KenLattimore

Managed to get out at Black Hills Sunday morning (7-11am) and a little during the evening (5-6:45pm). Caught three in the morning with the largest going about 3lbs- got one each on a jig, topwater and plastic in that order! Caught two more in the evening about 1-2lbs on plastic. Just curious, has anyone caught any. I those muskies that wee stocked last year?

Great news Sean. Congratulations!!!

I found the same thing. Made it out this Saturday and while I managed four fish over a five hour outing it was definitely the lowest I've ever seen in the three years I've been going. Shoreline was around 2 plus feet further out than usual. I do think they draw it down during the spring though. Maybe Sean can chime in since he's been fishing there much longer.

Thanks guys. If memory serves me correct the last stocking was just last year. I think the lapse was due to a supplier issue. Sean can probably verify but I think it was discussed on the thread. If it was last year I wonder how big they are at this point.

Hey Sean! Thanks for the reminder. It was a sizable swirl, so who knows. Didn't those fish get stocked last year? How big do you think they've gotten in that time?

Went to Black Hills on Saturday morning and evening. Managed three and the morning and two that evening. Lost a fish that evening that I think may have been huge, after I set the hook I felt a lot of weight but she broke me off about 10-15 feet from shore. I saw a big swirl where she had me wrapped around a log and that was it. Haven't stopped thinking about since...

Managed to get out to Black Hills on Saturday and yesterday (Wednesday). Saturday was tough with me fishing from 6am-noon and having one fish to show for my efforts and that was caught about an hour after I arrived. Wednesday however was a different story as I caught five fish from 7-9pm. There was a lot of activity with fish swirling and splashing all around. I think the rain storms and lower temps were definitely some contributing factors, but the few times I've managed to get out in the evening have been my most productive by far. Of the five I caught yesterday, 3 were about two pounds with the other two pretty small maybe around 12". My favorite lure this season has easily been the Fat Ika. I've used it almost exclusively. I really wanted to try my hand at jigs, but having a hard time switching. That being said my only fish on Sautrday and my last fish of the evening yesterday were both caught on a jig.

Got out yesterday evening to Black Hills from 6-8pm. Caught four with the largest going around 3.5lbs. Each fish caught got progressively bigger starting with a 13-14" fish to the last one at 3.5 lbs. There was another fisherman on the bank with me who snapped a pic for me. I'll post a pic when I get to a laptop.

Went over to Black Hills from 6-7:30pm. Managed four from about 3lbs to a dink, but three of the four ranged from 14-17". Definitely a better bite in the evening, too bad it's so hard for me to get out at that time. Heading up to NYC for the holiday. Enjoy the 4th!

Managed to get out on Saturday morning at Black Hills from 6:30-12:00. Only managed one after switching to a super fluke on a weighted hook. Came back for revenge around 5:00pm for about an hour. Managed two with one around 3lbs and missed two others. Not bad for a short outing. I may need to start going out at the latter half of the day from now on.

I managed to get out at Black Hills over the Father's Day weekend (Fri, Sat & Sun). Just a couple of hours on Fri and Sun, and fished from 6:30am - 1pm on Sat. Overall not too bad with 2 fish on both Fri and Sun. Managed five and lost two on Saturday. Biggest fish around 2.5-3 lbs. Can't put my finger on it but this season seems a little slow.

Brian, great fish man! I plan makin it down there tonight for about an hour. Definitely going for a few hours on Saturday or Sunday morning.

I've checked out the Urbana Fish Management Area (Chevy Chase Lake) once myself. I was with my two year old daughter so only got to look around a little before she got impatient. It's a little hard to find but I was told it holds some nice fish. If anyone wants to give it a shot one day let me know. I'd be willing to go on a little scouting mission.

I had a chance to go to BH today to wet a line. Went out from 3-5pm and managed to catch two, about 14 and 16" respectively. Not sure of the water temp but estimate in the low 40s. Dragged a worm painfully slow on the bottom. Excited to have done well given the time of year and reports from others. Good luck out there the prespawn is around the corner!!!

