Largest inland water waves seen/experienced !!!

[wall_guy_101]

I work with this guy, seems normal for the most part, who insists that he fished leech lake amidst 8-10 ft. rollers. 1) Is it possible for waves to even achieve such height on an inland lake?(great lakes need not be applied) 2) Should i recommend a good crack smokers recovery program for this troubled young man?

Thanks for your responses!!!

[traveler]

Well, if he was out fishing in 10 foot waves, he's more than ready for professional help:) Myself, I'd say I've seen six footer's, tops, and only from shore, on Mille Lacs and on LOTW. I live on Superior, so I've seen plenty of bigger waves for comparison. Anythings possible I guess...

[fisherking01]

In 1988, Mille lacs on opener. Our flasher was reading from 11-21 feet of water from bottom to top of wave. There were boats washing up on the rocks that could not stay off shore because they were underpowered, or unexperienced. I was definitely scared, life preserver on, We made it to shore and into the harbor at Barnacle Bill's. I was very releived to be off of the water. The waves came up fast, we were on the flats about 4 miles out. It is possible to see inland waters very fierce!

I was not smokin, man!!

[prov1900]

Sometimes I even get caught up in telling "big wave" stories, which are very similar to big fish stories. I have never seen anything that high, but would swear that I have seen six to seven footers in Nebraska. I was there a few years ago and the wind was blowing around 40 to 50 at straight line winds. Waves were crashing over the road that ran along the dam. But no, I never even dreamt about putting the boat in. I have also been to Leech on those kind of days. They were pretty high, but not 8 to 10. I would say that it isn't out of the norm to get some pretty high crests, but probably not in rollers. My point is that if your friend said he actually fished during it, he should just "say no"

[Bobb-o]

the biggest i have fished in was 4 foot rollers and even that was a battle, the same day we called up to Red Lake and they told us not to even bother coming cuz they had 6-8 foot rollers.

[Random guy]

Come fishing with me on Upper Red when she is rolling out of the West at 20-30 during low water. You can stand up in the boat and not even come close to seeing over the top of the waves. I have been fishing during heavy winds in 6'-8' of water and the outboard is striking the sand in between the waves, this is how many boats roll over on Red. Wave pushes the bow up and sucks the stern down then spikes the outboard in the sand. Next thing you know the boat is rolling over backwards, lost a nice Tracker that way.

As for leech I got caught just north of Pelican Island during the fourth of July storm a few years back. I grew up on Red and thought I had seen the biggest and meanest waves made inland until that day. My twenty foot Stratos was full length powering up the wave, bow yet to reach the top motor floored and climbing at the base. I was never so happy to see the back side of Pelican Island in my life. One thing I always remember about the waves that day was the suckers falling out of the front bait well. The waves had such height and incline the suckers would fall out of the bait well on go over the windshield, not bounce of it I mean go right over the top before hitting me in the face. Now that is incline. The boat never swamped, this I found odd because the bow kept sticking the waves before she would come up and take on huge amounts of water. The clients stated that when we would climb waves the water would all dump out the back of the boat, he said he a good view of it from his hiding spot under the counsel. Now think a twenty foot boat at a severe incline and the wave is taller then the boat is long.

So can waves get that big, heck yes they can. When mother nature gets all of the right conditions going she has a way of showing us who is boss.

[swamptiger]

Tallest waves I've ever seen inland was going through the gap in a charter boat up at LOW about 25 years ago - similar to what Jon is describing - when we would get to the bottom of the trough all we could see was water every direction...I've had a lot of respect for the water ever since that day..

[fishorgolf]

What a great subject! I have been on Mille lacs/LOW in min of 8 " rollers. But the biggest I haver ever been in was in northern manatoba. When the Cree guide tied himself to the motor I knew we better hold on. I will go to my grave saying we were surfing 12' swells.

[Jim Hudson]

Probably Mille Lacs for myself, with 5 footers... Nothing we couldnt handle to get back to shore, but no way fishable..

Here on Lake Superior... I have seen em probably to 15feet in my guess.. They get bigger, but the islands do knock em down a bit before they get towards shore. But have been in a 30' commercial vessel in solid 10's or a bit more.. Not fun... If you get a chance to talk to some of the Laker (ore boats) crew members, especially old timers... Then you will hear about waves... Out in the open expanses of Lake Superior... Waves coming well over the bow, blowing out pilot house windows... Scary stuff...

[wall_guy_101]

Quote:

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What a great subject! I have been on Mille lacs/LOW in min of 8 " rollers. But the biggest I haver ever been in was in northern manatoba. When the Cree guide tied himself to the motor I knew we better hold on. I will go to my grave saying we were surfing 12' swells.

