Reservation Number : 19475
Property Name : BlackJack Ranch
Reservation Date : 09/17/2018 PM -
Total Fish/Sizes : 27
Lures Used : flukes, chatterbait, squarebill

Fellow member Bob Scheidemann and I fished BlackJack on the afternoon of the 17th.  Conditions were mid-90's air temp with broken, thin overcast and light breezes that would disappear at times.  The lake is 8-10" low with very clear 91-degree water and more submerged aquatic vegetation than I have ever seen here.

The vegetation forms a moderate to thick mat all the way to the end of the pier and outboard where the tops don't make it all the way to the surface, it is a fairly dense submerged carpet rather than clumps.  Visibility is about 4.5 - 5 feet in the water and the vegetation seems to thin out in water depths >12 feet.

After catching only one bass from the end of the pier, we moved to the shallow end of the lake to fish a few modestly open areas that were within casting distance from shore.  We started catching bass in 6-18" of water by target-casting chatterbaits and flukes to where the weeds were being moved by the bass as they chased baitfish.  After a while this action stopped and we launched the boat and fished all over the lake with only modest success until about 6PM.  A couple of bass were caught on a blue worm and one on the first cast with a lipless crank and another on the first cast with a small squarebill.  After that, they showed no interest in either worms or crankbaits.  Between 6PM and 7PM, the action turned on again in the shallows.  You generally had one chance to either catch a bass that was moving the vegetation or you spooked them.

We caught 27 bass and culled 6.  Most of the released bass were healthy and 14-16" with a couple of 18" at the upper end.  One break-off seemed to be somewhat larger but I really missed the 5-6# bass that I used to routinely catch here.  Of course, given the vast amount of vegetation this year, they were probably just hiding while watching us and laughing.