monroe... summertime hot spot

[fastfisher]

I had my best day ever on Monroe yesterday! I been crappie fishing for a couple years and finally figured out a good summertime pattern that works on almost every lake i go to. We had a 14" a 13" and several 12" to 10" fish on lake that usally i can't catch a keeper on. I think that is pretty good day for 80 somethin water temps. I'am no pro but fishin has a way of repeating itself year in and out. Some patterns are transferrable lake to lake.


All why the jigman was in Canada.

[Deacon]

I had my best day ever on Monroe yesterday! I been crappie fishing for a couple years and finally figured out a good summertime pattern that works on almost every lake i go to. We had a 14" a 13" and several 12" to 10" fish on lake that usally i can't catch a keeper on. I think that is pretty good day for 80 somethin water temps. I'am no pro but fishin has a way of repeating itself year in and out. Some patterns are transferrable lake to lake.


All why the jigman was in Canada.

Fastfisher,
You say you figured out a good summertime pattern that works on almost all lakes. You mine sharing that with the rest of us? I'm at wits end! I sure ain't got nothing figured out.

[Moose1am]

I hate it when someone says that they figured something out and then failed to tell us on here. I am sure that he was excited to finally have figured out where the big slabs at Monroe hang out. I also understand why he failed to tell us where exactly he caught them. What I don't understand is why he failed to even give us a hint as to where the crappie were found.


Since he failed to tell you I will. The crappie are being caught in 22ft of water where I live. I am only about 60 to 100 miles south of Bloomington, IN and I bet that the crappie at Monroe are above the Thermocline and in areas that have steep dropoffs with timber nearby. That is the summertime pattern that works on Monroe, Patoka or any other large lake. The outside bends of the old river channel are the perfect holding spot for crappie. And at this time the water at the surface is 24deg C while at 25ft it's down to 19 deg C. Find an area where the bottom drops off into deep water and you will find those slabs. They are deep during the daytime. Now early morning and late evening and at night (with artifical lights) you may catch some big slabs shallow as they follow the shad into the back of bays or up the points into shallow water. But most of those big fish are in deeper water.

Fastfisher,
You say you figured out a good summertime pattern that works on almost all lakes. You mine sharing that with the rest of us? I'm at wits end! I sure ain't got nothing figured out.

[Patrick Vowell]

Surely he would have been a little more specific if asked politely through private messaging... I am all about helping the next guy out but I will not put anyone on my real good spots. You don't do so well guiding on those spots or trying to win some money in a tournament when they are fished out before you get there... I will say that on Patoka you can find slabs in 12 to 14 foot of water on the down current sides of breaks in the river channels... The bite is soft and slow and sometimes it seems down right nonexistent, but if you fish it they will come....the same pattern on main lake channels also works ...especially when cove structure is present... Some areas are better than others and that is what everyone will have to figure out on their own.....

[Patrick Vowell]

by the way moose1 we need to get together sometime and fish or just converse about techniques here in Indiana... I live in Anderson and fish Patoka at least once a mos.... Monroe is even closer yet and I have never caught a real solid fish on that lake... But then again I do not fish it like I do Patoka.. One reason is I hate the Idle Zone....

[Moose1am]

Well Patrick I would love to get together some time at Patoka lake this fall. I have a friend that fishes Patoka a lot more than I do. He has a camp up there so he spends a lot of time up there when he is not working. He has been working lots of overtime this summer though.


It's good to see some other people that fish the same lake. I have not had much time on Patoka lake this summer though. I have been fishing down south here near Evansville, IN.

But I am fixing to head up to Patoka Lake in the near future for a day of fishing. I just have to make myself get up early enough to make the drive and get up there early enough to give me some worthwhile fishing time.

I play it by ear and like to fish when condition are not too hot or too cold. I hate cold weather and can handle the hot summer weather ok. I just hate to get wet and cold. Some fishermen I am huh! LOL Maybe I just have poor circulation or something. My friend tried to get me to go up there in April and half the time it was windy and raining or threatening rain. I don't have a good rainsuite and don't really have any cold weather clothing that would shed the rain. And I wear eyeglasses and think that it's a pain to have to see though water drops on my lenses. I wish I had my contacts still but it's been years since I had the prescription checked.