It was my birthday Tuesday so I took a day off from work and went out to Black Hills. Got out there later than expected at around 8:45 and fished until 1:00. Not one of my best days, but far from the worse. Also, fished the area of the lake over at Wynnfield from 4:00-5:00pm with nothing to show for my efforts. On my third cast which was a long one with a Fat Ika I hooked into a nice fish, it jumped twice and I could see it definitely had some size to it even from a distance. Unfortunately, it became unbuttoned close to shore and I never got a closer look. A few casts later another hit, but couldn't set the hook. Finally, got a hit and set the hook, but I waited too long and gut hooked the fish. I was unable to get the hook out and started to panic after several minutes so I cut the line and left the hook in. Well, that was a mistake because a few minutes later the fish was splashing around in the shallow water about to die. Well, the fish gods stopped smiling after that because I didn't get a bite for the rest of the day, outside of some bluegills pecking away. I defintely had a problem this year with gut hooking fish, particularly with Fat Ikas. I've used the site's guide on guthooked fish though and almost all the fish seemed to swim away okay. Hoping the weather will hold up and I will go back out during the weekend of 11/3, sooner if I'm lucky. Good luck to all!

Hey Sean, I thought about texting you Sunday as well, but wasn't comfortable sending a text so early in the morning! While at BH I remembered you telling me how your catch rate decreased dramatically in October! When I went to Dickerson the water was covered with tiny green "plants", so much that the top of the water was totally green and when I threw my frog it would open up then close in a couple of seconds. I threw a frog and a jig, but never made it past the trail to the disccharge. The water level at the discharge seemed decent, but I have nothing to compare it to. Pretty disturbing how much garbarge was down there from other fisherman... I'm going to try to get out again this weekend, but in all likelihood won't be back on the water until the follwoing weekend. Good luck to everyone that makes it out!

I managed to get out on Sunday. Started out at Black Hills over by the stickups area for nothing. I decided to take a trip out to Dickerson to fish the canal, also for nothing. Then i walked down the path to the warm water discharge and threw a jig a few times to see I could get lucky and catch my first smallmouth and got nothing for my efforts. So I managed a big fat ZERO, pretty depressing...

Nice catch sprirobass! Good to see somebody taking advantage of last night. Monocracy, sounds like you and FatBoy had a great day! Hopefully FatBoy will submit his usual fantastic posts along with some pics. I'm going to try to give it another try Sunday morning at BH. Good luck this weekend everybody!

This is the last one for the season. A big IF that I'll be able to make it out tonight, but if I do I'm going to be over by the tubes. I'd rather go over by the stickups but I'm ill prepared for night fishing only having a flashlight.

Defintely an intersting morning!!! Kevin, at least you ended your season catching a fish...lol! The worse part was that as the emergency crew worked on Kevin the fish was able to swim away! Sorry your season ended prematurely, but hopefully you'll be ready by pre-spawn. I'm going to attempt to get out tonight at BH to take advantage of it being open till midnight. Just gotta find an excuse to take a "ride". Anyone else getting out there tonight?

Nice catch Sean! I spoke to Kevin yesterday and we'll probably meet up on Sunday morning at BH. This time I'm coming prepared...braid, a Koppers frog, and a couple of pack of Rage toads!

Thanks! I'll be sure to check it out if I have the time.

Hello All! I'll be going on an unexpected trip to Charleston, SC this weekend due to a funeral and wanted to see if anyone could share any information on bass foshing. I'll only be there 2-3 days and probably will only be able to sneak out for several hours to do a little bank fishing. Thanks in advance!

Kevin (KingFisher) and I got out today at BH, Basser89 joined us a little later. We started out around the corner from the stickups and I immediately caught one on a Fat Ika. After a few casts Kevin started throwing a Stanley Ribbit. I asked for one and said I might a well throw t the grass mat Sean mentioned. Wow...I made 8 casts an had 5-6 blowups! I finally managed to land one after a few more casts. Sean came up a little while afterwards, I was throwing a Koppers at this point. I had several more blowups on the frog and later on a Senko dragged across the top. We moved to a different grass may where a had 2-3 more blowups, but no hookups. I've only been bass fishing one year and this was easily the most frustrating day ever. I wound up with two fish and somewhere around a dozen blowups. A lot of the blowups just missed, but I felt weight on about 4-5. Mom said there would be days like this! Hopefully I be able to get out again next weekend. This time I'll have some braid.

Sprirobass, I went to a pond off 124. I'm not sure of the name of the pond. It's pretty small being only a couple of acres, if that. A friend of mine told me about it. It's in a residential area and I doubt it's fished very often. I will go back there in the fall when it should be a little more accessible. Sean, sounds like you had a great day! Kevin and I plan on going out tomorrow morning at first light. I think I'll stick to BH and go over to the stick ups. I still haven't spooled my other spool with braid so I'll have to think twice before throwing my Koppers frog. Maybe we'll see you out there. I'll be sure to post to say how we did.