Craziest Night of Fishing Ever

[wishin fishin]

[I was there last week (16-21), couldn't ask for better weather, we were avging. 40 crappie a day ea. 4- guys in a boat. lots under 9 but also lots very large as well. my largest crappie was 12 1/2", i have never seen so many large crappie. i met a guy at the fish cleaning station (pleasant veiw) - he had a 16" crappie it looked to be 3-4 lbs. i'm kicking myself for not taking a pic. what is the record crappie for blk lk.? i didn't know blk. lk. has strg. years ago i caught a channel cat at night 16 lbs.

[TeamEighmey]

I dont know what the BL record on crappie is but like you said 12- 12 1/2 is the biggest we've ever caught , so it may very well be, and yes BL has sturgeon, I don tknow the history of what is stocked in the lake, but I do know when looking at the map a river runs out of the St Lawrence thru Ogdensburg then that river forks into two , the one way just snakes off and the other goes right into BL, so regardless of stocking theres always a potential for big fish in the lake, and ya jus as a few guys on here had the same experiance as I with a monster fish , alot of locals I spoke to have as well , the last set of guys I spoke to the last night of the trip at the bridge , informed they walleye and catfish that bridge frequently and have indeed spotted 6-7 foot sturgeon in there, not saying thats for sure what they were but theres a good chance, no matter what they were , monster sturgewon , monster catfish , monster walleye or monster muskie, i now will try every year to try an land one of these to see indeed what they are that frequenlty hangs under that bridge

[Phil]

The river you see on the map - Oswegatchie - runs "into" the St. Lawrence/drains Black Lake. Originates in the Adirondaks above Cranberry Lake. There are two dams (impassable by any fish) between the St. Lawrence and Black Lake, one is in Ogdensburg and the other is Eeelwire dam, just down stream from where Black Lake drains into the Oswegatchie. Fish can move "down towards the St. Lawrence" but not the other way.
Another bit of information - occasionally you can see the lake moving "south" at the causeway. At times, because of water flows, the Oswegatchie can actually back up into Black Lake. Tell you what, when that happens the lake will rise rather quickly.
The Indian River (coming from Jefferson County and the Indian River chain of lakes) is a "warmer" watershed; usually gives Black Lake warmer water, and earlier fish spawns, than the other rivers/water in the area.
I think you can get the fish species stocking records from the NYDEC web site.

[TeamEighmey]

Niccce... see you learn something new every day!! i dont have much knowldge of the water systems up there just from what i can see on the maps, def a good thing to know, are either of those dams able to be fished from shore cause deff would be worth checkn out if so

[Phil]

Neither dam has water flowing over it at this time of year. All the water is controlled through hydro generators. Used to be a member on here that was an operator, or something, at the Ogdensburg facility. He would know all the access spots.

[weiserbomb20]

Maybe is missed it in this posting but what bridge did you hook into these monsters. Is it the bridge that seperates the North and South of BL?

[TeamEighmey]

yup the small one , were 58 crosses 6, theres an abandoned gas station at the corner and a flashing red light

[harry pikeman]

2 years ago we saw carp rolling over on the Lillie's , hundreds of them. It was awesome. They could be a possibility for sure.

[TeamEighmey]

I have caught alot of carp not from Black Lake but closer to home, my biggest I caught in raddison ponds in Baldwinsville NY it was 48inchs and probably weighed at least 30-50 lbs, and that one I had snagged in the tuff of its back fin, I dont believe what i hooked into was a carp reason 1 being that i could not move this fish, not even when it was still , it was so heavey I could not budge it, now it could be a carp but if so it would have had to be at least 100 or so pounds, this fish all 3 times I hooked into it felt bigger then me, reason 2 being that I found with carp after a while they will get tired out and go belly up, thats what my 48 incher did i fought it for about a half hour then finally it tired out went belly up and i dragged it in across the top of the water, this fish fought way harder then any other carp i have ever caught, and after fighting this fish for 30-40 mintues it went nuts like I had just hooked it an hadnt been fighting it at all and I dont fish for carp so every carp i have caught have been accidently snagged into which also makes a fish feel bigger when your fighting it, but i have enouph experience with them to pretty much rule out a carp, I mean anythings possible but if it was it was definitly record size and fought unlike any Ive ever caught before, so you never know and anythings possible, with my experiance there as well as a few guys on here and a few locals I spoke to i am confident that eventualy we will find out what it is , it obviously frequents that area, probably sitting in the current feeding in that chanel, you cant mistake this fish when you hook it it runs like you just hooked into a mid size vehicle and it dont stop, it does what it wants and you cant do anything to stop it....I myself will try every year Im am ther to get another shot at it, and the next time i do it will have at least my 10 ft pole with wayyy heaveir lb line then i had on.....If it is a sturgeon as i suspect the chances of me landing it are slim to none, and with one of those you wouldnt actualy land it anyway , just get a look at it in the water before I cut the line, but thats all i want i just want to see it, and shoot even if I dont hook into that theres other monsters in there, besides the 4 walleye i caught, all biggins( 24" 5-7lbs a piece), I lost a really big walleye bigger then any of the ones i had caught already , we landed a about a 30-36inch Gar Pike there as well and seen a few swimming, the fact the the lake gets channeled thru such a small area with the current the way it is makes it a good spot for fish activity

[wilson0983]

My guess would be a catfish. I ended up catching 3 on my trip last August which were between 7 -10 lbs each and I have to say this was the first time I caught a fish under 10 lbs that actually had my arms wore out after a 10 - 15 minute fight. They just hug the bottom and do not want to come up. We are heading there July 7th for our next trip and I can't wait to hook up with a few more of those. All 3 were caught and released.

[TeamEighmey]

Nice , ya the locals there said they have caught 30lb catfish out of there...and my cousin who also hooked up into one said he swears he got a flash of it, I be more likley to lean toward catfish then a carp , theres a good chance they are laying in there and if there are indeed 20 -30lb catfish in there if I jigged into one and had it foul hooked it def would be one hell of a fight, well deffinitly share if you do catch any beasts in there!!

[tr21]

We were at the lake 5-19 thru 5-29. My grandson got into afish that he could not stop. My son went after it with the troiling motor. After about 30 min they got it. It was a 15 lb CARP hooked in the dorsal fin.

[Phil]

Just came across this story on Lake Sturgeon. The Oswegatchie River in this story is what Black Lake drains into.

[vinnerbaits]

I caught this monster cat right before dark as you can see. We saw fish rolling on our way in and stopped thinking they were bass busting on bait. I made the bad decision to throw a 3" senko using my 3.5' ultralite rod and hooked into this guy. Took me 25 minutes and 40-50 mosquito bites to land it LOL.
Give it a try some night for cats, they are lots of fun.

[Phil]

Nice -
Like this one on a 29" light ice rod with 4lb. powerpro and a 6lb. mono leader, through a 6"hole in the ice. A good 30 minute fight (with no mosquitos)