Patoka Lake Sunday Oct 17th Fishing Report

[Moose1am]

Found fish at 14ft level on the bottom. Fished the main lake when the wind died down that afternoon. Weather was nice with air temp highs in the upper sixties and the water's surface temp in the upper fifties. Water was dark and stained but still faily clear. Winds were out of the south early in the day and then appeared to come out of the NW for a while. By evening 5 pm the winds were calm and it was nice. Saw many small 2" size baby shad swimming along the surface of the lake that evening.

My friend caught most of the fish and he brought in 25 keepers. Most were 8" to 9" long but full of meat and heavy for that size. I caught a few and the biggest was 11" long. Not a slab but he made a nice filet.

We fished with live minnows on bare hooks and with minnow and jigs combinations and with jig's an Berkeley Crappie nibbles Chartruse. White jigs started to produce fish around 6 pm as the sun got lower in the sky.

'We fished an old ditch or creek channel and found lots of brush along the edge where the crappie were hiding. Saw lots of fish suspended at 10 to 12ft deep. Could not trick them into biting as the wind was too strong earlier in the day. I fished the old river channel on the main lake a while but only had one bite. Fish were suspended ten feet down over 35ft of water but what kind of fish they were I don't really know.

Day was sunny mostly with scattered high white clouds. A beautiful fall day with the trees and their leaves in full color mode.

Lots of boats out on the lake Sunday. Both sides of the main lake has fish. South and North. Fish were not to far off from shore and along the first main drop off. Find brush along the 10ft to 15ft level and you may find some fish. Find brush along a creek channel that intersects with the old river channel and you area sure to find some fish at some time this month. Finding the right brush pile is the key as the crappie are mobile at this time of the year. But once you find a spot mark it well as the crappie will be there again and again.

Between the two of us fishing Sunday we had a limit of 25 crappie. We would hae caught more but for some technical difficulties with my depth finder.

[treepotato]

Hey Moose,
Thanks for the report, I have never had the opportunity to fish Patoka but would love to try it sometime. Have you ever gone there during winter pool and marked some strategic places? I have considered doing that this winter , It has made all the difference in the world to my fishing here on the salamonie. If I get the chance to do that would you be interested in comming along? If so I will let you know when I am able to do this and maybe we can hook up. Just little things like marking large stumps along main river channels on a GPS seems to be what has helped me out the most. Thanks again and good luck to you..........treepotato

[Moose1am]

Hi Treepotato:

Knowing that you have not been to Patoka Lake lets me know that I have to explain the lake to you. It's full of standing timber everywhere in most of the creek arms. Especially upriver or about the upper 1/3 of the lake. There are about four of five major creek arms on Patoka. The upper old Patoka River channel area is full of stumps and standing trees. There are some flats up there near kings bridge that may be exposed when the lake is at winter pool. Right now the lake is still around 535 ft asl and it must drop to about approx 532 ft asl to expose those flats and the old stumps. I have only been up in that part of the lake one time and it was in a friends boat. He knows that area by heart and I an a newbie up there.

The problem with Patoka Lake is that there is cover EVERWHERE. Finding the right cover where the fish are is harder than some lakes. Some lakes don't have much wood left and if you can put in a brush pile the fish will use it. But at Patoka there is still so much wood that the fish may not need a human built brush pile. They do suspend in and amoung the standing timber. I was shown a spot where the fish were in 12ft of water with trees coming up to just under the water's surface when the lake was at 533 ft and some of the trees were sticking up 12ft above the water's surface. Most of the tree tops were two or three feet above the surface and that makes them about 15ft tall. The lake is aging so these tree tops are rotting off. But that really makes navigation up in the upper reaches difficult and dangerous. You can easily run over the top of a tree and tip the boat over 45 deg to one side. I have gotten stuck on the top of standing timber treetops that were just below the water's surface and could not get off at times without running over the tree top with the big motor. Even going less than 5mph can be hazardousl. But the fish are in this part of the lake. Finding them on any particuar day is tough unless you fish a lot and follow the movements. I can't afford to get up there that often to do that. Now my fishing buddy up there does fish almost every weekend and he knows a few spots. Without him I would be lost most days. He has showed me three spots and all three had fish in them at different times of the year

I would like to know when you plan on going to do your survey and maybe I can come up and meet with you. A lot depends on when and what the weather will be like that day.

March is the best time to get up there if we can find a nice warm day. Or very early in April is good. That way we could not only survey the lake some but actually catch some spawning crappies. I do know one spot that is a good staging area for that time of the year. But it's in deep 12ft water even when the lake is down to winter pool. The fish that I saw caught on that spot were being caught not next to the shoreline but out away from the shoreline in and amoung the timber. Maybe there was a secrete brush pile in amoung those standing trees that I didn't know about. But something brought the big slabs in there last Spring.

[treepotato]

Moose, I should have researched some things about Patoka before I made my reply to you. I see that on the Louisville District Daily Lake Report It shows that they only drop Patoka about 4 ft to get to winter pool. I wasn't aware of that and so any kind of scouting and marking on foot would probably be futile. They drop the reservoirs up here clear down to the original river channel in most places which makes for some incredible exploring opportunities for the upcomming summer pool. The bad part about that is they never get a chance to stabilize a weedline, lillypads etc, which would create some very outstanding fishing opportunities for all species of fish. Anyway, thanks for your reports on Patoka and I'll be looking forward to reading more of them in the future.............treepotato

[Moose1am]

Yea they only drop Patoka Lake a few feet. I guess that is a good thing for the weed growth. If they dropped it more and the exposed surfaces dried out maybe they could clean the submerged trees out of that upper reaches of the lake to make navigation easier and safer. It took me years to figure out that the river channel actually runs though the submerged trees and not though the apparent open areas of the lake. The river channel is not very wide up there as this is more like a creek than a river IMHO. But I have lived on the Ohio River all my life and when I cross the bridge into Henderson KY on my trips down south I cross a big river. So my idea of a river is the Ohio River which is about a mile wide in some spots. Now that is what I call a river. Our Pigeon Creek that runs though Warrick County and though Vanderburgh Country and though the City of Evansville IN is more the size of the Patoka River. Both are only a 100 yards wide or less in most spots. To me that is what a creek is like. But we have Rivers in IN that are called rivers but are smaller than our Pigeon Creek. The blue river comes to my mind. The blue River reminds me of Wildcat Creek near Lafayette, IN or Sugar Creek up North from Terra Haute IN. So in one instance they call a similar sized flowing body of water a creek and in another instance they call a similar sized body of flowing water a river.

You fish salominie (SP?) mostley don't you. I am not familar with the lakes up in Northern IN other than by seeing their maps on my digial mapping software.

Moose, I should have researched some things about Patoka before I made my reply to you. I see that on the Louisville District Daily Lake Report It shows that they only drop Patoka about 4 ft to get to winter pool. I wasn't aware of that and so any kind of scouting and marking on foot would probably be futile. They drop the reservoirs up here clear down to the original river channel in most places which makes for some incredible exploring opportunities for the upcomming summer pool. The bad part about that is they never get a chance to stabilize a weedline, lillypads etc, which would create some very outstanding fishing opportunities for all species of fish. Anyway, thanks for your reports on Patoka and I'll be looking forward to reading more of them in the future.............treepotato