So I try to fish when the weather is nice and dry and not too cold. Anything below 60 deg and I start to shiver. I did fish this last winter one day when it was near 50 deg but there was not wind to speak of and it was not raining. I wore some longjohns and layered my clothing to keep warm enough to fish for a few hours. Heck I even caught some crappie that day which made it nice. No size to them but it was still fun. I had cabin fever pretty bad last Dec and got out on the local lake that one day.

The problem with fishing Patoka Lake is that it's farther away and the weather there is not always the same as here so I can't get a good idea of what the weahter will be like up there. It can get pretty windy on that lake and my boat is not that big.

I started fishing the upper reaches of the Patoka Lake's River and found some good sized slabs up there last spring. I did fish Patoka lake this last spring with my friend but all we managed to find were those small crappie. We caught small crappie all day long in April but not one big slab. I got sort of disappointed as I was hoping to find some big slabs. Only one time did I really find the slabs at Patoka and that was when Frank Showed me a spot. But that spot does not produce all year long. I guess I have to time it right to get in touch with the slabs.

I am in the process of scanning some nice digital maps of Patoka Lake. I just purchased another 256mb of memory for my computer so that I can get the scans performed faster. I am about 2/3 done with the scans using Paint Shop Pro 8 and just discovered that I need the Jasc PHoto Album or something like that to stitch the pages or scans back together. I have Adobe Photoshop Elememnts 2.0 but have not used it yet. I am figuring out that I either have to buy another software package to get this stitching done or I may have to rescan all the pages using Adobe PhotoShop Elements 2.0 software. I know that PhotoShop will allow me to merge the pictures automatically. Not sure how accurate it will be but I am going to give it a try since I already bought the program a few weeks back. The main reason I have not been up to Patoka Lake is that I want to get these maps scanned and working with a digital mapping programs called OziExplorer. I have to figure out how to convert Indiana Plane Coordinate System into UTM systems or Long and Lat to use with my GPS unit. Either that or I need to learn how to operate my GPS unit using Indiana Plane Coordiantes system readouts. Either way I want to use these maps in digital form after I calibate them to get the coordiantes of bends in the old Patoka river channel and to get the map coordinates of some underwater humps or ditches so that I can program those digits into my Garmin GPS unit. If I can get the correct digits then I will be ready to start fishing. So far I am stuck here at home kicking my computer instead of fishing like I want to be at Patoka.

Last year I went up there about 5 times and the first time was April2nd when the troops were going into Iraq. I got away from the TV for a few days and just camped out and fished. The water level was down to 532ft in the spring of 2003 and this spring it rained more and the water levels have been 3 or 4 ft above summer pool all summer long. It's just now falling down towards summer pool at Patoka Lake.

If I can find some good artic waterproof winterwear I may fish more this winter and next spring.

Patoka has some areas that are 10mph but I have seen people going 70 mph though those areas. Sometimes the DNR patrols those area and gives out tickets though. I have hear about the Monroe Idle zone and how that is enforced. Not once have I heard someone tell me a definate speed that is considered an Idle speed.

The lakes that I have been fishing are all "Electric Trolling Motor Only" lakes and even I would be glad to be idling in my boat using the gasoline motor on my lakes. LOL I can go about 2.5 mph in my boat using the trolling motor and have not clocked my boat at idle speed using the gasoline motor with my gps unit yet. I should do that. Last year I had to have my boat's carburator rebuilt as it would not idle slow without stalling. The float was stuck or something and I had Sib's Marine Service Rebuild the carburator for me. After I got some other work done at East Side marine the boat finally started running smoothly at Idle speed. East Side marine had to replace the throttle cable and the gear shift cables and fixed the control box. I also had to get a new thermostate installed and a new water pump impeller installed. Now I have the boat working but have not used the gasoline engine very much this year. It's an old boat with very low hours on the engine. LOL

This coming Sept and Oct should be good for the Patoka Lake Crappie. We should see another Crappie USA tournament this fall at Patoka. I should drive up and fish or watch. Either way it would be a good trip if the weather is ok.

by the way moose1 we need to get together sometime and fish or just converse about techniques here in Indiana... I live in Anderson and fish Patoka at least once a mos.... Monroe is even closer yet and I have never caught a real solid fish on that lake... But then again I do not fish it like I do Patoka.. One reason is I hate the Idle Zone....

