black lake is not the bass fishery it used to be

[Bassbuster]

The other thing interesting to me is the lack of responses from out of state folks. I think the few that did were supportive of our position.
I think we should all be very careful about sharing information on how and where to go to catch more fish. In the long run we are only hurting ourselves. I know we all want to be helpful especially to our friends from PA, but not everyone shares our beliefs or cares about the long term condition of our fishery. I know its sad but I'm afraid its true. We definitley also need to be more diligent with law enforcement. If you see people breaking the fish and game laws call 1800TIPPDEC!

[WalleyeHunter]

I don't fish BL much, but what I've noticed is that I've never seen a law enforcement presence. I'm from Oneida county, and every major body of water we have, there is at least a sheriff on patrol most days. I've been checked by DEC about 3 times this year, and they always check my live well, coolers, and any other hiding place on my boat. If a fish looks suspicious that I have, they always measure it. My catch always look suspicious, cause I try and keep the smallest fish allowed by law.

I mostly keep walleye, northerns, pickerel, and of course pan fish. I will keep some bass from colder waters. I don't poach, I just keep enough for a meal, cause I'm not a fan of cleaning fish after 12 to 15 hours of fishing

I think like someone stated in a prior post, a slot limit would probably be the best option. I'm sure that some people don't check their regulations, and may not know the special regs of the lake.

A better presence of law enforcement would help too. It can be annoying getting checked. But if you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about. It takes about 5 minutes. And that would help with the poachers, and ignorant fishermen that don't check special regulations.

I've also gotten some good fishing info from DEC officers too

Last year on BL I kept a 2 bass for dinner. This year I kept nothing. Pretty much now I stock up on perch and bluegills from ice fishing. And that is the meat I'll eat in the summer now. I'm slowly progressing into a catch and release fisherman.

I will keep an 8lbs large mouth or bigger for the wall. I know you can get nice replica mounts now, but not for me, I like a nice skin mount.

[Imbit]

I noticed the same thing , I was waiting for some more responses before stating it. The other. Thing interesting to me is the lack of responses from out of state folks. I think the few that did were supportive of our position. I would be curious what percentage of bass kept are from in state vs out state fishermen.
I think we should all be very careful about sharing information on how and where to go to catch more fish. In the long run we are only hurting ourselves. I know we all want to be helpful especially to our friends from PA, but not everyone shares our beliefs or cares about the long term condition of our fishery. I know its sad but I'm afraid its true. We definitley also need to be more diligent with law enforcement. If you see people breaking the fish and game laws call 1800TIPPDEC!

I just got back from 6 days at BL tonight. Algae bloom was brutal - fishing was fair at best, but that's the roll of the dice. I'm a PA resident & practice catch & release (I unfortunately deep hooked a 18" smallie on a senko & probalby should have kept her, but released her on the chance she'd survive).

The most alarming thing I saw was the crowd of at least 15 people on both sides of the bank under the bridge each evening - KEEPING EVERYTHING. We got into a few nice smallies in the area & from what I see, the locals are the problem, not the serious out of state fisherman with their own boats & equipment. I understand & share your frustration at meat fisherman in general, but resent your assertation that out of state fisherman don't support catch & release. More importantly, I disagree with your suggesting people shouldn't share knowledge & information - thats what this board is for ... perhaps if no one share's information, maybe the out of staters will not return & you'll have your lake back ... nice.

[Imbit]

as a follow up to my post above ... I don't think the problem is an in state vs out of state issue. It's a serious fisherman (regardless of where they reside) vs. novice fisherman issue. The serious fisherman know all about catch & release ... it's the once a year pontoon boat renters that I've seen kill what they catch & clearly where our education efforts should be focused.

[Bassbuster]

BhI want to apologize to all my out of state friends. I didn't mean to imply that you are the problem, in fact I'm hoping that you good folks will be part of the solution.. I was just stating my observation of the lack of out of state responses to the issue, just found that a bit curious that's all. Part of the beauty of the lake and meeting people from all over the country. as far as the sharing of information in this board I still think we all need to be careful. This board Is read by both types of fisherman and we really do have an issue here that will eventually will affect everybody. both, in and out of state.

