2014 Year in Review

Welcome to my short wrap up of the 2014 season.  2014 brought many challenges for the Black Lake Lunker Hunters.  It was necessary for Denise and I to focus on some high priorities and changes in our life.  One priority was to work on installing windows in the new addition.  This proved to be very time consuming seeing how we also has to cut and prepare all six rough openings.  Buying the windows was easy, but doing all the work ourselves took about 12 days or more.  But we got it done and are pleased with the result.    We will surely spend a lot of time next season working towards our goal of finishing the addition.

Another priority for 2014 was to sell our home in Marion and move closer to Fairport.  Mission accomplished!  We moved to Fairport in August and are now enjoying life in a split level house on 6 semi-private acres.  Shortly before closing day, we were informed that our new property was previously owned by my great uncle George in the 1920's thru 1940's.  What a nice surprise!  Our new home is also only 2 miles from where I grew up.  It's nice to be back to where I spent the first 19 years of my life...in Fairport!

So, for the 2014 fishing review...  We only fished 23 days this year.  The bass take was not great, but managed one nice Lunker.  We caught only 220 bass.  An average of 9.5 per day.  (During A typical year we would catch around 700 bass).  Our Lunker count was way down also.  7 bass over 3 lbs.  2 of those bass were over 4 lbs.  The big one weighed in at 4 lb 15 oz.  Only 1 ounce short of the coveted 5 pounder.  It was caught July 19th at 9:15AM at one of our favorite islands.

This year was very busy for us, but as usual, we had a great time at Black Lake.  We pulled our boat for the season on Sept. 27th.   The month of May is getting closer and we can't wait for more good times!

The lunker hunt will continue!  Fish On!!!

Fishing report problems 2014

Due to nagging computer issues and my hectic schedule, fishing reports for 2014 will be extremely late this year and brief.  I apologize.  I will at least try to post a summary at the end of the season.  Here are the two biggest fish of this year to date.

4 lbs. 15. oz. 

 

4 lbs. 4 oz.

 



 Fish On!

Christmas 2013

 





Fish On!

2013 Year In Review

4 lb 13 oz Lunker of the Year

 

3 lb 6 oz Lady Lunker of the Year

 

Bassmaster Elite Series - Showdown at the St. Lawrence River

 

Suitable for framing

 

Last pic of 2013 - October 27th

 



Another season is in the books!  Welcome to our year end summary for the Black Lake Lunker Hunters.  The short story is the bass fishing was horrible this year.  The long story is we had a great time at Black Lake again.  We love this place!

The season started full of anticipation and excitement as usual.  We opened the cottage on May 25th.  I prefer to open a little earlier, but such if life.  The fishing began uneventful on Saturday, June 15th at 5:45 am.  The water level was really high.  We caught 11 bass after six hard hours of fishing.  Not a good sign.  The slow bite continued through the rest of the month.  We only hauled in 84 bass in our 11 fishing days for the month.  Average catch per day was 7.6 bass.  You can imagine my disappointment.  Denise had the biggest bass of the month at 3 lbs. 6 oz.

The bite picked up a tad in July, but was still way below our average take.  July typically pulls in big numbers of bass for us.  But we only caught 155 bass for 17 days of fishing.  That's an average of 9.1 bass per day.  Not great my any means.  We had 7 bass over 3 pounds.  The best being 3 lbs 7 oz.  By this time we were highly disappointed in our catch for June and July.  I guess the bass bite runs in cycles and this was beginning to look like an off year.

The month of August turned out to be decent with our fish count going up and the bass getting bigger.  For the month of August we brought in 174 bass for 13 fishing days.  That's an average of 13.4 bass per day.  The best bass was a nice 4 lb 13 oz Lunker.  It's our best bass in 5 years.  Only 3 ticks short of the 5 pound club.  This month we caught nine bass over 3 pounds, with 4 of them being over 4 pounds.  The other 4's were, 4 lb 7 oz, 4 lb 10oz and 4 lb 11 oz.  I should point out that the lake water level returned to a more normal state.  One highlight for this month was going to see the Bassmaster Elite Series pros at the St. Lawrence River in Waddington.  What a great time we had.

During September we caught 72 bass during 9 fishing days.  Not good at all!  That's an average of 8 bass per day.  We only brought in two Lunkers this month.  A 3 lb 9 oz and a nice 4 lb 5 oz.  We participated in the annual Dash for Cash bass fishing tournament on September 15th.  We did horrible!  We caught 10 bass for the day, with our 3 best only weighing 7.1 lbs.  Due to our low weigh, high winds and very rough water, we decided not to ride to the weigh-in.  Turned out to be a good call because we needed at least 9.19 lbs to qualify in the money.  Wait till next year though!  ha ha ha.

