Cold, Wind, Rain.............just a few fish!

The last time I updated this was the 26th of June....Between the 25th and the end of the month of June we saw day after day of high winds, rain showers, thunderstorms, and pretty darn cold weather!  Temps on some days reached the 60's and 70's but some of the nights were down in the 50's.  The dampness seemed to make it feel that much colder.   During that time we got out to fish just twice; once on the 27th (maybe 1 1/2 hours before the storm clouds arrived), and then again on the 30th.

On the 30th we pulled in 20 fish, mostly crappie, but Rich did get a baby catfish about 13 or 14 inches.

The calm before the storm.............

Made it back to the camp before the storms began:

Very heavy winds late in the afternoon........dark enough to turn on the lights. After a short while you could not even see the islands in the background.

Rich and the baby catfish!

 
July has started out much much better!   Fireworks have been going off over the lake most every night.........Last night they set them off "big time"  after boyfriend proposed to granddaughter of friends staying in cabin 8.  And she said YES!!

We even cooked out our chicken kabobs one night!  And the little Amish lady who was selling fresh strawberries brought Rich 2 delicious loaves of homemade bread!!!

The month of July has also been much better for fishing!  On the 1st we only caught a couple of fish, but Rich did get another real nice Northern Pike.   Another day of threatening storms brought us in early.  The 2nd - we caught 28 crappies/perch between 7:00 and 8:00 pm!  With 18 keepers!  And on the 3rd we had another pretty good day with 17 fish.

Threatening rain.....

Fishing behind Tin Island...........rain still threatening!

Everyone heading back to shore.

And here's Rich with the Northern Pike!   Nice......

Today is the 4th.......... 

We headed into Ogdensburg today to pick up a few things at the store and stopped at a little family restaurant DK Family restaurant.  Used to be a Donut King.  Rich had the BIGGEST mushroom burger I've ever seen with homemade fries, and I had a patty melt.  Delicious!  And reasonable prices (for NY State)

Nice day, but not for drift fishing.  So Rich is out on the lake by himself today.......... Hope he does well.

Weather not good for fishing.....off to Dinner in Ogdensburg

 Saturday was our last day out fishing.  It was a lot more windy than we had thought, but we managed to get in about an hour an twenty-five minutes before the water was just way to rough.  We caught a whopping THREE fish.......and then I got a pretty good shower TWICE on the way back to camp!

Been a good amount of rain as well, which has kept Rich busy baling water out of the row boat!  Enough rain, that we got our waterfalls back!

 
Sunday was more of the same. Steady winds about 14 or 15 miles per hour, with even stronger gusts!  The temperature didn't reach 70 degrees, and we were down in the 50's overnight!    Today a 100% turn around. Maybe 3mpr winds..... and we are hoping for a little more before the end of the day.

So on Saturday we decided to take a ride into Ogdensburg for dinner.  Friends here suggested that we try the Little Italy Restaurant.................and so we did!

A view of the lake traveling along Country Rt 6 that follows the endge of the river for  or 7 miles.

As you pass into Ogdensburg you pass over the Oswegatchie River.   This view of the lake continues for less than 1/2 mile, where it flows into the St. Lawrence River.

 
Little Italy was a great little restaurant.  Despite it being quite crowded on a Saturday evening the service was very good !

Really nice...........decorated in true Italian decor from floor to ceiling!

We both selected pasta, Rich with Linguini and sausage, and I had the Ziti with meatballs, and we shared an order of garlic bread.

 
But we couldn't leave without trying the homemade cannoli !  And they were even more delicious than they looked!

On Sunday we took a ride down to take a look at the Log Cabins located about 3 or 4 up the road from us.  We were pretty impressed with how big the campsite was ( and they also had quite a few sites with hookups for campers).  Cabins of all sizes........and we looked at one of the two bedroom ones, that were waterfront.  Very nicely furnished, with flat screen TV with cable!  They also rent boats/motors.  They offered us a pretty good deal, should we want to stay there next year for 6 weeks.  They have a week open, starting the day we are scheduled to leave here, and we are contemplating the possibility of staying the extra week.  AND we have even been thinking of extending it a little longer with a stop in Pennsylvania and Montour Falls..............We'll see.

Group Fish Fry..... Beautiful Rainbow.....More Fishing

This post should bring us up-to-date.  First and foremost, these first two weeks here at Roger's Old Oak Camps are by far our favorite! Mike arrives with all the truck drivers and takes up three cabins!  Paul and Monica, and Gary and Karen arrive from Mountain Top, PA., The "Darby Brothers!!!"  who keep you laughing constantly, and make sure we have a campfire every night stay in the cabin next door.  Actually - we don't know their last name........but they are from Upper Darby, PA.  Thus, the "Darby Brothers".    And of course Bill and Linda who are here well before us..........and will still be here when we leave.

