orange belly, Khaki with orange belly, and a Purple Nerple Reef Runner 800 with no weight set at 45, 50,, 55, and 60 running at 1.6 - 1.9. We only fished 45 min and the second mistake I made began to turn up. I had set my Amish bags too far back and I caught a bag in the prop. By the time we got that bag free, we had drifted into the line of the Miller Ferry running to S Bass from Mouse Isle. Not good. The first mistake I made was coming out in that fog. The sound Ferry and his horn blowing when you cannot see him is chilling. We got the boat going and pulled our lines at this fog at about 11:45 located about 2 Miles south of Green was dense. We decided to head in and maybe try later in the day. My mind began to think of all the airline flights I had been cancelled on going due to fog. I thought of JFK Junior who was killed in a small plane at night because he could not figure our where he was an if he was upside down or right side up. I knew I had to trust my compass and my GPS plotter. I thought of Kobe Bryant and his Chopper that went down in the winter. My issue was, you cannot see anything and it was playing tricks with my mind. I know I was somewhere south of Green, but I could not pinpoint where I was.

    I set a SE course to Mouse, but somehow my mind kept saying go South. I knew that was not right, so I continued SE until Mouse Isle popped up on the plotter. We were only traveling about 6.8- 7.3 MPH. THen all of a sudden at about 50 yards out, there was Mouse Isle very close. WE navigated around the east side of Mouse and I felt a lot better. THat is where we really started to hear boat horns going off. Its frightening as you cant tell where the sound is coming from. I inched closer to shore running south from Mouse watching for the West Harbor channel. All of a sudden my son yells, "we were in nets." We were going slow, so we stopped and fortunately only the boat was on the nets, not the prop. WE raised the motor and my son said lets back off these nets which we did. We could not see the east end of the net markers, so we followed the net west toward shore until we found the single flag. THey set those nets 25-30 yards from shore, but there was about 7 feet of water close to shore and we made it around the nets and we headed south again.

    All of a sudden there was a northbound boat came over to us and asked us if we were near Lakeside. I said no, we are approaching Gem Beach. I said he needs to go south. He did a u turn and flew off. "I screamed at him There are more nets
    right in front of you." I said I will take you back to West Harbor. By this time we came across a third set of nets running south from Mouse with a man and his wife heading north in the nets, looking for West Harbor. Somehow he got out of the nets too and I said "follow up south. "

    So even though I made several mistakes of going out in the fog, setting bags too far back on the boat, and getting too close to the Miller Ferry line, managed to help two other boaters get back to the harbor safely.

    Oh by the way, we got three 20" walleye by Starve on Bandits on every color except the Reef Runner.

  2. #2

    Default

    Omg my day wasn’t said bad after reading that. That’s like a Chevy Chase Walleye Fishing Vacation movie. We were at Kelly’s and left from PIB at 0730hrs... it was crazy tops 100 yard visibility as the morning progressed. Thank god for chart plotter....and WTG helping..

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Reside in Columbus, OH. Have place in Perrysburg, OH.
    Posts
    419

    Default

    Yep. :-)

    Coming from Columbus about 15-20 miles from Lake air temp was 70 nearly clear skies. You could see a real low layer of clouds ahead, not solid. About 8 miles from route 2 air temp dropped to 63. "Steam" rising from wet farm fields. Route 2 near Sandusky Bay air temp dropped to 57. Low clouds here and there. Like that up until about 4pm around the Lake.

    I love the Lake. :-)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Reside in Columbus, OH. Have place in Perrysburg, OH.
    Posts
    419

  5. #5

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lucky Duck View Post
    There was heavy fog hanging over West Harbor from 7:30 until when my 15 yr old son and I left at 9:00, so I drug my feet. It was tough to see the channel and the day marks heading to the lake, but I watched my compass, chart plotter and used my eyes. Boats were coming in at 9:30 and they were left of center in the channel due to the thick fog. As we left West Harbor and headed north toward Mouse Island it was difficult to see and all we heard were an occassional boat horns.

