Tom does quite a bit of guiding on Patoka.
Let me know I hope to try to yo Saturday
Will do. Might have to make a 60 extra mile detour to get there as State Highway dept. has Hwy 450 between Bedford and Shoals on north side of East Fork of White River closed for replacing all the culvert pipes. Either will have to back tack to Bedford then down or drive all way around Crane Base to 231 as kinda pinned in due to road construction in Martin Co. But, just means getting up a hour earlier, around 3:30 am to get there at daybreak. Keep ya posted!
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"
What kind of poles do you troll with? Length, etc.?
Many years ago, I used any med action sized rod—6 ft or 7ft , very first 10’ rod was a couple of west bend plain Jane crappie rods I bought fishing Lake Weise Alabama maybe 25 yrs ago. I started long lining jigs and still do. Actually any decient Rod will troll crankbaits from 5’ up. Past 3 yrs been using Southern Pro Crappie Rods, made of Kevlar, very light weight and strong as all get out and have never broke one yet as much as I abuse them and have caught a couple of 30-35lb flat head cats even on them on crankbaits. I have 1-143 T model , 2-122T models, 1-10’ and 1 - 8, also use Okuma DX 20 line counter reels. For the wife, as she sometimes fishes at the back of the boat, 3- red cherry Berkeley’s med action from Walmart, with Shakespeare line counter reels and have also used other brands before. Anything will work as have also used ugly sticks. Tons of good rods out there to use.
Kevlar Fishing Rods in Concord, NC
a reall good good reasonably priced line counter reel is the Shakespeare ATS trolling reel and 15-20 bucks cheaper than the Okuma. SHAKESPEARE ATS TROLLING REEL - Northwoods Wholesale Outlet
I load all my reels with 10lb yellow power pro braid, a few have 20lb, the 10 tho will get a bait alittle deeper. I started with Bandit 200s yrs ago, then everybody went to the 300s, less line out, and they went deeper, then the Arkies, and now the PICO’s, I find the PICOs will run a foot deeper than any and any good crankbait will work tho as you just have to get it to the fish at the right depth and speed. I must have over 200 crankbaits in the boat in my collection. Today, speed was 1.7 to 1.9 mph, early spring when the water is 50 degrees or colder, 1.2 to 1.4 mph. I have ran as fast as 2.2 mph. You just have to play with speed to see what they want and will hit. Average is 1.6 mph starting out. Run the baits above the crappies at least a foot if your seeing them on the electronics. Today, I was seeing a few schools of crappies on the 360 on one depth finder and backed up by another depth finder seeing same fish on SI, DI, and 2d split screen. Didn’t run a map too much as I have most of Patoka memorized and would just occassionally glance at it knowing that creek channels, points, humps, were located as well as stands of timber even tho everything is covered by 11.4 ft more water than normal. I also have a copy of paper map at my feet, “Hot Maps” of every lake I fish.
The “Holy Grail” of crank baiting is the best learning tool and take the time to read it as I have read it at least 3 times and keep up with the postings for kicks, is: https://www.crappie.com/crappie/miss...-cranks-101-a/ and it will answer all your questions and teach you everything about cranking. Do read it no matter how long it takes you. We can never quit learning! Hope this helps you!
too many shad eh. ill have to read up on how they effect crappie growth. I find our lakes and reservoirs that have shad in them produce the biggest and most crappie. crappie must not be growing in there if there are tons of dinks and few toads. hope they figure it out some day for you guys. skinner lake is like that up north here. been that way long as I can remember. they tried musky but didn't help a bit. we got a good musky lake out of it though I hear.
They have drained West Boggs now 3 times and restocked it due to too many shad. However due to it being only 600 acres, it’s a doable project. With the size of Monroe and Patoka, DNR relys on other predator fish species stockings for shad control. Depending on severity of our winters, Monroe and Patoka occasionally had a shad die off to help with control of shad. However, that is not guaranteed happening every year. On Patoka, DNR once stocked sterilized Northerns to try and control shad populations. People fishing, eventually caught them out. In my opinion, stocking northerns all but destroyed the small mouth bass population in the lake. I caught northern up to 8 lbs and used to catch a lot of 3-4 lb smallies where then the Northern Pike had taken over. Northern Pike fishing only lasted 3-4 yrs before they were gone. While DNR is stocking predatory fish species in size of extremely small and no larger than 1 to 3 inches in size, survival rates can be small as well as growth cycles to large size takes years to create a sustainable predatory population to control shad. Your talking years before we see new growth size in fish such as crappie and blue gill size has never come back on Patoka period. Sometimes it’s all an experiment and time is the factor in seeing results.
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"
What might help the crappie growth out is the high water issues Patoka has had to endure the past couple of 3 years is in the fact it gives the fish a new food source due to flooding and high water and also cover but the loss of the weed lines and beds is the cost. There is now not a weed in the lake anywhere.
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"
Chuck just a small correction, you cannot get under 164 bridge. Glad you managed a few good ones.