Black Hat Ranch was tough for us yesterday with 20 mph winds out of the south.  The north end is covered in lily pads but they were too hard to fish with winds that high.  The lily pads were flopping over and grabbing our fishing line making it really tough to throw any distance.  We focused most of our time on the shorline and the few available bits of cover.  There are two downed trees that are visible and two rocky points that extend out into the lake, all of which held fish throughout the day.  I side scanned the lake and put together a rough first draft of a contour map of the lake.  Email me at jacksonbean@gmail.com if you want a copy but there isn't a whole lot to see.  The deepest part of the lake is the rock point down by the dam.  We threw chatterbaits, spinners, swim baits, buzz baits, soft plastics and SPRO frogs catching 22 bass, one crappie and one catfish.  The fish are very healthy for September fish and obviously eating well.  With the turbid water that exists out there the fish were predictably white washed but fought hard.  There is some scattered American pond weed and a little bit of vegetation that looked like coontail but not much of it.  I would recommend throwing baits that work in muddy water…..  Chatterbaits, bladed swim jigs, rattle traps, buzz baits, etc,.  Anything that sends out a good amount of noise or vibration.   If we volunteer a little time to help our fearless leader get some brush piles out there these fish will have something to relate to which should really concentrate fish into certain key areas.  Right now it's mainly vast openness but easily fixed.  We caught small bass schooling down in front of the dam twice and I dropped one of my better rods in the water so there was a bit of swimming that occured.  Yes…..  I did get my rod back.  Of the 22 bass, three were between three and four pounds but most were between one and three.  All of the fish looked thick and healthy.

Tight lines gents,

Jackson