The clear weather on Sunday had a few folks out braving the February chill at Blackman's , including myself. Air temp about 45F, glassy calm. No water temp available, but you know it's gotta be COLD right now ! I launched my little 10' cartopper at the south beach "launch" (if you can call it that) around 2:45pm, and immediately hooked and released a decent Rainbow (14") as I trolled a small Rooster Tail out of the launch area. I'd like to think the crowd of guys fishing from the beautiful new dock there was happy for me, but I heard a few groans , probably due to my "beginner's luck" , lol . I trolled very slowly counter clockwise along the shore break, just watching the fish finder and enjoying the sunshine. One tap on the spinner as I rounded the SE corner .As I passed Hill Park, I noted the south dock was full of fishermen , while the north dock is still closed and roped off. Restrooms still winterized too, which must have been disappointing to the 50-odd people using the park (!) A couple guys anchored off Hill Park just outside the dock area took at least one good trout on a still fished bait rig , and I had a tap as I rounded the northeast corner. Fish were showing on the sounder pretty regularly , at scattered depths. There were also a few insects being slurped from the surface on occasion. Even though it doesn't appear to have been planted lately, there are definitely some fish to be had in Blackman's right now. I've always done well around the north shoreline, trolling along the "break" from 6' to 15' , and today was no exception , as I took and released two more nice fish (one 15" cutt, one 12" bow) in the span of about half an hour. The cutt was a full-bodied , beautifully colored fish, and hit my spinner with a vengeance , putting up a good fight on my 4# light spinning rig. At first, I thought it might be one of those "monster" Triploids that inhabit Blackman's, but was well pleased to see a native(?) cutt on my line instead. Maybe six boats total on the lake, with a couple of fly-fishermen working that same north shore...right after after they watched me take a couple of fish over there , that is !! One fellow quickly paddled over and parked himself right in my by then well established trolling pattern and started flailing away with his flyrod directly in my oncoming path, but whatever ... I'm easy. Next half hour, a couple of taps and one more little Rainbow was released (8") , but as soon as the low clouds started rolling in at about 4 pm and covered up the sun, and a light wind rifflled up the surface, the hits stopped coming and the air temperature dropped off quickly . I was glad I had remembered a warm cap and gloves ! I fished until about 5pm without any action whatsoever, then headed for home.

I was prepared to be content spending a day "sightseeing" , especially since I wanted to troll hardware instead of soaking bait . I'm a C&R guy 99% of the time and guthooked fish aren't my bag, so I seldom use any kind of bait. All in all, a fine (half) day on the water, especially considering that it's February and the lake hasn't been stuffed full of fish recently. Well worth a look if you have the mid-winter blues , or some new gear to test out.

1/16th. oz. Roostertail in a metallic finish , trolled slow with no weight on 4# line worked for me. During the "lull" after 4pm , I tried a small Needlefish in frog pattern with a small splitshot to keep it from surfing , to no avail.

Tight lines everyone !

Bustin (yeah, I'm new)

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