Patoka Bass

A fishing buddy and myself fished Patoka on the May 23-24. We didn't catch many but what we did catch were pretty big, at least by my standards. On Wed. my friend caught a 4.5 lb in the [am] I lost one at least that big. In the evening he caught a 5lb, 6.5 and I caught one that went 7lb 5oz, My friend broke one off that seemed quiet large. Thur. morning we anticipated a great day, fished until 9:45 and didn't get the first bite. Is that why they call it fishin? We were fishing the points of islands with c-rigs/lizards and z-spooks. The biggest was off the spook.

Were you fishing off the two main islands out in the middle of the lake which are about +2 miles upriver from the ****?

My dad got a letter from his best friend who lived in Indianapolis some years ago. Included in that letter was a news paper article about Bill Dance's fishing trip on Patoka Lake. This was back when the lake was still fairly young. Bill normally would take a week to get enough film of him catching fish to do a show. But this trip to Patoka he got all the film he wanted in one day. He was catching over 100 bass right near the big Island. There the old Patoka River Channel sweeps by the East Side of the island and makes a U turn or S turn. The drop off is where he caught over 100 bass. Now they were not 5 lb bass but if memory serves me right they were 1 lb and 2 lb bass which are still fun to catch.

Someday when I get my money saved up and buy me a Humminbird 997 Side Scanning Sonar unit I am going to go up to Patoka Lake and scope out that drop off and look for cover on the old river channel tops. That's probably where old Dancer caught all those bass.

There is anohter long point that comes off the mouth of Painter Creek. This underwater point runs all the way out to the old river channel also. And I read another report of big crappie being caught in this area in 30ft of water. This is about where the old town of Newton Stewart was located and there are still some old roadways, sunkin bridges and house foundations in this area. A good place for the fish to hang out in the colder months where there is enough Dissolved Oxygen down in the depths. In the summer time the thermocline forms at around 26 ft so the fish may have to suspend above 26 feet in this area in order to have any dissolved oxygen to live. It takes about 5ppm or more DO for a sport fish to survive. Trout need 8 to 10 ppm DO to survive which is why the live in colder waters where there is much more DO in the water. Now your rough fish and catfish may be able to survive in waters with less DO but I would still think they would prefer to have more oxygen than 4 ppm.



[quote=gar;296070]A fishing buddy and myself fished Patoka on the May 23-24. We didn't catch many but what we did catch were pretty big, at least by my standards. On Wed. my friend caught a 4.5 lb in the [am] I lost one at least that big. In the evening he caught a 5lb, 6.5 and I caught one that went 7lb 5oz, My friend broke one off that seemed quiet large. Thur. morning we anticipated a great day, fished until 9:45 and didn't get the first bite. Is that why they call it fishin? We were fishing the points of islands with c-rigs/lizards and z-spooks. The biggest was off the spook.[/quote]

Great report, nice fish for sure....