[fishUC]

my group is largely PA although I am from NY. we keep the panfish for the most part - we do usually keep 2 bass for the grill - we probably catch 50-60 bass while we're there and probably 20 are keepers and most all of them go back..

BUT - I do see just about everyone cleaning 4-5 bass each time they are in the cleaning house - and sometimes its a couple times a day- its a meat market and its legal so there is really nothing we can do. for the most part, people probably don't see an issue with keeping them because its legal

I knnow one set of guys who leave the week with no less than 50 bass cleaned in their coolers each year. I don't understand it becasue bass aren't tht tasty but oh well.

its a good topic but i doubt it will change the minds of the butchers...

I don't think telling people how to catch fish is a bad thing. Many of those people are bringin their kids and introducing them to fishing and keeping the industry alive.

[z-nail]

I am from PA and am strictly catch and release. It sickens me to see fishermen bringing in bass to the cleaning sheds. Black Lake is a real prize and everyone should fight to keep it as a viable fishery.

[Bassbuster]

Fish uc your group sounds great and u too znail. Glad to have u on the lake. However what you are observing is exactly the problem. Uc u said the just about everybody is keeping 4-5 bass and sometimes multiple times a day is ILLEGAL! The. 5 fish limit is. Daily limit not 5 in the morning 5 in the afternoon and 5 in the evening. Keeping 5 per day is bad enough but.now we could be talking 10 or more per guy per dayy. These people need to be stopped now! I'm also just curious where you guys stay?

[wildchild]

Not to rock the boat but "meat fishermen" is were the sport came from. Don't get me wrong I seldom keep bass as I love to catch larger ones. I honestly believe that the 15 inch length requirement is making the shortage of big bass worse. The state allows anglers to legaly keep bass but that length requirement also meens that ALL bass kept are spawners. If the state would change to the slot limit practice most fish kept would be about 13 inches, the spawners would be put back and more and bigger fish would result. To beat up on anybody who spends the money to travel to the lake, stay for a week, buy food and all the other expenses just because they kept a couple of legal fish for a fish fry is plain wrong. OK I'm of my soapbox now, let the hate mail begin. Oops almost forgot, has anyone on here tried fishing a bass tournament on a lake with a slot limit? I have and let me tell you firsthand that it is tough as all fish in the livewell must be legal. That may push some of the lower level tournament activity on to other bodies of water as well.Ok now I'm done.

[wags57]

Im from Western PA and been to BL over the last couple of years and will be there the 2nd week of August. My son and I practice catch and release on everything we catch. I can tell you that you are very fortunate to have such great fishing water in that general area. I pass on fishing in Canada to come up there for a week because of the good fishing. You are truly blessed to have BL, the Grass River, the Raquette River and so many more bodies of water. A couple years back, my son and I got over 100 smallies in one evening on the Grass and we released every one of them. This is your time to protect what you have by getting the message out. Im with some of the others that really feel uneasy when I see a stringer of bass going to the cleaning house. There are so many other good eating fish such as perch, crappie and such.
I know Im just a visitor there for a week or so but trust me, you have an awesome fishery in that entire area and I would hate to see it disappear.
My two cents worth.

[Bassbuster]

Thanks wildchild and wags I appreciate the feedback from you and the other PA boys that have been writing in over the last few days. Yes I would love to see all Bass be released like wags does but I realize that would be totally unrealistic. . I'm not against people keeping a few fish here and there for a fresh fish fry, its the greed of taking the illegal multiple daily limits and filling the coolers to bring home is the part that really bothers me! I don't know why anyone would want to keep bass anyway with all the great tasting panfish in the lake. The worst part is I would be willing to bet that a lot of the fillets that get taken home end up in the garbage due to spoilage or freezer burn anyway, and that is a real crime. I would love to see every one of the fish cleaning houses torn down on the lake, I believe this would help reduce the problem a great deal.

Thanks

[Central NY Girl]

as a follow up to my post above ... I don't think the problem is an in state vs out of state issue. It's a serious fisherman (regardless of where they reside) vs. novice fisherman issue. The serious fisherman know all about catch & release ... it's the once a year pontoon boat renters that I've seen kill what they catch & clearly where our education efforts should be focused.