[treepotato]

Hi everyone!
Just thought I would post an update to whats been happening on the salamonie reservoir this summer. I too have been trying some methods that I have learned here on this great site with very pleasing results. I could hardly ever find crappie after the spawn and thanks to this site I have had a great summer. It all started last winter when the lake was drawn down, I went out alot and just walked the banks looking at what the bottom would look like when the water was at summer pool. Just after Christmas I collected around a dozen Christmas trees and began dragging them to likely looking spots and tying them to stumps . I also found several spots where the DNR had done the same thing! I then burned up a couple rolls of film and took a couple pictures of each site from different angles. then last but not least I marked each spot on my GPS . I put together a photo album of the pictures along with there co-ordinates and all the hard work is paying off. I have gone out quite a bit this summer and so far limiting out every time would have been easy! The fish seem to be getting bigger as the summer goes on . Today I brought home 10 fish and they were all around 11''. Caught and threw back around 50 that were between 8''-10''. Thursday a man caught a mess of 12'' & 13'' fish with a whooping 16'' fish to add to his catch! I have,nt really been finding the typical summer patterns here that the pro's always talk about. The main thing that is really helping me and I have yet to see this method used on this reservoir by anyone is spider rigging. This has taken awhile to work the bugs out but everytime I go out I learn something new that makes it more productive. Another method is jigging tubes around standing timber in 12'-20' of water. I recently purchased a Wally Marshall rod 9' long and put an ultalite WM spin cast reel spooled with 4lb flourescent Mr Crappie line and WOW! what a setup. I usually jig tubes with it right against the trees and sometimes add red glitter nibbles to the jig and it has been working real well. When spider rigging , I just watch the depth finder when I leave the boat ramp and the fish usually show up around the same depth all over the lake. The average depth all summer long has been 12'. When you find the right depth you can go anywhere on the lake , find good crappie structure, or just find them suspended out in the middle of nowhere and catch them all day! The key is staying at the depth they are comfortable. Thanks to all of you who have shared your knowledge and helped make this summer a blast. Moose, I got some of the tubes that I have seen you recommend, ( squimmin squirts white with blue , red and silver qlitter) and they have been one of my top producers. Caught alot of my fish today on them. Thanks again and good luck to you!!..............In HIM treepotato

[fastfisher]

by the way moose1 we need to get together sometime and fish or just converse about techniques here in Indiana... I live in Anderson and fish Patoka at least once a mos.... Monroe is even closer yet and I have never caught a real solid fish on that lake... But then again I do not fish it like I do Patoka.. One reason is I hate the Idle Zone....

Shallow which to me is less than ten foot. On mainlake weeds, points, and structure of any type. I had previously been to Monroe about ten times and had caught a few slabs but never cosistent. Last wed. was the same until i started doing the same thing i always do on every lake except one that is to clear. the same pattern has worked on several lake in ohio ,indiana, illinois. It still has alot to do with a spot which i will never give out publically because of shear numbers of readers. But we caught 10 fish over a pound and a bunch over ten inches and one pushin 2 pounds.



Moose i to catch alot of fish close to the thermocline but rarely a keeper. ALot of the bait is right on top of the water and i would bet the most oxygen is also ten foot or less. the most important part of pattern that works for me is in the summer i never fish past mouth of a cove. It works for me. I have never been to patoka. I would love to fish it but its along way from cicinnati and thats where i live now i grew up on brookville and it is probaly the only lake that i fish that i dont have a good plan on. because it is clear and in the summer it is hard to fish because of boat wake.

[Moose1am]

Thanks for the other infomation. Much appreciated.

I was given two big crappie this year by bassfishermen that caugth them on crankbaits and didn't want to keep them. One measured 13" long. The other was about 14" and weighed 1.1 lbs on my deliar scales.

The one guys told me he caught the crappie on a crank bait Mann's minus one. I bought one of those and fished it and was found that it only runs about 12" under the water. Now I know what the minus one stands for.

The other guy caugth his crappie on a crank bait too while bass fishing at the same place. Both of these big crappie (big for bluegrass fish and wildlife pits) were caught out of blue grass pit. I have yet to catch a big crappie out of that pit but have caught loads of the smaller crappie. They average about 8.5" long.

I am going to try trolling for these suspended summer time slabs.

Small invertibrates that inhabit the waters will rise and fall in the water column with the rising and setting sun. The shad and the crappie follow these tiny microscopic organism. When the sun is low in the sky the crappie could be feeding right below the surface ( that is what I have read). My last time out I saw a big fish right on the surface swimming around where I was crappie fishing. Not sure what type of fish it was as I could not see it very well. I did see it's dorsal fin sticking out of the water slightly but I can't see that well especially when the lighting is low and could not tell what type of fish it was. It could have been anything from the Ohio River as these pits are hydrologically connected to the Ohio River at times of high water.

