Guided Bass Trip on Black Lake 8/14

[GuidedBassTrips]

Tues 8/14 I had Tom Papalia along with his father in law Jim and his son Jimmy for a guided bass trip on Black Lake. Tom is from Rochester and this is their 3rd year coming to Black Lake. They stay at McLears and have come around the same time each year. Tom told me they have caught a total of 5 bass the past two years fishing from a small rental boat. I picked them up at McLears at 6am and decided to have them fish on the bottom with crayfish all morning. I learned my lesson after my prior trip was a very slow day fishing with shiners. I've always stressed the importance of fishing the bottom during the peak of the algae bloom and didn't follow my own advice. The first shoal didn't produce a single bite but on the second shoal they began catching smallmouth on the crayfish. Turned out that was the best spot of the morning because when I moved them to other shoals they would catch only one or two and no more. Tom did catch a nice 3 1/2 lb largemouth later in the morning though. We came in for a lunch break and then went out with just Tom and Jimmy fishing. I started them with the crayfish again on another spot and after no action, I had noticed baitfish working the surface so I switched them both to a senko. They each caught a solid 3 pound smallmouth almost immediately. I spent the remainder of the afternoon moving them around with the senko and after catching only a couple of small ones, returned to that spot and Tom caught another 3 1/2 lb largemouth there. I noticed the water in that spot was a little clearer which is usually needed for that technique to work best. All bass were caught on circle hooks and released.