Black Lake, NY Forum

where are all the post? Nothing since early July?

Muskies are chasing. Seldom hitting. Only 1 boated so far. Water is surprisingly cool for August, 76 F.

A lot of what seems to be northerns breaching water completely vertical between the narrows and white boat house. Some seem to be small, others are noticeably large. Tossed big rubber and swimbaits but nothing wanted to chew what we had. Smallmouth are on fire though!

Make that 2 in the boat.

Great work glad to hear someone is catching something,

Have also seen those breaching fish in that area in past years and farther south of there. Not just a few. I quit counting at 40, but none were close enough to identify but some were quite big. Tried everything, no bites. Made me wonder if they were Sturgeon. It seemed like there would not be that many Sturgeon in the lake. Carp maybe, but I never saw Carp do that. I have seen Pike jump out of the water going after something but these fish did not seem to be feeding.

Yes those are sturgeon. Lots of them. In 1993 the DEC stocked 10,000 here with more later on....more than anywhere else in the state totalling nearly 30,000....they live a long time and now they're big..so what do you think they are planning to do with them all?

The sturgeon recovery plan on the DEC site states if numbers are good in 2024 they will be removed from the threatened species list. And opened to angling? That is my guess...popular with the ice fisherman out west.

I'm concerned about the effect they are having on this lake.

Alot of those fish are Gar and
Bowfin. The bigger splashes
are indeed sturgeon. Last Thursday there was a bunch of them at the shoal between the narrows and back bay.
There was also a school of smallmouth in closer to the shoreline..

Wow! The bite continued, UNTIL Sunday when the bottom dropped out of the nice weather. We boated one musky on Sat. and never saw another fish thru Tuesday morning.
I wonder if they'll get active again when the weather changes back a bit?

Closed up Fish Camp for the year
Good news is it was another good fishing year. Our small group netted 3 muskies and saw quite a few more
Said goodbye to friends and thankee to the water for her gifts. We will reconvene in May.
God, I am a lucky man!

Thanks for the post Musky Hunter. Apparently the bass fishing has been so poor no one had anything to post all summer. Look forward to following you post next year.