Guided Bass Trip on Black Lake 9/10Monday 9/10 I had John, Gene, and Ray on board for a bass trip on Black Lake. They drove up from NJ on Saturday and were leaving on Wednesday. They were staying at Camp Wildwood and Gene and Ray had never been to the lake before. John and his wife had hired me two years ago and this year wanted to introduce the guys to Black Lake. They had been fishing together in Canada in the past but now prefer a shorter drive.
After a cold front with high winds over the weekend, we were off to a chilly start with bright skies and north winds. I recommended that with 3 anglers, they would do better fishing the bottom slowly with crayfish right from the start. I set up on a point out of the wind expecting it to be slow. They had never fished with crayfish before and Ray was the first to get bit and catch on to it. I told them the bite might be very subtle and it was. Ray than catches two more smallmouth with one being a picture fish before it slowed again. I moved them to another point and then another shoal with nothing. Then on the fourth spot, they began catching bass after bass, an even mix of both largemouth and smallmouth on the crayfish. They had 21 bass in the boat before we broke for lunch at the Fishbone. After lunch, since it seemed the bite was picking up, I switched them to senkos on a spot close to the Fishbone. Gene catches one about 4 lbs that bites the same time Ray has a 3 lber on. We take a nice picture of the two with their fish and release them. Then the action was done. They spent about an hour more with the senkos catching only 2 small bass and then they wanted to go back to the crayfish. I set them up on another shoal and they started catching smallmouth consistently again. This time John catches the biggest one of the day and then Ray hooks up with another one just as big and loses it. But with hard fighting smallmouth on light tackle these guys were still having a ball. The final tally of boated bass was 32. They were all caught on circle hooks and released.
Captain Randy Yager
www.guidedbasstrips.com