    Once we got to Mouse the fog lifted and we saw boats north and west of Green, and some boats between S Bass and Kellys. We headed toward Starve Island to work that area where we would be protected from the wind. We set up in about 28 ft of water a quarter mile SE of Starve trolling west. The fog rolled in again. We were running a west course along S Bass pulling four rods with a Bandits in Gold Black back, Chrome Blue with orange belly, Khaki with orange belly, and a Purple Nerple Reef Runner 800 with no weight set at 45, 50,, 55, and 60 running at 1.6 - 1.9. We only fished 45 min and the second mistake I made began to turn up. I had set my Amish bags too far back and I caught a bag in the prop. By the time we got that bag free, we had drifted into the line of the Miller Ferry running to S Bass from Mouse Isle. Not good. The first mistake I made was coming out in that fog. The sound Ferry and his horn blowing when you cannot see him is chilling. We got the boat going and pulled our lines at this fog at about 11:45 located about 2 Miles south of Green was dense. We decided to head in and maybe try later in the day. My mind began to think of all the airline flights I had been cancelled on going due to fog. I thought of JFK Junior who was killed in a small plane at night because he could not figure our where he was an if he was upside down or right side up. I knew I had to trust my compass and my GPS plotter. I thought of Kobe Bryant and his Chopper that went down in the winter. My issue was, you cannot see anything and it was playing tricks with my mind. I know I was somewhere south of Green, but I could not pinpoint where I was.

    I set a SE course to Mouse, but somehow my mind kept saying go South. I knew that was not right, so I continued SE until Mouse Isle popped up on the plotter. We were only traveling about 6.8- 7.3 MPH. THen all of a sudden at about 50 yards out, there was Mouse Isle very close. WE navigated around the east side of Mouse and I felt a lot better. THat is where we really started to hear boat horns going off. Its frightening as you cant tell where the sound is coming from. I inched closer to shore running south from Mouse watching for the West Harbor channel. All of a sudden my son yells, "we were in nets." We were going slow, so we stopped and fortunately only the boat was on the nets, not the prop. WE raised the motor and my son said lets back off these nets which we did. We could not see the east end of the net markers, so we followed the net west toward shore until we found the single flag. THey set those nets 25-30 yards from shore, but there was about 7 feet of water close to shore and we made it around the nets and we headed south again.

    All of a sudden there was a northbound boat came over to us and asked us if we were near Lakeside. I said no, we are approaching Gem Beach. I said he needs to go south. He did a u turn and flew off. "I screamed at him There are more nets
    right in front of you." I said I will take you back to West Harbor. By this time we came across a third set of nets running south from Mouse with a man and his wife heading north in the nets, looking for West Harbor. Somehow he got out of the nets too and I said "follow up south. "

    So even though I made several mistakes of going out in the fog, setting bags too far back on the boat, and getting too close to the Miller Ferry line, managed to help two other boaters get back to the harbor safely.

    Oh by the way, we got three 20" walleye by Starve on Bandits on every color except the Reef Runner.

    Lucky Duck, thanks for the story of your trip! And it sounds like you made the right moves to get out of the nets and help other boaters who were lost. With todays' mapping software there is no reason to be lost.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Darby Creek
    Posts
    912

    Default

    That is one crazy and scary story. I agree with today’s mapping capability no one should get lost on the lake. We were out Saturday NW of Green in the fog and lost one of my inline planer boards. I zoomed in on the GPS and followed our line back and found it no problem. Thank goodness for good electronics.

  7. #7

    Default

    Didn't have the adventure Lucky Duck had but did fish in the fog off Starve island Saturday morning. It was a bit sporty. Got a late start on the water at 730. Lots of marks but couldn't get the fish to go.
    Made a jump to SW of Green found some marks ran to the SW 1.6 to 1.9 mph Reflection and Clown Bandits 40 to 50 back on inline boards. Picked up my limit in about an hour and a half.


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