Patoka Lake Turnover has occured

[Moose1am]

Well here is an update. I have the official data from the Corp of Engineers at this link:

http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/wc/wq/prrtext.html

Seems that I needed a 26ft long cord for my temperature probe. The thermocline on Oct 4th was at 26ft. LOL My cable only went down to 25ft and that was right above the offical COE thermocline. But this new data shows lower Dissolved Oxygen readings even on the surface of Patoka Lake. That tells me that the turnover has taken place or is in the process of occuring.

Look at the offical temperature and dissolved oxygen profile for Patoka Lake at the link I posted above.



I went to Patoka Lake this weekend (Sat and Sun) and then went back today (Mon). I took my temperature probe with me today and took some water temp measurments from the surface down to 25ft. I found that the water was the same temperature from the surface down to 25ft. It was measuring around 20 Deg C though the entire water column. That tells me that the lake has turned over.

I took the measurments off the fishing pier at Osborn Boat Ramp. I took another profile up river from the boat ramp directly in the old river channel. I found not thermocline above 25ft in either location. The old river channel is only about 30ft deep where I was taking the measurements.

Now Saturday the fish were all hanging above 18ft. So I wonder if the lake turned over on Sunday or Monday?

Maybe the temperature profile would be different out in the main part of the lake near the Newton Stewart Boat ramp.

Also the water around Osborn Boat ramp was very dark colored.

The water out on the main lake Saturday was more of a green color and clear.
I didn't make it out on the main lake Monday (today) as it was too windy.

[Patrick Vowell]

Moose, The lake turned over last week. It started saturday before last with moss and bottom growth coming to the surface. It had started to restabilize before the tourney last weekend. I am sure some areas are still being affected though.

[Moose1am]

Yes I just figured that out. I would know more if my do meter worked and my cable as longer than 25ft.

I was basing that post on the Sept 15th data and that was out of date. There was a new report on Oct 4th that I failed to see in time before the Oct 10 crappie usa Tournament. I should have checked the corp of engineers web site before I went to the tourment. I got involved in some other things and just forgot to recheck the web. My bad.


Wish the corp would do a do profile on a daily basis this time of the year for Patoka Lake. Also wish that they would tell us where they do the weekly readings at on the lake. I am guessing that it's at the damn but who knows unless they say that in their reports online.

Moose, The lake turned over last week. It started saturday before last with moss and bottom growth coming to the surface. It had started to restabilize before the tourney last weekend. I am sure some areas are still being affected though.

[Team9nine]

Hey Moose,

Long time no see After looking at your graph link, it is apparent to me that the lake hasn't turned over yet, at least not the section where they're taking that reading. I'm guessing that is probably at the dam which would be the last to turn over.

There is still a small thermocline at the 29' level. As you probably know, thermocline is technically defined as at least a 1 degree F drop per 1/2 foot, a 1 degree C drop per meter or a 4 degree F drop per 3 feet. That level of temperature difference is attained at the 28-30' level.

Additionally, a complete turnover will have the temperature the same from top to bottom (right now a 10 degree difference) as well as oxygen at ALL depths (right now absent in the bottom 15 feet or so). In Indiana, turnover temps on the reservoirs are usually signaled by surface temps in the mid to upper 50 degree range. Most reservoir temps this past weekend were still in the 65-70 degree range, well short of turnover. Of course, different bodies of water, as well as different sections of water will turn over at different times.

As for the crappie fishing, I've gotten out a couple times. Last weekend I spent the day (Sat.) on Cataract Lake. Unfortunately, it looks like the Catract crappie got off a banner spawn this past year and we're really having to wade through the little fish this fall. Last year our keeper rate was around 1 of every 2 fish caught or better (50-60%) . This year it's been 25-40% or worse in several instances. We had to weed through about 45 fish Saturday to get 10 keepers (10" and up). Best two fish were a 12.5" and an 11.75" fish.

Hoping that as the water cools down things will get better. Fish seem pretty scattered and touchy right now around here. Will probably have to start looking at other bodies of water in the area.

Wouldn't mind making it down to Patoka one of these days to fish with you and Larry. I know Larry knows that lake well and am interested in the mapping you've been working on the past year.

Take care and good luck with the crappie this fall.

-Team9

[Moose1am]

Hey Team9:

Thanks for the information. I was not sure of the technical defination of a thermcline. I knew basically what it was but didn't know how many deg and how many inch or feet was involved. Thanks for giving us that information. My meter reads in deg C and I have my cable calibrated in one Foot increments. I measured the cable and put colored tape around the cable at one foot increments and used yellow tape for the one foot marks and White tape for the 5 ft levels. That makes it easier to do a temp profile.

I also think that the temp/do data is being collected at the damn. I read where the Fishery biologist did some physical paramater information gathering at Patoka for his 2001 Fish Study and he did his study in the area of the lake by the damn. Dan Carnahan sent me a full hard copy report of that study and I read it. He did some basic water sampling.

