Black Lake-Campti Bass Fishing Reports

jhtiger · March 13, 2004, 11:54:54 PM

we are having a fishing tournament next week at the mill in hodge were i work , and it is on BLACK LAKE . I was wandering what kind of tips i could get on trying to get a good stringer. I thought about going to red chute an fish around the prarie but dont realy know or maybe up around clouds crossing . I VE ONLY BEEN THERE ONE TIME LAST WEEK BUT WATER WAS REAL HIGH AN WIND BLOWED HARD any suggestions would realy be a help will try to go wedensday before i fish on thursday thanks jhtiger

Red Ranger · May 16, 2004, 08:07:05 PM

Fishing a tournament on Black Lake next month. Never been on the lake before. Any tips would be much appreciated.

kw4570gov · June 24, 2004, 09:02:32 AM

:(Fished Black Lake Wed 6pm-8:30pm. Fish breaking the water all around us, but would not hit anything!! We tried topwater, jigs, hard and soft stick baits, buzz bait, and spinner bait.

Kent

Trey · June 24, 2004, 09:12:56 PM

You just weren't holding your mouth right! At least that's what my dad always told me.

Trey

kw4570gov · June 25, 2004, 11:53:11 AM

I will have to practice my game face between now and Sat. A.M.

See ya Sat.
Kent

bassadict69 · June 26, 2004, 10:47:17 AM

Can someone tell me a little about this lake without giving up any honey holes?

What types of structure? Trees? Docks? Is it a big lake?
How easy is it to run the lake? Is it wide open or have marked boat roads?

I am just trying to figure out what to expect before we get there for the tournament. We are gonna try to fish it the 4th of July weekend but don't know for sure.I would rather know just a little about the lake rather than go out there TOTALLY lost.

Mike Noble · June 26, 2004, 11:07:57 AM

Cypress trees, cypress trees, cypress trees...some boat docks...more cypress trees, cypress trees, cypress trees.

When you leave the landing, you have to idle out to the boat row...couple hundred yards. Whether you go north or south, you will be in a channel that is lined on both sides with...yep, cypress trees. I haven't spent much time going north, but I can tell you about the south. You follow the boat row, sort of curvy, and it will eventually dump you into a large open area. On the other side of that large area is another boat row that will take you further south....and into another open area. I have had my best luck on cypress trees...and I have caught fish on some of the docks. Top water should work early, spinnerbaits are always good, and plastic on the trees should produce. Don't be afraid to throw a spinnerbait during the day.

I hope this helps...good luck.

mikemrt125 · June 26, 2004, 04:38:35 PM

my best tip would be that when the tournament director says go......drop your trolling motor and go to fishing the grass with floating soft plastic

Trey · June 28, 2004, 04:48:14 AM

Bassadict69,
I fished a tourney there Saturday and had a pretty good time. There is a ton of grass on the lake. We started fishing immediately to the right of the boat ramp. There was plenty of grass, so we fished frogs and popper-style, topwater baits. I tried a black buzzbait, but no takers. We got strikes on frogs and topwater baits, but they didn't take the hook. We tried going way north, too. There is a lot of current up there and the water is real muddy. We didn't get a bite there, so we ran to the South-side of the lake. We saw some schooling fish, but they looked too small. We couldn't get a bite from them, so we started heading north again. We found quite a few fish near some lilly pads around noon. We caught eight, but only four would weigh. Caught one on a jig, and the rest came off a rat-l-trap, pop-r, floating worm, and a few strikes on a frog. We went back to the place we started by the ramp. We had several hits on rouges and other topwater baits all the way up to 2:45. The other teams did well on WHITE buzzbaits and white spinnerbaits. Hope this helps.

Trey

Mike Cork · June 28, 2004, 11:45:45 AM

Thanks Trey for the indepth post sure do apreciate that. By the way we held an U.B. tournament there about 2 years ago and one of the teams (Brent and Sam) drew a good starting number. Anyway when we call their number they put the trolling motor down and started fishing and had 3 in the boat before we got to the last boat. Just an idea, I might even try it.

RustyJ · June 29, 2004, 12:40:24 PM

I want to know which "Black Lake" we're talking about here. Benton? Campti? Hosston?

bassadict69 · June 29, 2004, 01:07:00 PM

Campti

RustyJ · June 29, 2004, 01:49:49 PM

Bassadict69,

Now that I know where I am.....