I have noticed that schools of shad are right below the surface of the water and tighly schooled at this time of the year as it's starts getting darker. right before sunset. About the time the beavers start coming out to feed. My last trip out I saw three wild beavers swimming by in the water near their beaver lodge. It was right at 8:15PM CDST.

Shallow which to me is less than ten foot. On mainlake weeds, points, and structure of any type. I had previously been to Monroe about ten times and had caught a few slabs but never cosistent. Last wed. was the same until i started doing the same thing i always do on every lake except one that is to clear. the same pattern has worked on several lake in ohio ,indiana, illinois. It still has alot to do with a spot which i will never give out publically because of shear numbers of readers. But we caught 10 fish over a pound and a bunch over ten inches and one pushin 2 pounds.



Moose i to catch alot of fish close to the thermocline but rarely a keeper. ALot of the bait is right on top of the water and i would bet the most oxygen is also ten foot or less. the most important part of pattern that works for me is in the summer i never fish past mouth of a cove. It works for me. I have never been to patoka. I would love to fish it but its along way from cicinnati and thats where i live now i grew up on brookville and it is probaly the only lake that i fish that i dont have a good plan on. because it is clear and in the summer it is hard to fish because of boat wake.

[Moose1am]

Thanks for that report treepotato.

Good to see that those squirmin squirt white lightning's #18 from Bass Pro Shops are working for you. I got that bait from Frank Ison of Lousiville KY who fishes Patoka and won the Crappie USA spring Crappie tournaments in 2002 and 2003. It's a great bait and I use it all the time.

That new rod and the fishing next to the standing timber in deep water really is a good tactic that everyone should try. I do that at Patoka but there is a lot of standing timber there for the crappie to hide among and that makes it harder to find the slabs. I should do what you did and set out some brush piles. I have a buddy that did that and he said he was catching nice crappie this summer at Patoka Lake.

Hi everyone!
Just thought I would post an update to whats been happening on the salamonie reservoir this summer. I too have been trying some methods that I have learned here on this great site with very pleasing results. I could hardly ever find crappie after the spawn and thanks to this site I have had a great summer. It all started last winter when the lake was drawn down, I went out alot and just walked the banks looking at what the bottom would look like when the water was at summer pool. Just after Christmas I collected around a dozen Christmas trees and began dragging them to likely looking spots and tying them to stumps . I also found several spots where the DNR had done the same thing! I then burned up a couple rolls of film and took a couple pictures of each site from different angles. then last but not least I marked each spot on my GPS . I put together a photo album of the pictures along with there co-ordinates and all the hard work is paying off. I have gone out quite a bit this summer and so far limiting out every time would have been easy! The fish seem to be getting bigger as the summer goes on . Today I brought home 10 fish and they were all around 11''. Caught and threw back around 50 that were between 8''-10''. Thursday a man caught a mess of 12'' & 13'' fish with a whooping 16'' fish to add to his catch! I have,nt really been finding the typical summer patterns here that the pro's always talk about. The main thing that is really helping me and I have yet to see this method used on this reservoir by anyone is spider rigging. This has taken awhile to work the bugs out but everytime I go out I learn something new that makes it more productive. Another method is jigging tubes around standing timber in 12'-20' of water. I recently purchased a Wally Marshall rod 9' long and put an ultalite WM spin cast reel spooled with 4lb flourescent Mr Crappie line and WOW! what a setup. I usually jig tubes with it right against the trees and sometimes add red glitter nibbles to the jig and it has been working real well. When spider rigging , I just watch the depth finder when I leave the boat ramp and the fish usually show up around the same depth all over the lake. The average depth all summer long has been 12'. When you find the right depth you can go anywhere on the lake , find good crappie structure, or just find them suspended out in the middle of nowhere and catch them all day! The key is staying at the depth they are comfortable. Thanks to all of you who have shared your knowledge and helped make this summer a blast. Moose, I got some of the tubes that I have seen you recommend, ( squimmin squirts white with blue , red and silver qlitter) and they have been one of my top producers. Caught alot of my fish today on them. Thanks again and good luck to you!!..............In HIM treepotato