It was a banner day at Clymer yesterday for me and my guest Brian Long.  We literally got worn out catching fish.  I’m not sure if this lake has been fished since last year sometime, but it didn’t act like it.  You could throw anything at them and they would bite it.  I thought about trying a bottle cap with a hook on it.  These guys were really hungry.  The water is crystal clear and laden with the dead vegetation from last year.  Dead lily pads littler the floor of the lake and stems that are still present can be a bit rough on a trolling motor until you get out in deeper water.  We moved out into the deeper water after lunch to focus on catching bigger fish but it didn’t help.  Our few fish that were over three pounds came from the channel that leads up to the boat launch right behind the row of dead reeds.  This was the best day my friend had ever had and sure ranks highly for me.

Lures:  It doesn’t really matter what you throw but the goal is to keep the moss off.  The coontail isn’t too bad yet and the lily pads haven’t started yet either but there are large plumes of that slimy green moss that gets on everything.  My advice to anyone going is to focus on spinner baits, lipless cranks and weightless / weedless presentations like a Senko or fluke.  Deep suspending jerk baits were the ticket out in the 13 ft areas.
Launching:  In my opinion, you do not need four wheel drive if the ground isn’t wet.  I have an eleven and a half foot buster boat and anything similar just isn’t that heavy fully loaded.  Your trailer backs off into the quicksand and disappears but it actually works out nicely as you can walk down the trailer tongue and get right in.  There are very deep tracks on the road and a high clearance vehicle helps or you could bottom out.

One problem:  Once you get into your boat, you are completely surrounded by tall, dead reeds of some sort.  There is no way out except OVER them.  This part is difficult and it took two of us with long oars to pry the boat over standing in the back of the boat.  This is why two people are recommended as you could get yourself in trouble here with the bottom as soft as it is.

Ducks:  There were ducks of every shape, size, color, etc.  You duck hunters would love this place.