Best Crappie Lake

[bkbobbit]

I'm wondering what people think the best Crappie lake in Indiana is. I'm rather partial to Patoka myself. However, the last few years I've noticed the size seems to be decreasing. What are some other top lakes/reservoirs in Indiana?

[raporter]

Seems after April a big crappie is very hard to find in Patoka. Was out yesterday, caught hundreds and had a few 10 inches with the rest being 6 to 8. Caught them shallow, deep and all depths in between, same size everywhere.

[Moveon]

Seems after April a big crappie is very hard to find in Patoka. Was out yesterday, caught hundreds and had a few 10 inches with the rest being 6 to 8. Caught them shallow, deep and all depths in between, same size everywhere.

Troll some big crank baits in the 20 ft depths. I've been catching larger crappie (All females) in the deeper water trolling into the wind and going 1.5 mph with the cranks at about 19 to 20 ft deep. These crappie are in huge schools that can be seen on sonar very easily. They are stacked vertically and look like huge brush piles at times on the sonar screen.

And they are only about 150 to 200 ft from the 7 ft spawning flats that are covered in submergent vegetation from 7 ft to 2 ft depths. The flats are clean from around 8 ft on down as the water is cloudy enough to prevent sunlight from getting the weeds to grow in depths lower than 8 ft deep. This is Eurasian Milfoil or Leafy Pondweed I think.

Find a large area where you think it might be a spawning area and look for the deeper water nearby. Then try to get the boat to 1.5 or lower. A kicker motor might be necessary on the larger boats with the big motors. Or a 24 volt I pilot would work. Getting the speed right is the key. I catch more fish going into the wind because I think it slows me down. If I troll with the wind my boat speed is well over 2.0 mph. And if there is no wind then I'm not sure how that works. All I caught last year trolling bandit 300's and 700's were LM Bass in the 1lb to 2lb range. This spring is the first time I've caught crappie on this strip pit lakes using crank baits. But I've caught some good crappie in the Lick Fork Area trolling cranks on the area parallel with the Highway 164. Troll the north side of the East Branch which is North of the bridge.

[raporter]

Did that too. Haven't trolled the 164 area this year yet but did catch some real nice ones there earlier. Was out after the rain Thursday and found a few nice ones along with the usual ones working the grass lines. It looks like we will have better grass this year than we have had for a few years.
These small fish we are catching do not appear to be stunted so hopefully the next few years are going to be excellent.