Just got back from my trip to Black Lake. It was an interesting one.
Sunday and Monday, the wind was screaming out of the Northeast, which made drifting from Lonesome to Elwood a very productive scenario. The walleye were on the ready, and we netted several in the 25 to 30 inch range. Generally, my compatriots were using Mister Twisters tipped with crawlers. (BTW, the crawlers we had were more like snakes. I think one of them measured 13 inches…)
Of course, since there were worms involved, the micro perch were terrorizing us all day. We had to see 200 perch in the 3 inch range. Seriously.
Also, 2 dogfish were boated. I hadn’t seen one of those in person, and I don’t relish the opportunity to see one again. They fight like all get out however. One of them even broke a net, which made for an interesting turn of events, as my buddy Mike had to slip his rod through the net to keep the fight on. He’s pretty agile for an old codger.
3 or 4 big cats were taken as well.
As for me, I was really trophy hunting. I’m not much of a drift fisherman, so by Tuesday I had convinced my wife’s uncle to get me up into the slop by Jennie’s Isle. Used my baitcaster with a frog imitation, and I had a blast missing fish in the weeds. I took 2 largemouth in the 4 pound range (released quickly), and then one 25 inch pike, who had that rubber frog about 5 inches down his throat. That was exciting.
The rest of the crew got into some bigger perch finally on Tuesday, with a couple in the 12 inch range. Found them almost dead across from the Log Cabins.
As for the Black Lady herself, the water level looks very good, and her temperature is ideal right now. I was actively looking for areas with bass nests, so as NOT to fish to them, but I really just found empty nests. I’m not sure if they’re done spawning or not, but I couldn’t find any evidence that they were. Nonetheless, I did my best to use lures that I have previously caught pike on. Since St. Lawrence County isn’t observing the year round catch and release Black Bass regulations, I thought that I would play it safe.
All in all, it was a good trip. I can see where there might be weed issues again in a month though. I hope they are able to straighten that situation out going forward.
