I fished Black Hat today under what normally would have been excellent fishing conditions - calm to light wind, overcast for most of the day, water temp 60.1 to 61.1, and visibility about 2 feet. Except for the reeds and a few small patches of pickerel weed, the emergent vegetation is about gone.Unfortunately, the lake is down 18-24", and the bigger bass just weren't interested in anything I threw. I caught a total of 8 bass, all on black/red flake, T-riged craws. Still, I enjoyed the day thoroughly. As I was heading for the boat dock from the ramp, something exploded on the surface between the aerators east of the boat dock. It happened 3 more times before I was within casting distance. I finally made my cast with a black/red flake Rage Tail Craw.Three casts, and nothing. On the fourth cast, I felt a tic, and set the hook into a catfish that ended up weighing just over 5 pounds. That was the only surface action of the day. I made another cast, and caught a 12" crappie. I then switched to my ultralightworm rod, armed with a 1/8 oz round jighead and and an old Tom's Minner that I had bought a bunch of back in 1974 from the guy who made them in Round Rock, TX. I made 2 more casts to those 2 brushpiles, and boated 2 more very large white crappie. The biggest was just under 15" long! I fished my way up to the north end and tried all sorts of surface lures, but to no avail. I did lose one on the north side of the east point on a weightless, black/blue flake, wacky-rigged 5" Senko. When I got to the dam, I was throwing the black/red flake craw, and that's where I caught 6 of the 7 bass. The other one was on the brushpile between the dam and the west point…five on the craw, one on a sexy shad 'trap, and one on a white underspin. I kept hitting the brushpiles with the ultralight and the little Tom's Minner swim bait, alternating it with a Tom's Shad and a 2.5" shad-colored Mister Twister Sassy Shad. By the time I stopped fishing at 4:45, I had boated a total of 26 crappie, and none of them were under 11" in length. Wow! Some great eating ahead, and as a real bonus, they were all big enough to filet! I've NEVER caught big crappie like that, anywhere A loser of a bass fishing trip, but a great day anyway. Gotta love that ultralight worm rod (An old, fiberglass Eagle Claw Model LWLW that I've re-wrapped with new guides 3 times since 1974)!

What worked:  The Rage Tail craw in black/red flake, T-rigged on a 4/0 EWG hook and 1/8 oz pegged slip sinker, the sexy shad 1/2 oz Rattletrap, and the 1/4 oz white underspin.

What didn't: buzz bait, bladed jig, Rattletrap, Yellow Magic, hollow body popping frog, Sprinkler frog, Whopper Plopper, squarebill crankbait, 6" T-rigged worm, C-rigged flukes.

Posted By: Tom Dillon