Fishing Report 10/09/2011 Black Lake

[Baron49]

Was a beautiful day and I thought spending the time to drive up to Black Lake would make for a nice day on the water.  Warm air temps in the 70's coupled with a southerly breeze of about 10 to 15 mph gave a good chop to the water.  Water temps varied from high 50's to low 60's.  The trees are turning color all around the lake so it was a nice day to be out on the water.  Started off on my favorite rock shoal and was surprised to not get a single bite.  This shoal is in the middle of a large bay and is not marked.  It is not much more then a big pile of rocks about half the size of a boat that comes up out of 15 foot of water to about 5 feet on the very top with a slight amount of milfoil on the north side.  Worked it with several baits and did get so much as a tap.

Did what I always do when fishing is slow and started fishing rocky points that still have some green weeds and finally caught my first one on a jig and pig.  After that I fished a good number of points without another bite.  Drove the boat south down the lake to a small bay and in the back fished a spinner bait along the tops of weeds next to a drop off and caught a dink largemouth and a small pike.  At one place along the weedbed it forms a long point the drops off into deeper water then the surrounding area and caught another decent fish on a jig and pig.  Work this area over with several baits from top to bottom and could not get another bite.  Crossed to the opposite side of the bay and fished another weed line.  At one point thought I was hung up and pulled back on the rod to free it and there was another nice largemouth chewing away at my jig and pig.  Worked this area over well and no other bites.

Worked my way back up the lake using a drop-shot, crankbaits, tubes, jig and pig and even a buzz bait but nothing wanted to take what I was offering.  As the sun was going down I went back to my first stop and fished a crankbait around the hump and caught my fifth and final bass of the day a dink smallmouth.

As I headed back the ramp seemed like everyone else had the same idea at the same time.  Had a chance to talk with several of the other boats and everyone said the same thing.  Fishing was very tough and finding keeper fish was quite a chore.  Two were locals that said the bass fishing had dropped off substantially in the past several years, but the crappie fishing has improved quite a bit.

Black Lake used to be one of the premier fishing lakes in all of New York State.  Fishing pressure from many fishing tournaments and over-harvesting of the bass population by locals and out of state meat fisherman has made this lake only a shadow of it's former self.  I used to fish here at least once a week years ago and was to be able to tell friends that went with me, "one of us will get at least a 5 lber."  Tournament 5 fish limits of 20 lbs plus were very common.  Had a very close friend of mine catch one off the back of my boat that went over 8 lbs on a certified scale and this was still 2 lbs shy of the lake record of over 10 lbs,  I caught the NYS Federation "Lunker of the Year" in 1980 that went over 7 lbs.  In the past several years have not caught a single fish over 5 lbs.  While the lake is beautiful and full of scenery, all kinds of wild life and things to see, the lunker fishing has not been all the good for several years.