You are right that the different parts of the lake turn over at different times. I wish my YSI meter was working and that I had a 50ft cable for it. But a new probe and 50ft long cable would cost about 400 bucks and I have other needs more important for my money right now. Sure wish that the scientific instruments were not so expensive to maintain. Property taxes and Truck insurance payments are taking all my money.

Larry knows the lake pretty good. He has a cabin/trailer up there and fishes a lot of weekends when he is not working. He probably knows that lake as well as anyone around. He has it memorized I think. LOL Me I need a GPS and accurate maps and a few marker floats to figure out the lake. He showed me how to get up to Kings Bridge from Walls last spring and we fished that area for one day. Caught a lot of small crappie but could not find the slabs. About the only part of the lake that Larry does not fish much is the Lick Fork area. He did fish that area but I guess he likes fishing the main lake more.

It would be nice to get together sometimes to fish Patoka. I only went up there once this spring and then once during the summer. I fished local lakes mostly this summer. Gasoline prices have kept me home more. Regular gasoline was selling for 1.98 a gallon to 2.00 a gallon last week up at the lake. I had to drive to Boonville to find gas prices at 1.88.

But I got the fever recently and went to Patoka with Larry last Saturday. We caught some crappie on the main lake but none were bragging size. Ten inches were the biggest ones we caught. They made a nice mess of filets though as we caught at least 25 crappie Saturday. Larry took his wife out Sunday to fish an I went home Saturday night and drove back up on Sunday by myself to fish the Little Patoka River section of the lake for the very first time. First time launching from the little Patoka River Boat ramp near the Cove. Nice area but it's farther to drive for me so I won't got there too much. If you drive from New Albany it's closer to that town than it is to Evansville.

There were over 200 people from 13 different states fishing the CrappieUSA Tournament last Saturday and there were boats everywhere. They proved once again that Patoka Lake has some nice crappie. The big fish went 1.8 lbs and that is a nice crappie. I think that 13 teams caught fish over 1lb when competing for the tournament big fish trophy.

There was a water color difference between upriver from the Osborn ramp Monday (dark water color) and the Little Patoka River Area ramp Sunday (clearer water color) The main lake on Saturday was very clear as I could easily see my white jigs down in the water for about 3 ft or more. Man I can remember when Patoka Lake first opened and you could see down ten feet in the water easily. I can still remember seeing northern pike suspending in the top of submerged trees and brush in some of the bays on the west side of lick fork creek. The bays south of the fishermen's camp were the ones we fished back when the lake first opened. I will show a picture of a Northern Pike that we caught at patoka lake back in 1979.

I got confused on the thermocline as my data showed not temp change of any significance from the top to the 25ft level. I could not see the temp changing below 25ft due to fact that my cable was only 25ft long.

I was looking for a more pronounced temp change the last time I did this type of study. The small stipper pits that I fish had a lot more pronounced temp gradient that I found at around 10ft deep this past summer on Blue Grass Pit in Southern IN. Patoka is so much larger that it's thermocline is behaving differently.

Hey Moose,

Long time no see After looking at your graph link, it is apparent to me that the lake hasn't turned over yet, at least not the section where they're taking that reading. I'm guessing that is probably at the dam which would be the last to turn over.

There is still a small thermocline at the 29' level. As you probably know, thermocline is technically defined as at least a 1 degree F drop per 1/2 foot, a 1 degree C drop per meter or a 4 degree F drop per 3 feet. That level of temperature difference is attained at the 28-30' level.

Additionally, a complete turnover will have the temperature the same from top to bottom (right now a 10 degree difference) as well as oxygen at ALL depths (right now absent in the bottom 15 feet or so). In Indiana, turnover temps on the reservoirs are usually signaled by surface temps in the mid to upper 50 degree range. Most reservoir temps this past weekend were still in the 65-70 degree range, well short of turnover. Of course, different bodies of water, as well as different sections of water will turn over at different times.

As for the crappie fishing, I've gotten out a couple times. Last weekend I spent the day (Sat.) on Cataract Lake. Unfortunately, it looks like the Catract crappie got off a banner spawn this past year and we're really having to wade through the little fish this fall. Last year our keeper rate was around 1 of every 2 fish caught or better (50-60%) . This year it's been 25-40% or worse in several instances. We had to weed through about 45 fish Saturday to get 10 keepers (10" and up). Best two fish were a 12.5" and an 11.75" fish.

Hoping that as the water cools down things will get better. Fish seem pretty scattered and touchy right now around here. Will probably have to start looking at other bodies of water in the area.

Wouldn't mind making it down to Patoka one of these days to fish with you and Larry. I know Larry knows that lake well and am interested in the mapping you've been working on the past year.

Take care and good luck with the crappie this fall.

-Team9