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Wow....that must have been crazy.

[river rat316]

Why is that kinda response nescassary?

[Jeremy airjer W]

The largest waves I've been in was on Mille Lacs last summer. They were around 4 foot. I had the wife and my to boys with me. I can hear the boys laughing and having a good time as we rolled through them. I had my eyes ahead concentrating on what was going on. after about ten minutes I looked back and my wife is in the middle of the boat in the fetal postion. We went back to the landing!

[mattkimk]

Yeah thats good, insult people when you don't agree.

[wall_guy_101]

I apologize for the sarcasm, i certainly don't want to come across as being malicious. But i am enjoying the heck out of this post so please keep them coming!!

[Muskycrazy]

55' Seas , North end Kodiak Island in a 100' Bearing Sea Crabber , 1987 & 20' Waves , Lake Michigan - 180' CG Cutter Mesquite , 1983 . 44 Degree Rolls on the Mesquite , thought for sure we were going to roll . Big bodies of fresh water are by far worse than salt water for violent waves . Used to Halibut fish in a 14' Whaler off Kodiak , 10-15' waves but I drank back then , now 5 - 6 footers max .

[ScubaSteve]

WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sandmannd]

So, I'm fairly new to boating. What do you do if the wind picks up and you hit waves like that? What's the best way to handle then?

[Scott M]

Don't know if they ever got to ten feet, but I was on an 20 ft. Boston Whaler cutting across the main lake on Leech and it was pretty nasty! 20-30 mph winds, probably 6-8 foot crests.

I've seen ML pretty bad too. Whichever lake has the maximum fetch gets the largest waves. I don't know where that would be, but if it didn't have trees on shore look out. Leech, Mille Lacs, and Red are all good bets.

I remember an old outboard magazine advertisement with pictures of Mille Lacs, Erie, and a couple other big time walleye destinations showing the huge rollers. You sure do need the equipment to cut through those things. Can you believe that a 14' alumacraft and 6 horse motor used to the preferred medium for reaching the hallowed walleye grounds on those big lakes? My grandpa tells the stories like they were yesterday.

[polarsusd81]

I nearly got swamped on White Bear a few years back in my boat. I went out on October 1st for a lil b-day fishin, by my self. Launched at the public access and went south to Mahtomedi (sp?). Wind was blowing a good 20 mph from the north with stronger gusts. I was in a little 14' lund with a 15 on the back. Got to my spot, first time on WBL in a boat and started hitting pike and walleyes right away. Got 4 fish in the boat and a wave came over the back corner and I figured it was time to go. Heading south was easy, going back north turned out to be a little tougher. The waves were in the 2.5 to 3.5 range and in my little boat were pretty serious when you factored in the wind. I had read that the best bet for handling waves was to hit them at a slight angle. I was making my way when I saw a couple of bigger ones coming, heading for cover behind the peninsula out there. Right as I hit the waves, I caught a big gust of wind and the bow kept going up. I had to crank the motor around to the side and turn the boat around to catch the wind and bring it back down. Luckily I made it through and continued to cover of the peninsula. When I got back to the launch, I met a couple guys in a 2025 Pro-V and they thought it was too rough for them and said the saw me struggling out there. I learned a little that day and tend to let mother nature have her days now.

[polarsusd81]

Sandman...From what I have read previously, it is best to hit them at about a 30 to 45 degree angle and just take it slow, try not to power up the face of the waves too much or you may stick the bow into it.

[CB34]

Jon, I remember that day on leech. I was happy to be standing on the south shore just watching the show. Driving on the road was even hard with trees falling all over. Those were the largest waves I have seen come into shore.

There are stories I have heard from old timers that the wave were so high in a storm they came over the top of the bank at, what was Forest View Resort on Leech lake. The elevation of the bank must be 12'-15' off of the water.

[big musk411]

I have seen some big ones on lake superior while I lived in Duluth. The largest ones that I have been out in were on Lake Winnipeg. We did a conoe trip from Red Lake Ontario down the bloodviene river to lake Winnipeg. On lake Winnipeg we paddled through a bay at the river mouth. The waves were about four footers. You paddle up one side and down the other. It was so bad that we elected to portage the last two miles. We took a ferry across the main part of the lake, that lake is nutz .

