A bit disappointed in the past few days at Beaver Lake I decided to try Blackman’s Lake for the first time this weekend. Seeing that they had a fairly good plant numbers and size wise I ventured up there Saturday morning.

Got there at 7:45am with thick fog everywhere. Stupid me, I sat at Ferguson Park waiting to get into the Boat Launch for 45 minutes because the gate was locked to the road leading down to the launch. Before I packed it up all pissed off driving up from Renton I went for a walk to check out the area.

Boy was I stupid. The launch was available to get to from another road so I used the WDFW app and found my way down to a really nice flat close to the water launch.

Not knowing the lake and in thick fog, all I had as a reference was fish the West Side. Went left off the launch and trolled my Crankbaits in front of docks though I could not see any homes. It’s always nerve racking fishing a new area waiting to see if you are in the right area and have the right gear out waiting for that first strike.

Got banged really good and a Black FF but did not stick. Turned around and threw a tiny Daredevle on the other rod. Nothing so I stopped and reeled the spoon in slowly to switching it out what I Hook into a smaller Cuttthroat. Saw that the lake had some.

Worked my way left again and found the end of the lake so I followed the shoreline as it started heading towards the other parks fishing dock.. Huge area of Lilly’s that quickly started to produce strikes which turned into the hot spot of the day as I started catching fish on size 50 Hot Shots in a White Red Dot clolor which is disco’ed now. Ended up C&R 24 nice size, very acrobatic 1.25 to 1.5 lbs RBT. They pretty much hit all colors but the White was the clear winner. Fished from 9am to 2 pm. I saw Russ from G-d’s Tooth out there but he left before I could call him over to the hot spot. Only one other angler and I got him going in the area with crankbaits too.....Rapala’s he Said. I caught 5 fish reeling in my gear so my thinking is tossing Kastmasters in the hot area would have been great also!

I had to make it back out today even with the high winds predicted. 9am again was my start time as I headed to the same area. Some action but more drive by’s than sticking. Saw the same angler as yesterday and told me they moved to the left corner area so after not getting much at Saturday’s location I worked the new area over. It was very hard running two rods because once the action picked up, it was mainly rowing into the wind and many fish got tangled in my other rods line as I drifted back into it playing the fish.

Ended up with 14 in 3 hours and was out of there because the wind was to much. Had one double and I hooked one with the line in my hands trying to untangle the two rods lines apart. Had a bang bang strikes on both rods which both jumped and came loose....really fun action.

Today, an older Frog color was killer. First day with it and it seem to make the rod bounce different from any newer versions. Both days, Hot Shots out fished FF. As with all my Crankbaits I use a double split ring to a barbless Siwash Single Hook, never using the trebles.

Very nice small lake that was about 40 minutes from home....super easy launch area with nice sized planters that fight and put on show for the most part. All a plus for me!

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