First off, I will tell you that there are two marinas on the lake. On off the 504 and one in what is called the Narrows off Narrows road. Both charge $10 per ramp usage. In and out of the lake will cost you $20 for the day. They do that because there are no public launches on the lake.
If you have a small boat I suggest getting there early or you will find that the water is very choppy. When docked, my small older bass boat gets swamped (remind me to put a float switch on the sump pump tomorrow). It is a cause of concern for most boaters.
Being a big lake it offers a very large variety of fishing opportunities. Large mouth and small mouth bass are in weed beds and drop offs along with blue gill and pumpkin seeds. Pike are present cruising the shoals for small bait fish. If you have down riggers you will find Lake Trout in the deep parts of the north/east channel were it can get as deep as 100+ feet.
By about 9:30 on Saturday and Sunday the pleasure boaters start to wake up and burn gas. Because the lake has two main runs (one going north/east and one going south east) the boaters usually burn up the water with boats that are really oversized for the lake. Wave runners with 200+ horse or runabouts with 175s are a usual site. Some of the boaters have tuned their boats to a point where they are extremely load and throw a lot of wake. Don’t get me wrong, I like to tube just like the other guy but to churn up the water just because you can makes no sense to me. There are also a lot of high power jet skis on the water also.
The northern bend also has a beach on it.
One of the main things about Chandos Lake is the bays. On the lake itself there are 55 bays (or more) that you can escape into for still fishing. The fish are jumping in the main system and feeding in the shallows for at least 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours at sun set. Most active in that time are the crappie but bass can be snagged ranging from .5 to 5 pounds if you work the weed line correctly. Pike are allusive but still will bite at 12-15 feet during low to mid lite using trolling.
One of the best things about Chandos Lake is that all shoals are marked. It was done because the rich people on the lake hate to have their expensive boats towed by someone with a run about when they sheer off the lower unit. So you will know when you are heading into trouble when you see your boat in line with the makers.
I will upload a few pictures and start marking the map so that everyone can see what the area looks like.