I would do like Mike said and start at the boat ramp heading north. Buzzbaits, frogs, sluggos over the thicker grass early and watermelon based soft plastics around the trees. For bigger bites, I'd stay on the channel with soft plastics or jigs. Just have fun with it!

bassadict69 · June 29, 2004, 04:40:33 PM

Thanks everyone for the info. Now even if I don't get to go out there before the tourny, I'll at least have some idea where to start.

Red Ranger · June 29, 2004, 07:42:18 PM

Agree with the comment re: dropping your trolling motor at the launch ramp. After fishing that, go straight across the channel and northward. White buzz bait worked well for us last weekend. We fished it all day as it was cloudy and overcast. Also, be sure you take trailer hooks for the buzz bait and plastic frogs, as they tend to hit short a lot of the time.

Mike Cork · June 30, 2004, 01:53:51 PM

Has anyone staid in the motel rooms they have there lately? Just wondering about cost and conditions of the rooms. I might go down the Saturday before the tourney and do a little prefishing and stay the night.

Mike Cork · July 05, 2004, 08:23:27 PM

Fished Black Lake Campti this morning till about 1230. First time I had ever been on the lake to truely fish, so we spent alot of time idleing and looking. Lauire caught the big'un of the day a nice 4 pounder but I almost caught "her" with a buzz bait I think I would have won if her hat didn't prevent the hook from setting

Had a couple top water bites and a couple came on a spinner bait. My biggest was only about 3 and half. The water is really clear expecially for as much rain as we have had but all the water coming is flowing threw a tremendous amount of vegetation and moss so it filters it real good. All of our fishing was south of the bridge, tried to find my way north but it was to confusing with no markers or at least any I would trust. There is alot of current in the lake right now as to be exspected. We did come across some schoolers but couldn't stay with them, it was a very nice bunch of fish 2-3 pounders busting shad in the current.

Any way should be a good touranament with alot of decent fish brought in, see you there....

Mike Cork · July 12, 2004, 07:56:58 AM

Fished out Twin Cities Team Club tourney here in Campti yesterday. HOT is the only way to discribe the temp. Fishing was tough. Nothing like last weekend. 6 pounds won it. There were stories of small school fish in some places. Most fish were caught on soft plastics from 2-6 ft. We had several stikes early on top water but caught the majority of our fish on plastics, short fish shallow and keepers in 5-6 ft. No real pattern just hit as many cypress trees as you can........

Danny · August 24, 2004, 07:25:20 PM

I saw on the news today that they have plans on the table for a Black Lake drawdown for sometime later this year. Anyone hearing reports for the lake.
Danny

Mike Cork · August 25, 2004, 11:51:03 AM

If we are talking about capmpti it sure could use it, but I haven't heard anything about it.

Mike Noble · August 25, 2004, 12:03:44 PM

I saw it on the news this morning. The residents that live on the lake want it drawn down and the black lake commission voted to do it, but now they are thinking that they don't have that power. They are currently waiting on information from the state on drawing it down. They are talking about dropping it about 8 feet.

BassontheBrain · March 06, 2005, 09:03:47 PM

went to black lake today to help a friend practice for the reeve's tourney on the 19th.
fished from 1pm-5:30pm. water temp was 59 degrees and stained. caught 9 fish with the five biggest weighing around 19 or 20 lbs. all of our fish were caught on a flat in about 4 ft. of water. hope the fish will stay in the area for a while.

Mike Cork · March 06, 2005, 09:19:59 PM

Shawn, that was an excellent day on the water. WTG. Thanks for the water temp update. At least those fish are doing what they are supposed to, seems every where esle the are being very finicky.

BassontheBrain · March 06, 2005, 10:04:31 PM

these fish were the first ones i've caught this year on a traditional spring time pattern. i fished all of the spawning areas where i normally catch fish with no luck. i caught these fish in an area that i have never fished before. we were idling through this area, thought it looked good and dicided to try it since we hadn't had luck anywhere else and bam, one solid fish after another. another thing about this area was that it had minnows everywhere. i don't know if that mattered but that was really the only place on the lake we saw concentrations of bait like that.

Mike Cork · March 07, 2005, 04:57:34 PM

I'm sure all the bait fish didn't hurt matters at all. From the sounds of it, this flat may be a staging area. Make sure your buddy thinks about that if he gets there during the tournament and doesn't get bit. Thanks for the report. Let us know how it goes for the tourney