Dash for Dash 2010 Tournament Results

Here is a link to the tournament results from September 18th, 2010.
http://blacklakelunkerhunters.com/uploads/2010results.pdf
Fish On!

2011 Dash for Cash tournament

Today we received the official 2011 "Dash for Cash"-Big Bass -Lunker Hunt tournament entry form in the mail.  Woo hoo!  Filled it out, wrote a check, mailed it back!  The tournament is Sunday, September 18th.  (as expected).  Entry is limited to 136 teams.  $650 Hourly Lunker and Lunker of the Day.  First place will pay $2,500.  Who's gonna win it this year?  Only time will tell...


Fish on!

Arthur Lawton Musky

This is the long standing World Record Musky caught by

Arthur Lawton September 22, 1957 on the St. Lawrence River in NY. 64.5 ".  It weighed 69 lbs. 15 oz.

Fish On!

2010 Season Summary

It was a great year again at Black Lake.  This was our fifth season.  One thing I learned this year was to never try to predict if it was going to be a low water level year or high water year.  Same goes for weed density and matting.  When the season started with very low water for May, I figured that it would be a low water level year.  Not so.  Turned out that water gradually rose through July 1 and then started to drop until late August. Then it rose 18" through the 29th.  Dropping again through Sept until Oct 2nd when it came up over the dock.  Tropical storms bringing heavy rains were the cause.  By mid October water peaked up at over four feet.  As for weed denisity, it briefly got thick in some areas by not like 2006/07 when it was real bad.  Good, clean native milfoil was not common this year.  But some areas of Prince Island were clean.  Temperature wise, this year was the warmest of the prior four.  And also one of the warmest years in the last 100.  We really had a lot of beautiful sunny days with light winds!  Of course, we still had a few days were the winds were very gusty.  This always happens with just about any lake.  Okay, enough of that and on to the BASS FISHING!  This season we caught and released 728 Bass.  (yes we counted them all!)  Although we didn't do total counts in prior years, it seemed to be the most active fishing since 2006.  Unfortunately we didn't catch and 5 pounders again this year.  But we did manage 23 bass over 3 pounds.  Three of those were over 4 pounds, while two came in a 3 lbs. 15 oz.  Denise caught her biggest bass ever weighing in at 4 lbs. 2 oz.  She also had a nice 3 lb. 5 oz.  My best of the year was 4 lbs. 5 oz. down in L-bay.  In June the bite was best as we averaged 22 bass per day.  July average was 14 per day.  August average was 19 per day.  September average was 18 bass per day.  The bite in June and early July is always best for us.  From June 19th to 27th we caught 187 bass. Our best two day total was 63 bass.  (last year was 82).  The Dash for Cash - Big Bass - Lunker Hunt Tournament was on Sept. 19th.  The morning started out cool with no winds, turnning into a sunny clear day.  There were 138 teams this year.  We took a tenth place tie at 8.97 lbs, worth $175, our best finish ever!  We also won Lunker of the Hour #3 with a 3.92 pounder (3 lb. 15 oz.).  It was worth $650.  Not too shabby!  First place weighed in at 12.75 lbs.  They had lunker of the day at 5.77 lbs.  We fished a couple more weeks and then took the boat out.  We couldn't take the boat hoist out until October 23rd because of the insanely high water.  I always hate to close the cottage, but we did  the next day.  The air is cool and winter is on the horizon.  Ice fishing is only 8 weeks away for some guys.  But the Lunker Hunters will go into hibernation until next spring.  Until then...     Fish On!

Hoist rescued, cottage closed Oct. 23 - 24

The Hoist is finally out!

It's been three weeks since we were at the cottage last.  The water level finally dropped enough to get the hoist out.  It took around three hours to get it in position and up the ramp.  It didn't help that the winch bolt ripped out of my platform.  Wasted a half hour fixing it.  At least Saturday was sunny, no wind and flat water!  Some of the locals say they have never seen the water as high as it was two weeks ago.  Lake was probably around four feet above normal for October.  Sunday we winterized the cottage and packed up for the final time this year.  It rained all day too.  Blah!  But what a fantastic summer at Black Lake.  The next post will be a summary of our fishing season.  Until then...

Fish On!

Boat hoist rescue report Oct. 9th

We did not go to the cottage this weekend.  :-(  Water level came up a lot more since we left last Sunday.  No chance to rescue the boat hoist. The hoist will have to sit in the water at least 1, 2 or 3 more weeks.  I need the water level to drop at least 2 feet in order to get it out.  I'll post pics whenever that happens.  Whoopie!  When we get it out, we will close the cottage for the winter. Within the next 3 weeks, I'll post a season ending summary report of our 2010 catches.  It was a great summer that's for sure! This weekend we are closing our pool at home, doing yard work and some last minute painting.  Man, I'd rather be fishing!  ;-)  Until next time folks...

Fish On!

Here is an aerial pic of the main part of the lake looking north.



Fishing report Oct. 2nd - 3rd

Holy Cow!  High Water Weekend!

Well, there wasn't much fishing this weekend.  Arrived to 4" of rain in our gauge.  Water was 1" from the top of the dock.  There was seriously hard rain a couple days ago.  Saturday -  Only fished three hours and caught three bass.  Fishing was slow.  Got back to the dock and it was under water.  Decided to take the boat out.  Went over to the boat ramp and found out the ramp dock was one foot under water.  Needless to say we got wet getting the boat out.  Took out one section of the dock Saturday.  Got the second half out Sunday.  By Sunday the water had come up another 10".  I think the lake level is up well over two feet.  We were not able to get the hoist out due to the high water level.  I've never seen the lake this high in early October.  I guess we have to come up one more weekend to get the hoist out.  We took the boat home to store in the pole barn.  It will be difficult to go up next week and not be able to fish.  Oh well.  Till next time folks...

Fish On!