Patoka Lake

[kevinm]

me and my brother will be heading to Patoka Lake in the next two weeks to fish for cappie or bluegill, I know very little about the lake. Can someone give me a good starting point, such as which ramp to launch from? How deep to fish? live bait, or artifical? Any help will be greatly appriciated.

[raporter]

me and my brother will be heading to Patoka Lake in the next two weeks to fish for cappie or bluegill, I know very little about the lake. Can someone give me a good starting point, such as which ramp to launch from? How deep to fish? live bait, or artifical? Any help will be greatly appriciated.

I would suggest the Walls Ramp area. Won't have boats zipping around you (10 MPH limit) and there are many acres of flooded timber. I just use jigs and roadrunners but minnows work well too. Depth will be where ever you find them. There will be some deep in the channels and some in very shallow places such as around beaver dens. Good luck

[Fisherjoe]

Back of Painters Creek. Work flooded stumps until you find them.

Bend end of South Lick Fork. Go to back of creek after going under bridge. Also hit riprap on both sides of bridge.

Back end of Fleming Creek (don't go under bridge). Fish will scatter on flats both sides of channel. South ramp is closest access.

Behind Lick Fork marina search flooded timber.

Use Road Runners or micro cranks to locate fish. Good luck.

Joe

[98zr2]

anyone know what the water temp is

[idbefishing]

anyone know what the water temp is

My WAG would be **** near frozen.

[Moveon]

Patoka lake is full of crappie and bluegills. Although the bluegills are not a big as they were before the gizzard shad were found in the lake.

Go to South Lick Fork and fish any big brush pile you can find along the creek channel or near a ditch.

If you have good electronics (SI Sonar) you can find plenty of brush piles that hold crappie. There are hundreds of brush piles in Patoka Lake.

If you go to the lake in the Middle or end of March look for the warmer water in the back ends of the creek channels.

You should be able to catch fish in the upper river part of Patoka Lake in March, April and into May.

Spring rains will fill the lake with water that runs off the hills and that water will be warmer than the cold lake water this time of the year. Warm water will attract the fish.

If you don't have a depth finder or a Side Scanning Sonar unit you can still eliminate a lot of water using a digital thermometer. Find the warmest water and fish areas where the creek channel runs though the flats where there are a lot of big stumps. That's my best advice to you without actually showing your my spots.

Good luck and remember to enjoy the journey whether you catch fish or not.

Any day fishing beats a day at work!