Guided Bass Trips 9/12-9/14

[GuidedBassTrips]

The weather has taken a turn downward but I can't complain because vitrually of my trips this summer were unaffected by the weather. This week I conducted 3 consecutive trips and all 3 had unsettled weather conditions.

Sunday 9/12 I had Mike Cunningham and his friend Joe from New Jersey. Neither had fished Black Lake before. There was already a moderate wind with a threat of more wind when we began so I had them fishing with live crayfish on points and shoals. Mike began the morning with a solid 4lb largemouth and a few average sized largemouth and smallmouth. We quit at 2pm with increasing wind and rain. They each caught an equal number of smallmouth and largemouth totaling 12 bass. All came on the crayfish with 2 smaller fish falling for a spinnerbait. All were released.

On Monday I had Joe Witz for a second time this year. This time he wanted to surprise his brother-in-law Dan with a guided trip. So he took Dan to breakfast at the Fishbone Cafe where I had the boat on the dock. We went out at 7:30am and unfortunately the rain came and we had to endure a downpour for about an hour. Later it cleared up nice but the fishing got real tough. I had them fishing topwaters early in the rain and switched to crayfish after it cleared but unfortunately they were only able to catch 4 bass of average size before we quit at 1pm.

Tuesday was a cold, dark, and breezy day. I picked up John Thoman from PA on the dock at Back Bay Campground for a half day trip by himself. I stayed on the south end, and for 2 trips in a row now, have struggled to put my customer on alot of bass. I had him fishing topwaters for a while with no success then switched him to the crayfish. He managed to catch 5 bass on the crayfish with just one being a smallmouth but nothing bigger than 2 pounds. We quit around 1pm and all bass were released.

I have noticed the water coming in the south end is a little dirty right now probably from recent rains. Combined with lowering water temps and dark skies the fishing seems to be changing like the season and right now appears tougher than normal. Its not want you would expect for September but remember it is still summer. The bass have possibly been affected by changing conditions following a stable summer. But the water is dropping and should get clearer so I would suspect the action will pick up in the next week.

Good luck to all fishing the lake and please practice catch and release.

[reustis]

Hey Randy, see u next year at Log Cabins in the mornings....
\
Rick

[BassSeeker]

Mike here, just want to reply to Randy's post. We had an excellent outing. As he mentioned, neither Joe nor I had fished Black Lake before and thanks to his guidance and knowledge (we peppered him with questions the entire trip) we were able to land and release more than 60 bass in 5 days of fishing. Not to mention hundreds of bluegill, a few crappie and some tiny perch. Randy is a very friendly, down to earth, personable and knowledgeable fellow. Oh yeah, we stayed at The Log Cabins and booked the same week next year, though in a larger updated cabin. Needless to say we'll book another day with Randy next year. Nothing like an expert to ease the way.....
Thanks Randy!
Mike