I know this is a very touchy subject... But I have to say this I'm one of those once a year pontoon boat renters and we do not kill anything.
I do realize it happens and it is sad especially when the people you see doing this don't even take the fish to shore. I seen another instance thought about calling the DEC but had no cell service. Who knows if the people would have still been around if I had called 5 hours later.

[fishUC]

have stayed at multiple places and it happens everywhere - its not the cottages fault- they shouldn't be respnsible for monitorring who is coming in and how many times per day they fill up their well.

like i said in the beginnig of this thread - i don't mind people keeping everything within the law, especially if its to feed their family if they have lower income- fish are a natural resource ad they are licensed anglers following the law.

those who do not follow it - ie - don't know the laws per lake or abuse the max fish per day - those i have a real problem with.

I fish for the sporting nature of it, and yes I will targget spawning bass because its exciting - so i am sure many people have a problem with that but there are study after study that say it doesn't effect the reproduction rate of the lake - and as long as I release them , its gotta be better than person B keeping those same fish as well

my arguement to that is a simple one - I usually ask if the person hunts deer or turkey or any other game animal - when they are doing so, do they hunt scrape lines or use mating calls - becasue that is no different than fishing spawning fish and its hypocritical to object.

additionally, noone argues that fishing for walleyes or salmon in the river systems in early spring when in season is a bad thing to do - but those are spawning fish, jsut of a different species...

bottom line is someone is going to have a problem with everyone - its nice to talk about and educate but in reality it probably doesn't make much difference.

the slot limit is probably the best thing i heard but if you make the slot 12-15, in 5 years the lake will still be void of 15+ becuse the 15_+ from 5 years ago will be dead and those that should be 15, were kept 3 year ago.

i think they should just make it a 12+ statewide limit, then the "meat fishermen" will be done quicker and a broader mix of fish will be effected, thus leaving more of the larger fish each year, from a purely statistical distribution.

onieda has 12+ limit and doesn't seem to have a problem with large bass and numbers, although there isn't nearly the meat pressure on the bass that exist on BL.

who knows.

[Bassbuster]

Fish uc I disagree with some of what you said. I believe it is everyone's responsibility,including cottage rental owners, to
Monitor what's going on with fishermen on the lake. The future of their business is at stake and ultimately the jobs of many locals. I think they could do a much better job of helping to protect this fishery. Many of us would love to hear from them on this issue but so far they don't seem to want to get involved or they don't follow the forum which I find hard to believe. I don't think this is a matter of poor folks trying to feed their families I think its a mostly a bunch of selfish people filling their stomachs and coolers and not thinking about or caring about some young kid that would have loved to feel the thrill of that 4 pounder on the end of their line. No comment on spawn fishing I just don't do it. I don't claim to be a fishery biologist so I can't comment on what's best. I would like to get the Dec involved at some point with some type of group discussion. Not sure of the best approach yet.

[wags57]

I have heard many good points here. What Im trying to say as a fellow fisherman is that your fishing area is AWESOME. I really like Western PA. I can fish rivers, streams, big lakes and electric only lakes but I dont have much water here that compares to ANYWHERE that I have fished in your area. If it wasnt a 9-10 hour drive I would be there more often than one week per year. (Believe it or not, I come up to mainly fish for Norther Pike. Most people catch pike while fishing for bass, I catch my bass while fishing for pike. I have heard more than one fisherman say they caught a couple of pike and cut them and threw them on shore. What a waste because it is such a great fighting fish.)

The powers that be must get their act together to make this resource last. Someone has to know what the best system is whether a straight size limit or slot limit or something else. Personally in Ontario, Canada there is a slot limit. I like that. Maybe you could jack the size limit up. I dont know.
All I can tell everyone is that Im not from around your area but I love to visit and fish it. Period. I have had great experiences up there with the people and most thoroughly enjoy the experience. I fish from a boat that I bring and I also wade (wading the Grass River is one of my favorite things to do!!!) You have a great fishery, please protect it.

On a siden note, if you know of any great pike waters that I should be fishing, please let me know. As you know, I throw them all back and I promise to leave the bass alone