Black Lake, NY Forum

Every year for the past several I make a plea to anyone that will listen.
Please catch and release those bass (smallmouth and largemouth). We
want to have quality fishing for many years. If your set on eating fish, the crappies, perch, and wallies taste much better...Thanks

Amen!!!! Agree 100%

I'm all for that. I'm mainly a panfisherman and love those big Black Lake bluegills. It's a well know fact that if you have a healthy bass population it will result in quality big gills. And, it doesn't hurt to put the really big slobs back and keep the midsize gills. Speaking of that, its been several weeks since I fished for them. It's been a tough season for me so far what with the cold fronts & weed growth. Any improvement recently?
John

I'm guessing probably over 80% of black lake fisherman c&r...your not gonna hurt that bass fishery regardless...we were up there opening week and slammed em...and we released everything we caught...anyone else notice lamprey marks on the bass and pike?..we caught one pike that literally had its guts hanging out of a lamprey hole...and a few bass had marks on them too.

I AGREE CATCH AND RELEASE IS A MUST. I GET SICK WALKING PAST THE FISH CLEANING HOUSE AND SEE IT FULL OF NICE BASS.

I agree too. I have not fished black lake yet coming up in sept. But have fished in canada for 20 years. The amount of meat on a large bass is not worth killing it.

I tried contacting the DEC about the possibility of making BL, a Big Bass Lake,
or putting in some kind of a slot limit, but have never heard anything. I would
think that a lot of the cabin/cottage owners would be in favor of it for the future of the Lake. Even signs or postings recommending catch and release would help. Especially at the fish cleaning houses. I to cringe at the number of bass that are killed...

Pretty sure this has been discussed numerous times on here before but I agree that a slot limit would be much better for the fishery then the current 15 inch size limit. I very rarely ever keep a bass but on the rare occasions when I do want to, I would much prefer to keep a 12-14 incher. They are better tasting and less of a strain on the fishery to keep. For the people who do target bass to eat (I like most of you wish they wouldn't but if it isn't against the law you can't stop them) it definitely would be better if they were keeping a limit of smaller bass then a limit of 15 inch+ bass. The whole idea just seems counter intuitive for the most part. I think the reason why a slot limit is unlikely however is that it would pretty much ruin any bass tournaments there are on the lake. With all this said, I think the bass population on this lake is more then healthy right now. If anything the concern might be a bit of an over population causing a rarity of 5+ pound fish. There are tons of 3-4 pounders that are very healthy looking so there is something other then food that is causing the cut-off at that size.

Exactly...people NOT keeping bass plus the 15" size limit is what's making and abundance of 3 pounders...I would be more worried about the lamprey problem thats grown in abundance over the years...Am I the only one that notices this?

I have not noticed any lamprey marks up to this point. I wasn't aware that Black Lake had lampreys. I have always thought of lampreys living in deeper colder water. Its possible that I have caught fish that had marks on them and just never had it register that they could be from lamprey. I would be interested to know if anyone else has noticed this as well.

Catch Pike through the ice quite often that have lamprey marks. Never seen a mark on a walleye out of Black Lake.

Last year the guys docked next to me had a smallmouth with a lamprey
attached, the head was the size of a quarter, and about 9" long, and a brown color. They are in the lake. How much damage they're causing I have no idea.