Great job. I have wanted to fish Patoka and never have
Big shout out and thank you to crappie.com member Indianachinker for coercing me into going to Patoka as he lives close by. Patoka has always been my favorite lake to fish but the past number of years, crappie went small on us, and lost all the weeds in the lake so I hadn’t fished it for crappie for past 3-4 years except a few times for walleyes. Lake is flooded and up 11.4 ft as the only 2 bridges you can get under now is Painter Creek and Hwy 164 at Lick Fork and if you do try and launch, most launches you have to beach your boat on the concrete ramps if by yourself. I was on the water at 6:45 am and fish finders were showing fish around 10’ deep to as much as 20’ deep making it hard to catch. Add 11.4 ft of water and very little of this lake is shallow anywhere except in the flooded trees. Only caught 18 including a couple small bass but did catch 1-14”, 1-12”, couple of 10’s, and 2 -9s with the rest dink’s. All fish released as had as much as 125’ of line out trolling PICO crankbaits with the hot color being Smokie Shad. That is also a favorite for bass. Speed 1.6 to 1.8 mph and sometimes was running right thru submerged timber. Water was really very light stained blue green almost clear in spots and boat would spook schools of bait fish. Water temp was 86.3 under a hot sun blue sky with little to no north breeze at times. With the lake flooded and now at least 10,000 plus acres and so much standing timber still in spots you need to be super careful running big motor if you don’t know your way around the lake. Maybe Patoka is on a comeback. Time will tell. I was off the water by noon and only saw 3 other boats on entire lake fishing. Needle nose plyers in the pics are 8 inches long and couple of pics are fish on a 15” golden rule.
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"
Great job. I have wanted to fish Patoka and never have
How deep do you figure pico crank bait is going at 125ft back 1.8mph
You have to subtract amount of line from your rod tip to where it enters the water, so subtract 10-12’ of line, and Chart would show maybe 16’ down but I think more like 15’ down. Normally I would use clip on line weights for walleye fishing, and not have to mess with so much line out but didn’t have them in the boat with me. As deep as the water was in places, I never hit bottom, but did catch a one crappie and one 13” bass with that much line out.
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"
nice fish man!
I keep a small roll of baling wire in the boat for those occasions. I make up some of my hillbilly wire weights. put the wire threw the size sinker you need to get down, and make a loop like a paper clip. clip that onto your leaders(my leader is 4-6ft long) swivel. clip onto the front swivel eye not the back or it will ride on your leader knot. I use anywhere from 1/2-2oz sinkers and troll at steep angle back under the boat. fish don't seem to mind the boat with the electric going. I use this for gills at 8-20ft down, and for trout 15-30ft down. with the short lines I can be in unhooked and back in action in no time. not to mention the control and ability to turn back on that school!
what did happen to that res.? it use to be known for hogs back in the day. I always figured it was all the guides hammering it? not in my area so have no clue.
Sure would be nice to see it come back. One of my favorites. Fished it 2 years ago with a bunch of 8"-9"ers released to grow. Love staying in those floating cabins. Fishing with lights off of the docks at night is great.
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Looks like u has a wonderful day on the water! In regards to how far back the cranks are: Since I don't have line counter reels, I like to tie a bobber stop knot at 100 feet and 50 feet on my
trolling rods. It works wonders. I measure it out on the driveway.
cevans LIKED above post
To many shad. It once had a great blue gill and red ear fishery and that was first to go. When it was first opened up to the public, Indiana Bass Fed. had one day tournaments for a couple of 3 yrs of 1000 lb weigh ins. I could catch a limit of 12-15” crappies cranking in 2-3 hrs even 4-5 yrs ago. Did that for years. 3-4-5 yrs ago, I could see schools of 12-14” shad all over the lake. Didn’t see a lot of top water action today so not sure how the shad are as I haven’t fished for crappies in 3-4 yrs on Patoka. first hour on lake, didn’t catch nothing then hit that 14” er and I liked to fell out of the boat today! I really didn’t expect that or the 5 other nice fish. The little ones were expected as last few times I fished Patoka, I would catch a hundred crappie and a hundred yellow pesky bass too and nothing over 8 inches so I hadn’t wasted my time fishing it as friends of mine keep telling me it hasn’t changed. I need to fish it more before I pass comments on it and will do so. DNR has been stocking a few hybrids and strippers and millions of 0.02 in walleye fry in it every year but without any grass for cover, and to me, that small of walleye is fish food. But! Maybe that is working... The lake still has tons of standing timber and lay down timber all over it. But with COE keeping the lake high for past 2-3 yrs that killed all the grass. There isn’t a blade anywhere. Past 20 months, Patoka has never been summer pool and at least 3.5 ft above it. You look at our DNR compared to other states and theirs works with their COE. For some reason, ours doesn’t or can’t. Our DNR, however, has known that we have had a over abundance of small dink crappie in Patoka and Monroe.
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"Chalex LIKED above post
Toms Guide Service and J & R Guide Service I don’t think crappie fish Guide on Patoka anymore too much.
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZERauthorized by: Billbob and "G"indianachinker LIKED above post