[Grant]

never been on really big water inland, some of those stories sound like what a guy could hit offshore! like the day they should have cancelled the charter in a 110' boat but didn't.... *hurl*

[john.wells]

back just before the walleyes crashed on Red, my uncle woke me up at the crack of dawn and asked if I wanted to go fishing or surfing! They must have been 6 to 8 feet high. By far the worst I have experienced in a boat was on Kabetogama on opener back in probably 1991 or so. A group of us camped out on Sheep's Island. The weather was nice and warm that weekend, and we had high hopes for some good fishing. That wind picked up out of the southwest something fierce, though. We had little fourteen foot rentals with 15 hp outboards from one of the resorts (I think Ken-Mar-ke) with 3 to a boat and all of our gear. I wanted to stay the wind out, but everyone else thought we should get back to the main land. We couldn't even get our boats off shore without them swamping, so I got in that icy water and walked the boats to a rock outcrop where everyone could load the boats and get in and get moving safely out away from the shore. I piloted the last boat, and I can tell you that it was by far the most frightening thing of my life. We didn't have much berth in the first place, and with those giant rollers we were sure we were going to capsize. There was no going back, only forward as the waves increased. Luckily, they weren't breaking too often, just huge rollers. When we were in the trough, all you could see was a wall of water that I would estimate to be at least 6, if not 7 or more feet at times. I don't know what was scarier, the crests or the troughs, but I rode the troughs as long as I could and would take the crests just after they would break. We had no idea if the other two boats were making it OK, but we found the rhythm of waves, and luckily, so did everyone else in our party. Every single one of us "manly men" kissed the ground and hugged each other at shore.

[ozzie]

last fall on Devil's Lake.....6-10 footers.....hard to judge when you are just hoping to get to shore!!! It all came within 5 minutes the wind started to blow and we decided to reel in when the next thing you know the anchor that had been holding us all afternoon came loose and it all went downhill from there......not fun having your boat leave the water practically on every wave. When we got to shore a bud grabs the vehicle and left the door open while trailering the boat and the wind bent the hinges of the door and bent the front quarter panel!!! Fun drive home with the door slightly open......

[MuskieJunkie]

I like the topic, I think a lot of people tend to over exagerate the waves when they are telling stories. I like the example someone had of watching the depth finder to get a "measurement".

The worst I have fished in was Upper Red last year, everyone else was getting off the lake we had drove about and hour and a half so we didnt want to leave. Waves coming in my 17' deep V, there was about an inch of standing water, dinged my prop on the bottom from the boat dropping to the bottom of the swells. I remember thinking "if this bilge pump goes out we will have to abandon ship" (no joke).

I would like to say those were 6-8 foot rollers but realalitically they were probably more like 5.

[Kyle Sandberg]

My largest wave. Hmmmm. Brings back memories. I was staying at a cabin on the west side of Upper Whitefish lake. Folks went out golfing and I was left alone with the privalage to go fishing. Only 14 at the time and loved to fish(still do). The cabin was nestled in a little bay that protected us from the wind. I could see out past were the breakers were falling and thought my 14 foot, 15 horse merc could handle it. Went out into it and had a blast. Not kidding. the waves were probable 4-5 footers and the wind was howling out of the east 20-30. If you know the Whitefish Chain, you get a east wind and the wave build up across Lower, Middle, and Upper Whitefish before they break. I made it to my fishing hole and managed a few walters before I figured it was time to head in. That was a experience all in itself. The boat was riding two waves at once and had to get the motor RPM's up just to keep her strait. I was riding up one wave and broke it, just then seeing a larger one in front of me. The bow hit the wave but the motor came crashing down. On the smaller motor, you have the twist clamps. We had those things so tight I thought the motor would never move. But just my luck, I hit the low with such a force it moved the motor up two inches and one side so now the motor has a ten degree tilt to it. Got back in ok and wobbly legs got me back up the hill and into the cabin. Will NEVER forget that adventerous day.

[sparcebag]

I dont bother anymore with windy conditions 3-3/12 footers is, no was it for me! Want to here some ocean stories? When people are hanging over the rail hollerin RALPH! When your off shore 100 miles for tuna Albacore,ya have ta live with it!

[The_Duckslayer]

I can remember being in some huge waves on MiLacs when I was a kid. They seemed huge to me but I suppose they were only 4 or 5 foot. When we were in the bottom of the swell all that cound be seen in any direction was water! I did notice that dad put on his life vest that day and he never did that! We were in an 18 foot deep V and I was scared. We were all glad to get back to shore that day. Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[Random guy]

Quote:

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When the Cree guide tied himself to the motor I knew we better hold on.

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That is a bad sign. I have had a few trips that it took all I had to stay calm and shrug it off as no big thing so the passangers stay calm...if some of them only knew I was giving myslef the last rights in my head as I desperatley look for the mouth of the Tamarac river.