Thread: Patoka today, 7-16

Nice report Cevans thanks. Hoping to get my trolling motor battery early this week. My old ones wore out. I cant complain though got 6 years out of one of them. I was running jumper cables on a 12 volt system. It seemed to really extend the life of the batteries but now I got two that don't hold a charge well so opted for a new Optima. I got the biggest in hope of running with just one battery and of course a battery for the outboard. Hoping to get up there later this week.

Originally Posted by cevans

Launched at Osborne at 7am today, and decided to start cranking Bandits and before I had second bait in water, caught a nice 14 inch crappie on Mad Cow color 200 series set at 8' deep and going upstream thru cut at island above Osborne had picked up 2 more keepers. Working 12 to 20' of water for the next 3 hrs caught about 18 crappies and a few small bass Worked my way abou 3 miles above Walls and farther I got away from the Osborne area, slower the bit got. Tried about 15 diff colors, but Mad Cow was the hot bait beside a blue gill looking bandit. All other colors wouldn't hit. Ended up keeping 6 nice crappies, out of 6 bass,,2 were over 13" but no keepers on them,,also caught 6 yellow bass. Left lake at 2pm,,bite was over by 11 or so. Lake looks awesome at 10.5 ft up flooding timber everywhere,,saw 2 other fishing boats launched at Osborne and when I went past Walls,,2 more fishermen had launched from there. I never saw a boat on the lake anywhere all day. No docks at either ramp usable either. Didn't see no mud or mudline anywhere and water at Walls was alittle discolored but not very much as it was still blue green. At Osborne,,clear. You cannot get under the 145 hwy bridge below Osborne no matter how small boat your using. Painter Creek bridge is still workable as long as your pedistals aren't in the seats or you have high windshields. At 2pm,,lots of pleasureboaters and pontoons on main lake. Water temp started out at 80 and at 2pm shot up to 84. Bandits caught fish from 8' deep to 12' deep running at av. speed of 1.6 to 2 mph. I also had to pull out and use my umbrella rigged for shade by 11 as there was little breeze and air temp in the sun got up to about 88 by 2pm. Its going to get hotter than hades the next few days so stay hydrated.

Hi cevans, just wondering if you would share with me the setup you use to troll bandits. i do a lot of spider rigging and casting for crappie but would like to learn more on trolling bandits.what do you mean by set at 8 feet? are there some videos that you would recommend? do you use planner boards? sure appreciate any info you could give ...thanks.

Originally Posted by treepotato

Hi cevans, just wondering if you would share with me the setup you use to troll bandits. i do a lot of spider rigging and casting for crappie but would like to learn more on trolling bandits.what do you mean by set at 8 feet? are there some videos that you would recommend? do you use planner boards? sure appreciate any info you could give ...thanks.

Its a long but awesome read its the holy grail of crankin. Read it as it will answer all your questions and teach you how to crankbait. Mississippi boys have been doing all the testing and now they use a multitude of crankbaits as the manufacturers have now copied Bandits. I use the bandits as I have 100 or so but,,I also have a a lot of other crankbaits that work as well. I have been pulling crankbaits for quite a while,,,,but I keep reading this link to always learn more.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/missi...-cranks-101-a/

Here is a copy of the chart for depths. I use Okuma line counter reels, 20lb power pro braid, on crappie rods and Hi Tec rod holders. The speed that the chart was made is 1.6 mph while pulling crankbaits.

All in BANDITS
Feet 100 series 200's 300 Series Bandits
LINE DEPTH DEPTH DEPTH
05 ------- 2.4 ----- 3.2 ----- 3.4
10 ------- 4.0 ----- 4.5 ----- 4.0
15 ------- 5.3 ----- 5.3 ----- 6.0
20 ------- 5.7 ----- 6.1 ----- 7.0
25 ------- 6.3 ----- 6.9 ----- 8.0
30 ------- 6.9 ----- 7.5 ----- 9.0
35 ------- 7.4 ----- 8.0 ----- 9.9
40 ------- 7.9 ----- 8.5 ----- 10.5
45 ------- 8.4 ----- 9.0 ----- 11.0
50 ------- 8.8 ----- 9.5 ----- 11.6
55 ------- 9.1 ----- 9.9 ----- 12.1
60 ------- 9.4 ----- 10.2 ---- 12.6
65 ------- 9.7 ----- 10.6 ---- 13.1
70 ------ 10.0 ----- 11.0 ---- 13.6
75 ------ 10.3 ----- 11.4 ---- 14.0
80 ------ 10.5 ----- 11.8 ---- 14.4
85 ------ 10.7 ----- 12.0 ---- 14.7
90 ------ 10.8 ----- 12.2 ---- 15.0
95 ------ 10.9 ----- 12.4 ---- 15.4
100 ------ 11.1 ----- 12.6 ---- 15.7
105 ------ 11.2 ----- 12.7 ---- 16.0
110 ------ 11.3 ----- 12.8 ---- 16.3
115 ------ 11.4 ----- 13.0 ---- 16.7
125 ------ 11.6 ----- 13.4 ---- 17.0
135 ------ 11.8 ----- 13.6 ---- 17.3
150 ------ 11.8 ----- 14.0 ---- 17.6

Good luck,,and read the Link. Start out with 200's. I also use the 100's on the river as they have the square bill,,run shallow,,and catch heck out of Smallmouths....but,,,river is high and muddy and been that way all year and fishing on it sucks as its floodstage on East Fork of the White River right now. Not setting the world on fire at Patoka,,but catching fish as its 10.5, high,,clear,,fish scattered everywhere as well as stacked in the river channels,,,and just happy to be fishing clean clear water. And its now summer time. Going to try some different tactics this week and will post afterwards.