Need advice for Black Lake

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Freebird
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Need advice for Black Lake

Post by Freebird » Mon May 07, 2012 7:46 pm

I'm new to this site and Black Lake. We recently visited Black Lake while making our yearly trip to the St. Lawrence and thought we might give it a try next year for something different. Any general advice would be much appreciated. We generally fish for pike with our kids. We release everything but I'm curious as to thoughts on the pike fishing. Also looking for advice on where to stay regarding cabins. We stopped by a place that had the boats docked backwards to avoid wind pushing them into bank. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Phil
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by Phil » Tue May 08, 2012 4:44 am

Welcome. Hope you enjoy Black Lake as much as we all do. It's a great place with great folks.
You can look at the accommodations page - it is listed on the left of all pages on this site. They are all good places.
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JR
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by JR » Tue May 08, 2012 11:43 am

Welcome,

I don't claim to be an expert, but since you have no experience with the lake at all, it can't hurt to try. I fish B.L. the week before Memorial day every year and do the majority of my fishing on the North side of the lake which is shallower so keep that it mind.

As far as pike go, Black Lake is my number one Lake for them. I have better luck there than anywhere else I've fished for them. It is simply the #1 fish I am after every year. Now please keep in mind that every lake has good and bad years for each species. This lake is no different, but on average, it's excellent. Keep in mind that coming from the St. Lawrence, these pike are generally smaller than what you are probably used too, but should be alot more of them. We catch a ton between 18" and 24" but starts tapering off after that. Our group record was set by my tiny little sister in law about 10 years ago at 32", and no matter how much I read, practice or buy from the store, I still have to look at her cute but smug little face every year when I fail to beat it. As far as numbers go, we can go from only a couple per person per day on a really bad year to a couple dozen each per day on a good one. I am hoping for the best in two weeks!

Not knowing how old your kids are makes it a little difficult to give you accurate tips on how to fish for them, but let's assume they can cast lures and not hook themselves or you doing it. Our preference is to fish the bays off of the sides of the lake, where we cast everything in our boxes to find out what they like. We have had our best luck with stick bait lures in various colors and inline spinners. We generally like to drift and cast to cover area and find out if they are shallow, deeper, aggresive, picky, etc. Once we see what works, we concentrate on that.

As far as where to stay, it seems to me that most of the people we run into around here have been doing it for quite a number of years and go to the same place year after year. It is almost a tradition. We are no exception. We stay at Camp Carol and it has been very good to us. There are, however, many nice places to stay at around the lake and I don't think that you will be able to pick a really bad one. With a little research online, I would pick one that sounds good, and when you are here, feel free to stop and check out the other places in the area to compare for next year. Be careful, though, this place is addictive and my son, father, and I couldn't stop coming if we tried!

Good luck and I hope this helps. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

JR
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by JR » Tue May 08, 2012 11:48 am

By the way, when in doubt, a big bobber with a chub under it is hard to beat. Even when fishing is slow and we go after the panfish near shore to keep ourselves occupied, I generally have a big bobber out of the other side of the boat. If your kids are younger, this would be my number one suggestion.

Good Luck

Fishpro
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by Fishpro » Tue May 08, 2012 12:08 pm

Welcome to Black Lake! As far as Pike fishing is concerned, the lake is pretty good when it comes to Northern Pike and to a lessor degree - Walleyes. The lake overall is rather shallow when compared to other larger bodies of water with an average of 12 - 18 feet. There is a South West wind that tends to keep the Southern portion active for what seems to be most of the season. A deep V boat to handle the waves and rollers is probably the best for this lake. Otherwise one finds themselves with limited time for really enjoying the lake. Recommend having your boat cleaned to prevent transfer of any evasive species from other bodies of water. Pike season, as you probably now now, opened this past Saturday. Check your state fishing book on sizes. While fishing for Pike you will more than likely start catching Bass. Black lake has a bass season that starts on the Third Saturday of June. Until then there is no early season for them nor is there a catch and release season. So try to avoid them if possible by using spoons, minnow lures etc. Have a Great Time ! - Catch and Release !

erik
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by erik » Tue May 08, 2012 6:58 pm

jr, do you come up with rob aikins crew?

Freebird
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by Freebird » Tue May 08, 2012 10:47 pm

Thanks to all for the great advice. We practice catch and release and certainly plan to respect others and future fishing.

JR
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by JR » Wed May 09, 2012 9:34 am

Erik,

No, we come by ourselves every year, but see the same people all the time and probably know them. My father, son and I will be in the blue Lund if you would like to introduce yourself. I think we lost the 4th of our team for this year due to surgery, so I don't get to bring my ugly brown MFG trihull this year and we will be in one boat. Probably not a bad thing, being that I snapped the drive shaft in the motor 2 days into the trip last year and still had to rent a boat. Although I love the ugly, yet functional thing (Reminds me of me), I'm not too depressed about upgrading to Dad's Lund. Kind of like not being able to drive my 72 Ford Pinto, but getting to ride shot gun in a Cadillac.

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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by jack » Wed May 09, 2012 2:53 pm

HI, I'VE BEEN GOING TO BL FOR 30 PLUS YEARS AND ALWAY DID GOOD ON THE NORTH END, A LITTLE PASS CAMP CAROL. I USE A WEEDLESS JOHNSON SPOON WITH A TWIN TAIL WHITE GRUB OR JUST THE WHITE GRUB. DON'T FOR GET THE WIRE LEADER IF NOT YOUR GOING TO GO THRU A LOT OF LURES. GOOD LUCK JACK

JR
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by JR » Wed May 09, 2012 3:28 pm

You know, in all the years of fishing for Pike, I've lost 10 times the lures on snags or stupidity than I've lost from pike cutting the line with their teeth. It just doesn't seem to happen very often for me, maybe once every 5 years or so. I don't know if I'm extremely lucky or what, but I don't use leaders. I've tried in the past, but it seems to affect the action of my lures and I get a lot less bites. I'm curious how many people fish with and without them. Maybe I'll start another topic to pose the question to everyone!

mbanko17
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by mbanko17 » Wed May 09, 2012 7:39 pm

hey fish pro, You cant tell people what lures to use. Pike hit spinnerbaits, jerk baits, swim baits etc. If I catch A BASS out of season it will be released.
Are you one of the water police that always pulls me over.? If so Im bringing up the same old boat.

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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by Phil » Wed May 09, 2012 9:07 pm

And, if I'm not mistaken, the average depth of Black Lake is but 10'. There are not too many areas on the North end that go deeper than that. I think those numbers come from the DEC' calculations.
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Tori
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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by Tori » Wed May 09, 2012 9:55 pm

Phil, not sure about the average depth of Black Lake, but you would be hard pressed to find areas that are 10 feet deep in the north end....esp past the Monument. Phil, your knowledge of the lake is bountiful.....thanks for sharing it with all of us.
Tori

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Re: Need advice for Black Lake

Post by wishin fishin » Thu May 10, 2012 9:40 pm

going on my 25th year my girls (4) cut their fishing teeth on sun fish in the south end. i love blk. lk. its the fishermans paradise. i fish the south end in the summer for lrg. mouth and the north end in the spr. for crappie, northern, sunfish (can be gotten anywhere) and walleye. i gotten an occassional channel cat on the south end and a few blue cats on the n. end. no matter wherev you fish you can't miss oh! the north end hold all of the small mouth - rocky shoals. i'll be up there next week 5/16 - 5/21 we love plesant veiw cottages i have the best fish cleaning station.

tight lines

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