Have fished three times this year and have not had a good day yet. Fished stucture deep. Fished shallows and fished timber various depths.
Is it the weather or me?? Water temp was 63 the first time I went out about two weeks ago.
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Have fished three times this year and have not had a good day yet. Fished stucture deep. Fished shallows and fished timber various depths.
Is it the weather or me?? Water temp was 63 the first time I went out about two weeks ago.
This has been one of the best springs ever for me for good sized crappies on Patoka. Caught a bunch of 12-14 inch fish and a few bigger. All have been caught on jigs or roadrunners and most caught less than 3 feet deep.
When this present weather pattern moved in I quit fishing. I just do not enjoy getting blown all over the lake.
Good luck, they are out there and once you get them figured out you will have a ball with them.
bob I noticed they are still dropping patoka its like2 feet lower than summer pool whats up with that
[QUOTE=quack;487068]bob I noticed they are still dropping patoka its like2 feet lower than summer pool whats up with that[/QUOTE]
It appears they are taking it to winter pool. It is already below summer pool. Must think we are going to get a lot of rain. :confused: It does make for a good time to find and mark stump beds though.
I'll tell you a secret that I found out about Patoka Lake. Not all the brush contains crappie. One of my fishing buddies has a Humminbird 1198 on his boat and we used it on the lake several times while fishing together this last two years. He would motor around deep water brush piles and old bridges and look to see if there were fish there or not. We passed by the strucure that didn't show any fish suspended in and amoung the brush. We could actually see the fish school in amoung the brush.
So the old saying that 90% of the fish are in only 10% of the water is correct.
But you can sometimes change the ods of finding the fish by eliminating unproductive water with modern science and sonar.
Check brush piles along changes in depth. Such as along the edge of the old river channel where it makes a big sharp bend or a U turn. Those spots are more likely to hold fish than a straight sections.
Drop offs into very deep water that are connected to shallow feeding areas are good spots to check out too.
Up River is better in March than the main lake at times as the water's warmer in the upper reaches of the River. And those upper river shallow flats with stumps are prime spots to catch a boat load of crappie at times.
Every time I have caught a limit of crappie it's been either on a deep water brush pile or on or near a ledge that's right next to deeper water.
Edges that stick out the farthers into deeper water are the first to make contact with roaming schools of crappie. Crappie like to roam out in the confined open water searching for forage fish that also school in these areas. Both the forage fish and the crappie will head to the shallows at certain times of the day to feed. Areas with cover *brush* or submergent vegetation are more likely to hold fish and food for those fish.
Bottom line is you have to search a lot of areas to find these crappie. But once you find them you can go back to these areas year after year and catch fish. It's hard work to find fish. Some guys even go to the trouble of putting out brush piles in likely looking areas. Don't expect many people to tell you where they catch their fish. That would be akin to turning over a bank account number to a stranger.
I'll give you hints on where to find the fish. But I usually won't give out utm map coordinates. I'll give you general hints that are already common knowlledge to most fisherman that fish a lot or study fishing all the time.
The biggest hint I can give you is depth changes ie ledges or drop offs. Fish follow the creek and the DITCHES from deeper water into the shallows on a regular basis.
If you have a spot where you have caught spawning crappie in the past then check out the nearest drop of to find the prespawn crappie if they are not up in the shallows at that time.
Cold fronts can send the fish back to the first good drop off or make them go out to suspend out over deeper water until the weather warms the water back up again.
[QUOTE=ron64emm;487027]Have fished three times this year and have not had a good day yet. Fished stucture deep. Fished shallows and fished timber various depths.
Is it the weather or me?? Water temp was 63 the first time I went out about two weeks ago.[/QUOTE]
was fishing a bass tourney up at patoka yesterday and ran across 2 trees about 15 to 20 ft. could,ent believe how many crappie were stacked around them 2 trees told the boy we should of went after some minnows
[QUOTE=quack;487380]was fishing a bass tourney up at patoka yesterday and ran across 2 trees about 15 to 20 ft. could,ent believe how many crappie were stacked around them 2 trees told the boy we should of went after some minnows[/QUOTE]
Did you catch any Eyes fishing for those bass? Was you in the Teamsters tourney? Sure was a bunch of people down here this weekend.
Got on the lake for a while today. Wind was horrible. Friend and I each managed one 12 inch crappie and not much else.
no me and my son hooked up with the patoka fishing league having a real good time seems to be a bunch of super nice guys. and no we did,t hook into any walleye yet but i heard 1 guy say he caught a couple was busy and did,nt get to talk to him . and yes it was super crowded i think usa bass and the teamsters had tournaments sat
Move On, Thanks for the input. I am a newly retired( gonna learn how to fish) fisherman. On one told me it would be this hard. I will keep after them. Actually just love being on the water.
raporter,
Thanks for the input. Have thrown some spinners but been fishin mostly minnows. Haven't really worked quite that shallow, but certainly will try it.