Reservation Number : 32498
Property Name : BlackJack Ranch
Reservation Date : 05/07/2022 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 35 with most 2 - 2.5# / a few 3 - 3.5# / 9 harvested
Lures Used : Pop-R, buzzbait, chatterbait, wacky stick worm, crankbait, fluke

Topwater action started with my first cast at BlackJack Ranch and continued until 8:00 AM when the overcast skies started to clear a little and the breeze stared to pick up.  By then I had landed 10 bass (1.9 – 2.5#) walking the western shoreline throwing Pop-R and buzzbait.  There was no visible chasing activity going on and only a couple of blowups by bass jumping at drangonflies.  Every Pop-R strike came on a perfectly still lure. After that bite ended, I walked the other bank from the pier to halfway to the dam and enjoyed a consistent bite on wacky stick worms and a chatterbait. By this time the skies were clearing and the breeze was increasing.  Once in the club boat, I tried the areas that worked earlier but casting toward the bank.  Not much luck.  I started catching harvest-size bass on a crankbait outboard of the brushpiles. Things really slowed down about 11:00 and I only caught 8 more bass between then and 2:00.  These all came in the northern shallows casting a weightless fluke aroung weed clumps in 1-1.5 feet of water.  Ended the day with 35 bass (9 harvested).

The lake is at a typical level (not quite full) and benefited from several inches of rain Thursday evening.  The water was a little less clear than typical but not muddy. Current vegetation coverage seems quite good; enough for fish habitat but clumpy rather than matted.

This was another enjoyble outing at a beautiful and well-maintained lake and ranch.  A bull also provided some comic relief when he slowly ambled to the middle of the western shoreline, noticed that all the cows were on the other side of the lake, stopped and slowly looked both ways, mooed, looked annoyed, looked back and forth again, and then waded in and swam across the lake instead of walking around.