There was no fishing in October as we pulled the boat out on the 5th.  As I sit here and add up our fish count numbers for the year, I'm in shock!  We only managed to catch 485 bass this year.  That's 185 fewer bass than last year.  And 274 fewer bass compared to two years ago.  That is really unbelievable.  We had 21 bass over 3 pounds.  That's 10 less than last year.  We had 5 bass over 4 pounds.  That's 6 less than last year.

Now I'm sure other fisherman did better than us, but I'm convinced that the bass bite this year was off and our worst since coming to the lake in 2006.  Some year had to be bad, so I guess this was it.  I'm pretty sure next year will be better.  I hope we get back in the 600+ to 700 + for the year.  Time will tell!

Thanks for checking into my reports this year.  I hope to bring more fishing reports in 2014.  Live long and prosper!  Until next time folks...   Fish On!

Alan the Angler

Here are some pics of Alan the Angler with some nice Black Lake bass.  His Columbus day weekend last hoorah.  All fish released.

3.5 Smally

 4.0 Largemouth

 Big one is a 3.5 Largemouth



Good job Alan!  Fish On!

Closing weekend Oct. 26 & 27

Cottage Oct. 27, 2013

200 amp service panel finally installed.



Peninsula Oct. 27, 2013



 

Lakeview Oct. 27, 2013



Finally closed the cottage for the year.  We are usually closed up by the first or second weekend in October.  Had to wait a few weeks for the new electric service to be installed.  National grid ran a new supply line to our addition and installed a new electric meter.  Our contractor installed a new 200 amp breaker box.  No more old fashion fuse box to deal with.  The next couple years I'm going to have my work cut out for me finishing the new addition.  I will post our season ending fishing summary in a few weeks.  Until next time folks...   Fish On!

Oct. 5th & 6th - Boat, Hoist and Dock removal

Boat out at the launch.

Taking out the dock.



 

One dock section out.



 

Hoist on the lower deck.



View of the peninsula.

View of the cove looking south.



We took boat, boat hoist and dock out of the water this weekend.  It's always sad when the season comes to an end.  But we had a great year as usual.  We didn't catch as many fish this year as we normally do.  Not really sure why.  But I did catch my biggest bass since 2008.  I'll be posting a season ending wrap-up within the next few weeks.  Until next time folks...  Fish On!

Dan & Mary's Excellent Adventure; at Black Lake

Today we have a guest fishing report from some nice folks from Pennsylvania,  Dan and Mary.  Earlier in the year they contacted me through my website looking for some information and advice on Black Lake.  After a few months of procrastination (I think?) they pulled the trigger and booked their vacation.  Below are a few of their pictures and their fishing report (word for word).  Hope you enjoy it.  I did!  P.S.  I think Mary's smally looks bigger than Dan's.  Sorry Dan...ha ha ha

Dan 4.06 lb Smally



Mary 3.00 lb Smally



Mary 3.02 lb Largemouth



This is Dan from Pa. Reporting on our trip.
Arrived early on the Sept. 21, excited to get out but as you know it POURED all day. We did not go out but we did have a very nice day in our lake front cabin at Pleasant View watching the lake, college football and a bottle of wine, very relaxing. I was surprised how many people still fished Saturday, guess our age was showing a little!
We originally made reservations for a week but added two more days so we had 8 fishing days, made up for the rainy day. The first day out I found it rather

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daunting, so much water, so many shorelines ( we fish ponds at home ) I researched so much prior to the trip and when I got out there it was like a never read a thing about the lake lol! We first went to your recommendation, orchard bay, did pretty good got five and had a few line breaks(had to loosen the drags, not like fishing for 1 pounders at home). That evening talking to the owner of pleasant view we found out the hot spots map is not very accurate and we were actually about a half mile from orchard bay! Once he explained where things were on the map we were good to go after that lol! We found several things challenging, the wind and the weeds. Trying to maneuver a pontoon boat with a trolling motor around the islands in the wind was really hard for two that have no boating experience. We didn't catch a lot of fish but the quality of fish was great( by our standards). We caught 40 bass and 2 small pike and 1 small walleye. We did go to Indian river one afternoon for crappies and stayed a couple hours and caught over 100 including sunfish, you would catch about 50 an hour with two people. After a couple hours of this we decided it was not that much fun and we were going back to " real" fishing! The photo of Mary is with her biggest lm she ever caught 3.02#, the next photos of the sm were both of our

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personal records on sm. Mine was 4.06# and hers was 3.00#. The sm were very special for us because the bass we catch here are 100% LM. Boy do they fight! No comparison to our largemouth here, frankly I'm surprised we got them both in the boat, what a thrill, we will never forget it. We caught them both at the same spot on back to back casts ! We got them on day 8 ( thank goodness we added xtra days!). It was a beautiful day (Sat.) we went out at 9:30 and had not caught anything, we stopped for lunch just as we entered the south end of the cut at 2:00 , just a little north of those 3 buoys, we anchored and were casting toward shore for a while and I thought I would cast one away from shore in light weeds and the big one hit. When we finally got it in Mary cast to the same place and got hers! I swear I still had not settled down the next morning!lol. Those two fish made our whole trip, what a thrill! We had a great time and thanks again for all your help, maybe we will see you there some day.

