# Salt Fork Navigation



## TDD11 (Aug 5, 2015)

Going to make my first trip to Salt Fork with the boat here in a couple weeks. Only planning on doing a cruise with the family around the lake, not doing any fishing. Any advice as far as my first time there? I wondered how far up in the fingers/coves we can go, if it was too shallow after the bridges on each end, etc.


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

Most of the fingers you can go a long ways. The one between the horse campground and hosaks cave I wouldn't go past the bridge. It is a huge stump feild. My best suggestion is when you start to see stumps or lilly pads chances are your in water shallower than 4 foot at that lake. That's not the case in every creek arm but it is in most arms. Just follow that rule and you should be fine.


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## jdl447 (May 16, 2018)

Just to add. They are no wake zones.


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## TDD11 (Aug 5, 2015)

I remember seeing no wake zones And did find a map of them. It’s a 22’ Grady White so I won’t be going where the bass boats can go. Lol


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

I’ll also add that the bridge furthest North is a no-go. Past the bridge is kayak and canoe water. You’ll want to stop well before you get to the bridge with your boat, its a shallow stump field all the way from the last bay on the left clear up to the bridge. There are USUALLY buoys warning you of those areas, but not always.


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## RossN (Mar 12, 2021)

Keep your depthfinder/fishfinder on ;-).


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## Specwar (Sep 22, 2014)

Beware of what lurks in the woods there;


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## codger (Aug 16, 2020)

TDD11 said:


> I remember seeing no wake zones And did find a map of them. It’s a 22’ Grady White so I won’t be going where the bass boats can go. Lol


Did you find a map online that shows the no wake zones? If so, could you post a link to it?


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## TDD11 (Aug 5, 2015)

M.Magis said:


> I’ll also add that the bridge furthest North is a no-go. Past the bridge is kayak and canoe water. You’ll want to stop well before you get to the bridge with your boat, its a shallow stump field all the way from the last bay on the left clear up to the bridge. There are USUALLY buoys warning you of those areas, but not always.


This is exactly the type of info I'm looking for, thanks! Edit: Do you mean the BIG cove just north of Sugartree, or the small cove right next to the bridge? 


codger said:


> Did you find a map online that shows the no wake zones? If so, could you post a link to it?





https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/parks/parkmaps/saltforkparkmap.pdf


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

TDD11 said:


> This is exactly the type of info I'm looking for, thanks! Edit: Do you mean the BIG cove just north of Sugartree, or the small cove right next to the bridge?
> 
> 
> 
> https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/parks/parkmaps/saltforkparkmap.pdf


I would stop at the red line, once you get North of that you start getting into extremely shallow water full of stumps. Everything up to that point should be fine.


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## Hatchetman (Apr 13, 2004)

No wake zones are well marked, hard to miss, although some people do...


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## hatteras1 (Jan 18, 2011)

Hatchetman said:


> No wake zones are well marked, hard to miss, although some people do...


We were anchored and 2 young girls were on a Rental Jetski, and aimed right at us in a no wake. You could hear one saying "Don't slow down" and just missed us. I cast and tried to hit her with a 1/2 oz jig..........You could have Billboards with neon and they still would ignore...
The ones you wave to on the water may be the same one that flips you off on the interstate!!
(EG cigar boats-Jet Ski's- MasterCrap- Malibu skier).. Just sayin


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## codger (Aug 16, 2020)

Thank you TDD11, that's what i was looking for. Actually, i found a link to it, but the link was broken or something. I kept getting a 304 error I think it was. Anyway, the link you posted works and was helpful.





hatteras1 said:


> The ones you wave to on the water may be the same one that flips you off on the interstate!!
> .. Just sayin


 That might have been me, sorry.


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## hatteras1 (Jan 18, 2011)

codger said:


> Thank you TDD11, that's what i was looking for. Actually, i found a link to it, but the link was broken or something. I kept getting a 304 error I think it was. Anyway, the link you posted works and was helpful.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No, I was speaking in general, but I'm sure someone appreciates.. Thank You


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## codger (Aug 16, 2020)

hatteras1 said:


> No, I was speaking in general,


I assumed as much. It was just my poor attempt at humor.