It was also GREAT to see Cheri Rogers ( she and Dean own the camp).  It was this time last year that she was in Florida having a liver transplant.  She looks great and is doing wonderful.

So.........here are a few pictures from the last week or so.

Left our usual fishing spot the other day and headed to THE WALL!

Headed out day before yesterday despite the rain cloud formations..

Rich caught a couple of nice Northern Pike......One was 29 inches/5 lbs.  The other one, he didn't weigh, but it was 23 inches long.   Released them back into the water..

Heading back to camp before the storms.......

Nice..........just overhead!!

A view of Roger's Camp, as we head back in for the day.

One of the newest cabins.  This is the deck on cabin 7 where we hang out every now and then...... and here is Rich with Rob and Chris (Darby Brothers), and Matt.

 
This past Sunday we had our annual group "Fish Fry".  Linda and Bill fried the crappy,  Mike and the gang made an awesome Gumbo........ Salads and Slaw and Rice and Sausage.......................Gumbo cooking below

Rich enjoying a bowl of Gumbo!

Some shots of the group......... Below is Monica and Paul with Linda.

Mike - (staying in cabin 8) who started this yearly event......with Bill and Linda.  Paul in the back........ Paul and Monica always stay in Cabin 7 where there is a ramp for Paul's wheel chair.  He is unable to stand/walk due to a motorcycle accident several years ago. 

Mike always hangs is "Irish" flag (can't see with the wind) and his Pirate Flag!

There's the Irish flag behind Karen and I....Can't remember the other lady's name!!!  She and her husband are friends of Gary and Karen and just joined the group this year.

Group photo!

Some of the guys.......Fish Stories???

During the fish fry we got a few sprinkles.........but we got a complete rainbow over the lake...........Wish I could take pictures like this - but have to be honest, got this picture from the Black Lake face book page.   Beautiful!

This is the rainbow picture that most of us captured!

Everybody taking a picture of the rainbow, or getting their picture in front of the rainbow!

Including Rich and I........

And this is a typical early evening  site.  The Darby Boys getting the fire going for everyone in the cap to enjoy!  

Fishing is a little slower than last year after the winter they had here, and some of the larger fish are still spawning.   But we've still enjoyed both the fishing and the weather.  Fish count to date is 132.   Rich has the biggest, but Donna is still in the lead for count.  74 to 58.

Enjoying time at the Lake

Been a while, I know!!!  Had a bad week..........!!!   We left the family in Iowa, and started our trip to NY, stopping in Maume, Ohio, and then Batavia, NY before arriving at Black Lake.   It was Friday morning when we left Ohio, arriving at our hotel in Batavia late afternoon.  It was while unpacking that we realized we had left our small case will ALL of our medication back in Ohio.  No refills on the medication; we had enough with us to last three months! Doctor's office closed; called insurance company - bottom line had to wait until Monday for doctor to call in new prescriptions.  Thankfully insurance covered them, giving us an override for "lost/stolen" medications.    Tried to get the medications shipped to us FedEx.........but that's a VERY long story!!!

Anyway we arrived at the cottage on Saturday ...........and after finally getting our medication on Monday we were ready to settle in and relax!

Not hard to wake up every morning to this view from the cottage window. 

Our friends Gary and Karen arrived from Pennsylvania!

Been spending most of the time fishing at our favorite fishing spots.  This one behind Tin Island. 

This one behind Raspberry Island.....  People have been staying there, at this little cottage with the dock out front.  Been there for at least a week!

We were out fishing our first day............And here are the first two fish!!!  (  This will be the last Collage for a while.  Computer crashed.......... had to reset back to original settings.  As a result I lost all programs that I had downloaded.  Not a problem, except for Picasa - where I always downloaded and edited all my photos.  Picasa program has been retired, and is no longer available for support or download.....those who had it could still continue to use.....Oh well.  Have to find a new program!  That was so good..........and it was FREE!)

We've been able to get out most every day, but the days, while comfortable weather wise, have been very very windy!  Lots of rocking in the boat.  There was one day where the winds were 15+ mpr most of the day........so Rich took advantage of the time off to make up a batch of potato candy!

And the sunsets have been beautiful...............most every night heading back to the cabin!

At the end of the first week, the fish count was not great!  Total caught was 56 with Donna in the lead 30 to 26.   Water here is very high, and quite weedy.......... No luck yet catching any big ones, but we've caught a good number of crappy that will provide a two or three good fish fry's for the two of us.