Dan and Mary

Fish On!

Sept 28th & 29th fishing report

Denise with her last bass of the year.  Saturday, Sept. 28th.

Autumn near peak, Lonesome Bay behind Watch Island, Saturday, Sept. 28th.



 

Lookout Island with Hogback Island behind it, Sept. 28th.



Lonesome Bay looking North.

 

Lonesome Bay, behind Watch Island.





This is our last two days fishing for the year.  We had great Autumn weather both days.

Saturday, Sept. 28th -  Clear and cool to start, 46 degrees.  Fished 8:45 am until 1 pm.  Caught 7 bass.  Nothing big.  Fished all over Lonesome Bay, RP Bay, MP Bay.  Bite was slow.  But a beautiful fall day.  Fished 5 pm until 7 pm.  Caught 9 bass.    16 total bass for the day.

Sunday, Sept. 29th -  Sunny and clear to start, 59 degrees.  Fished 10 am until 12:15 pm.  Only caught 2 bass.  Winds picked up today.  Fished Apple Island, Grindstone Bay and Conger Island.  Bite was slow.  It's always difficult fishing when the winds are up.  But still love being out there.

18 total bass for the weekend.  The fall foliage is near peak and very picturesque.   Some year it would be nice to be able to fish all the way through October, or even November.  I think when we get closer to retirement, it could be time to trade in the bass boat for a pontoon boat.  If we can make do without a bass boat & boat hoist, we could fish longer into the fall.  Until next time folks...Fish On!

Sept 21st & 22nd fishing report

No fish pics this week.  Here's a pic of the new addition after a weeks work.

Crappy fishing weekend.  But were liking the work done on the addition so far.

Saturday Sept 21st -  Rain out!  No fishing today.  Waaaaaaaaa!!!

Sunday Sept 22nd - Fished 10am until 12:30.  Very windy today.  Hid behind Conger Island.  Caught 7 bass.  Nuttin special.

Shortest report ever!  Until next time folks...   Fish On!

Sept 14th & 15th fishing report (dash for cash)

3 lb 9 oz Saturday Sept. 14th (day before the Dash)

Brier Hill FD Dash meeting Saturday Sept. 14th



Boats getting ready to launch for the Dash.

Denise is very cold at our starting spot.



2 lb 9 oz 

2 lb 4 oz Smally

Lunker board Dash for Cash.  5.14 lbs got Lunker of the Day.

Gathering at the weigh-in.

Ben, Tim, Darryl, Den, Bri.

Den, Ben & Tim hunting for Dash lunkers.

Award time.

Denise!



Dash for Cash weekend report.  We did not do well in the tournament Sunday.

Saturday Sept 14th -  Practice day. Caught 9 bass.  Cool, 45 degrees to start.  Fished 7am until noon.  3 lb 9 oz best.  Our hot spot was good first thing in the morning.  Caught 3 keepers in five minutes, then left.  Denise caught a nice Pike. 

Sunday Sept 15th -  Dash for Cash tournament day.  48 degrees, clear with s/w wind to start.  We were in the boat at 5:30 am.  Launch at 6:25am.  Pretty windy and would get very windy later in the day.  We caught 10 bass for the day, but could only manage 7 lbs 1 oz.  It got so windy by 3 pm we decided not to ride back to the weigh-in docks.  Very big waves!!!  Too risky, and somewhat dangerous with the long boat ride.  Our best three bass were 2 lbs 9 oz, 2 lbs 4 oz (smally), and another 2 lb 4 oz smally.  Needless to say we had a tough and disappointing day.  Our hot spot yesterday produced nothing today.  Go figure.  After we boated back to our cottage we snapped a couple fish pics and drove the car to the weigh-in.  The winning team had 12.21 lbs.
2nd place = 11.61 lbs.  3rd place = 11.57 lbs.  10th place = 10.04 lbs.  23rd place = 9.19 lbs gets first launch next year.  To get in the money you needed better than 9.19 lbs.
Hourly Lunkers:
1 = 4.81 lbs
2 = 4.75 lbs
3 = 5.14 lbs (Lunker of the Day)
4 = 4.80 lbs
5 = 4.40 lbs
6 = 4.25 lbs
7 = 4.84 lbs
Lady Lunker = 4.79 lbs
Biggest Smallmouth = 3.73 lbs

That wraps up this years Dash.  Can't wait till next year.  Until next time folks...    Fish On!