One request for the kayak crowd -99% are fine, but newbs may not know the ins and outs of this lake. There is a nice kayak / canoe launch near the dam - if you want to fish by the dam, please use it, don't put in where the bank guys are fishing. Or use the boat ramps, or any open space. Just please don't put in where others are fishing. I know 99.9% on here would never consider it. But...
Today one tool of a guy and his buddy decided to **** off everyone fishing at the dam. Like I said there is a kayak/canoe launch there, on the north side of the peninsula near the dam pullout. These "gentlemen" decided they were going to launch in the cove where the bank crowd fishes. They were asked, politely at first, NOT to launch there because of all the bank anglers. The kayak guy, and his buddy with a big rubber boat, decided to say "F U" to everyone and turned it into a screaming match (with my mother no less - she is quick to call people out on shenanigans, and once you get her going it's damn near impossible to stop) into which the park rangers intervened. The yak guy was a hot head, and the discussion quickly escalated from being asked not to launch their boats into some bizarre political nonsense, equating someone asking him not to drop his boat into an area full of bank anglers to automatically being a Hillary Clinton supporter - like those two things are related in any way shape or form. From that point the "conversation" just kept going down hill till the rangers arrived, and even then it wasn't skittles & beer. The guy with the yak was pretty obviously looking for a fight and seemed to be a hot head. The rangers were cool with him, showed him the yak launch, and asked him to launch his boat there, but explained that it was technically his right launch anywhere. So he did. And he ran across some bank anglers lines just because he could.
To make the whole bizarre mess worse - the guy started spouting off about being a veteran, and how he fought for everyone's rights - which had zero to do with the whole situation. And he wasn't the only person present there to have ever held up their hand and put on a green suit, but he was the only one to make an issue out of it, and he wanted to make sure literally everyone in the cove knew he was a vet and he was going to do what he wanted because it was his "right." All I could do is shake my head.
There were a bunch of folk at the dam who expressed their concerns over this guy, and the general consensus was that the guy was kind of nuts and was probably very likely armed and looking for a confrontation. Thankfully things didn't go that far.
Just a bizarre situation and thankfully it was resolved, the guy struck out fish-wise and didn't even stay in that spot long before he and his buddy both packed out their boats and left. I *almost* felt bad for him, only from the standpoint that the guy might be suffering from some mental illness or was soooooo stressed out and high strung that he needed some release. The fact that, even after a talking to by park officials, and after first being asked nicely to drop his boat in elsewhere, he was still a tool left my empathy for him at the same level of care and courtesy he showed everyone else. Vet or not, being a clown is still being a clown.
AAALLLL that out of the way - Hagg has an extensive trail system that goes pretty much all the way around it. There is tons of bank access, and the further you walk the better the spots you can find (usually) because most bankies won't go far. There are a number of places that cannot really be fished from the bank - but there's just as many that can.
The main creek arms are usually good producers - Scoggins, Sain, and Tanner - and I find the south and western edges of them to be good consistent producers, and starting out by either boat ramp is likely a good move too.
