The Severed Cortex

Link: http://carlylelake.com/

I'll start off by saying that I'm not a big fan of fishing Carlyle lake, but it is damn convenient for me. I figured with it being a month after labor day that there wouldn't be much of a crowd. I was wrong.
I pulled up to the Hazlet access around 7:30. There were about 30 rigs already in the water and 3 rigs in line. I took my time getting ready. I dropped the boat with no problem, but it took forever to get it started. At one point I considered just trailering it and taking it home. After just basically holding the starter on, enough flat gas fired to get it going. I idled it for a solid 10 minutes to get it warmed up.
I headed out for the main lake to run the crap out of it. I stopped just north of the Peppenhorst branch and started to fish the rock bank on the right descending shore. I set out an ultralight, first with crickets, then later with worms. While it was out I pitched a watermelon U-tail fishing both the shallow water up by the rock bank and by pitching up, down, and across the shelf that ran from 5 feet to 14 feet. I worked this shore for about 1000 feet until I came to a small inlet. I trolled in the inlet where the water was weedy and 3 feet deep and pitched the worm. After an hour and a half of absolutely nothing I decided to move.
I crossed the lake and decided on a rock bank on the left descending shore just south of Coles Creek. Same thing here; ultralight using worms in 5 to 8 feet of water while pitching the watermelon U-tail. After a while I started pitching little George's in 14 feet of water using my spinning rod. After another hour and a half of absolutely nothing, not even a nibble, I decided to move again.
I ran up towards the north end of the lake near the 6 mile point, but it was way too shallow up there. I moved down about a half mile and picked a bank that was washing out some trees. The lay downs were in less than a foot of water so there was nothing hanging around the cover. I pitched the same stuff again here, but I did switch out the rubber worm for a baby bass hard nose jerkbait. All this produced nary a nibble.
A fellow in a small 15 foot bass buggy came by to check his depth finder versus mine. His was correct. He commented that he was seeing plenty of fish on the depth finder (as was I), but he couldn't produce a bite (nor could I). Even though the weather was a fabulous 85 degrees, the fish were just not biting. I decided to cash it in. When I got back to the Hazlet boat ramp, it was packed with ski boats. I guess everyone had the same idea. I had to wait a solid 45 minutes for a ramp, mainly because some people don't know how to load/unload a boat. I've found that fisherman generally are good at it, but ski boaters are terrible. I've also learned that if you see a guy unload/load a boat by himself, he's way better than any ski boat owner. I loaded mine by myself in less than 10 minutes which included docking, walking to the truck, backing down the ramp, starting my boat, loading it on the trailer, cranking it up tight, and driving off.