Planning mid August trip with family, would like help

[wakina]

Wayne, I think you have enough years on the lake to offer your opinion. Don't bother explaining your position to anyone who is as rude as f...head315. He sounds like he knows everything........except how to communicate in a friendly manner. Maybe that's how they do it on OGF.

My personal experience is that it would be difficult at best to fish from a boat of 18 ft. in steady 3 foot waves, even rollers would make it difficult to move around in the boat or even stand to fish, check baits, set lines or change positions in the boat.

Safety comes first! So watch the weather reports about predicted storms and what time they are expected to move into the general area of the lake. NOAA is almost useless for this purpose!!!! Late afternoon comes to mind as the time of day they most frequently occur predicted or not. Second always keep an eye on the sky, checking frequently for ominous clouds, by always I mean all day long. It can become extremely calm a few minuets to an hour before a storm hits. Your direction of travel from the launch should also be considered, as most storms come from the west to southwest so heading west in the morning will buy you a little more time to get back to safe harbor if a storm approaches, going east will shorten the time that you have to make safe harbor presuming the storms are coming in from the West or southwest. Keeping the previous statements in mind I understand that you have to go were the fish are so use vigilant observation to determine when to start in if a storm should appear on the horizon! For me that means immediately! In the end it is still your call to make so be careful and have fun!!

I would like to thank the posters who have put their own experience's in the following 2 links from this site into writing and put those experience's out there on this site for those with lesser knowledge to learn from. It says a lot about those posters integrity and honesty.

http://community.walleye.com/showthread.php?t=6825

http://community.walleye.com/showthread.php?t=6619

This should serve as a warning to everyone and especially those new to the lake that calm seas can become treacherous seas in the matter of minuets. Take note of the size of the boats that are involved in these situations! How do you think a boat of lesser size or a less experienced crew or both would have come out? Boat size can makeup for some lack of experience in these situations but it is still not pleasant.

Disclaimer!
If I have offended anyone with my post so be it! I could not recommend to anyone that it would be safe let alone fun in an 18 ft. boat in steady 4 ft. seas. That type of situation would require several years of experience just to navigate safely as there are always those rouge and unpredictable waves in those conditions.