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## RossN (Mar 12, 2021)

hatteras1 said:


> We were anchored and 2 young girls were on a Rental Jetski, and aimed right at us in a no wake. You could hear one saying "Don't slow down" and just missed us. I cast and tried to hit her with a 1/2 oz jig..........You could have Billboards with neon and they still would ignore...
> The ones you wave to on the water may be the same one that flips you off on the interstate!!
> (EG cigar boats-Jet Ski's- MasterCrap- Malibu skier).. Just sayin


I just saw a video yesterday of some jackass on a jet ski at West Branch running through a water skiers tow line. Snapped that line right out of the skiers hands.

I think that would have pushed me over the edge.

I sold my boat a few weeks ago, and the buyer wouldn't drive it on the sea trial because the traffic and waves were so bad (also, West Branch)

I'm pretty much a live and let live kind of person, but they should ban the damn jet skis and wake boats. Let them play in Lake Erie..


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## Bull Durham (11 mo ago)

My buddy warned me, but I took my "new to me" boat to play (tube/ski) at Salt Fork on a Saturday close to 20 years ago. Have not put my boat an inland lake to play after about 9AM on a weekend or holiday since. My advice: Don't go on a weekend and if you do, stay in the no wake zones as much as possible.



RossN said:


> ... but they should ban the damn jet skis and wake boats. Let them play in Lake Erie..


Please don't send them all to Erie! 😂

Joking aside, in my opinion, 90% of it comes down to a lack of respect for others and what you and I consider common sense. I know most guys on this forum lump waterskiers, wakeboarders and jetskiers all in the same category and hate 'em all. I completely understand why. And I'm guilty of the same logic. I absolutely hate wake boats! But, I shouldn't and I'm trying to change my attitude toward them. It's really hard though. Keep telling myself, it's the same logic the anti-gun people apply to gun owners. One person does something stupid and they blame it on all gun owners and say, "Ban them all!" It ain't the gun, jetski, ski or wake boat's fault, it's the person in control of it. All the safety courses, registrations and licensing in the world ain't gonna fix stupid! And while I'll totally agree the stupid people to watercraft ratio is seems much lower for jetski's and wake boats, there are some jetski and wakeboat owners (I'm still looking for a wakeboat owner, but I know there's got to be one out there 😂) who do have a respect for other boaters and some common sense.

Anyway, enjoy the trip to Salt Fork. It's a beautiful lake! Use common sense and respect others even when they don't respect you. Hopefully it's contagious.


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## hatteras1 (Jan 18, 2011)

Bull Durham said:


> My buddy warned me, but I took my "new to me" boat to play (tube/ski) at Salt Fork on a Saturday close to 20 years ago. Have not put my boat an inland lake to play after about 9AM on a weekend or holiday since. My advice: Don't go on a weekend and if you do, stay in the no wake zones as much as possible.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


In all fairness, we see hundreds of boats on the lakes, and we ignore the boats that go unnoticed..They're just out for a fun day, and they act accordingly.. it's the Stunt drivers that drive us nutz... They're the ones we always remember


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Salt Fork is a narrow lake too, so that forces eveyone to be closer together than many other lakes. If its busy out there, its all but impossible to keep the distance most of us would prefer.


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## TDD11 (Aug 5, 2015)

Took a 2 hour cruise around the lake Saturday from 4 to 6pm. Did not cover as much as I wanted to, but we had missed lunch and the ladies were ready for dinner so we called it early.

Beautiful lake though, we look forward to going back sometime. Yes, there were a lot of people going every direction. I was uncomfortable with all of the tubers. While I was cruising maybe ~25mph, a boat towing a tube passed alongside me, then cut in front of me with a tuber hanging on. I thought that was stupid.

Other lakes I've been on seem to have a general counter clockwise flow, where all boat traffic stays to the right. But not there, there were people going in every direction, all over. I didn't like having to split between 2 oncoming boats. Why can't they stick to the right side of the lake. Lol

Anyways, kept my head on a swivel. Loved it, would love to go again, just not during peak hours. Thanks everyone for the input and advice!


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## RossN (Mar 12, 2021)

Some inland lakes are banning wake boats due to increased shoreline erosion.

Last time I was at West Branch there was a mud line 10-30 feet from shore due to all the crazy wave action.



Bull Durham said:


> Please don't send them all to Erie! 😂


How about we send them to the Ohio River?

They can be as crazy as they want there. They can even jump the wakes from the tow-boats.


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