Report May 6-7

Fishing Reports and Lake Conditions Only. Ask your questions and post remarks in the General Forum Please.

Moderators: Daves, admin, Phil, billbo

Post Reply
MrSimon
Registered User
Posts: 252
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:28 pm
Contact:

Report May 6-7

Post by MrSimon » Tue May 10, 2016 2:38 pm

I was up for the weekend to open up the cottage and get things ready for the rental season. There weren't too many chores to do, so most of Friday and Saturday were spent fishing.

This was the first time in my life that I intentionally fished for crappie. Frankly, I don't like it. We found unlimited amounts of small perch, plenty of bluegill, a bunch of decent sized sunfish, a couple pike, a bunch of healthy fat bass (smallies and largemouth) ..... but a whopping ONE crappie.

I stopped in at a couple different camps and spoke with three or four locals .... seems the crappie fishing went one of three ways:

1. A small handful of guys knew their business and found the hogs ... and in decent numbers. I went into the fish cleaning hut at McClears after an old fella finished up and saw some of the biggest perch and crappie carcasses in the trash can that I've seen in my entire life. He didn't keep very many, but man did he find some whoppers!
2. A fair number of guys found big schools of them and caught hundreds, but nothing big. One fella staying at the Log Cabins sat in Mitchell Bay all day and caught small crappie one right after the other for hours. I also saw a guy and his wife all the way up Fish Creek past the bridge pulling crappie out of the swamp on every cast.
3. A large number of guys (like me) never found them.

I didn't have my good boat so I was stuck with no electronics whatsoever and no trolling motor. I am convinced that good electronics make a gigantic difference in locating fish.

Black Lake is all about finding the spot on the spot. There is so much good structure and cover that the fish seek out the best of the best. For example, we found one spot where moving the boat 15 yards one way or the other meant the difference between catching a perch on every cast vs catching absolutely nothing.

I'm spoiled. I'm used to driving slowly around watching the screen. I don't drop a jig until I actually see the fish. Heck, I can usually tell the size and type of fish by how they look on the screen. Without that advantage, I was stuck blindly anchoring up and spending 20 minutes to figure out if the fish were there or not.

Lastly, the bass are all staged up right now waiting for slightly warmer water to spawn. If what we found lurking out there is any indication of what summer will bring, there should be a whole lot of happy bass fisherman in June!!

John M
Registered User
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:53 pm
Contact:

Re: Report May 6-7

Post by John M » Wed May 11, 2016 11:07 am

Mr Simon,
Thank you for such an informative report. Sounds like all three situations were an enlightening and a fun experience. Aside from all groups enjoying a day out in mother nature,(shouldn't be overlooked whether you caught fish or not), one group had the good fortune to catch some nice size perch and crappie. That provided a fresh fish dinner. Another group caught numerous fish throughout the day and I'm sure dinner if they chose. And yourself, who also enjoyed catching a number of different species of fish. But because fishing wasn't your primary objective, you had to revert to your old less complicated method of Fishing. So many of us take for granted our additional amenities we've installed on our boats. Our electronics in the form of depthfinders(down,side,front,360 degrees imaging with GPS) and trolling motors to navigate us. Not only does it take us back to our earlier days of Fishing, but reminds us of what the other 70 percent of the fisherman are experiencing.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests