Bluegrass F&W area Otter Pit and Bluegrass Pit Reports

I have been fishing Otter Pit for crappie and doing well in the grass where I found some small scrub trees that were submerged. Water temp was 92 deg F at the surface and the fish were in 7 to 10 ft of water near a drop off.

Fished Bluegrass Pit yesterday. I mapped a huge shelf that I found. I used 10 marker buoys to mark the outline if this shelf and get that pictured in my mind. Then when I picked up the buoys I added each spot along the edge of the shelf to my GPS as a waypoint.

I found a nice deep brush pile in 20 ft of water. Bush came up to around 12 ft from the surface. I caught only one crappie from this brush pile.

I found out that the 12" bass are hanging around 18 ft right on the drop off. I caught at least 15 largemouth bass that were short yesterday. Each was carefully handled and released IMMEDIATELY. They are appeared to be in very good shape. I caught these using live minnows and a drop shot weight. I used 6 lb test Stren line Magnithin type. A graphite 7 ft long rod and a open faced spinning reel with a good drag system.

I had heard others telling me that the bass were in 18 ft of water and they were absolutely right. They were spot on! Right at 18 ft. I'll take some deep water temperature readings the next time I get out to fish.

I want to determine where the thermocline is located on this lakes.

Then later that evening I fished a shallow self and caught a few more bass in 5 ft to 10 ft of water. They got up on the shelf and I used an ultra light outfit to catch these bass. I caught on more crappie in about 7 ft of water in the grass.

Submergent vegetation in the hot summer months seems to be where I am finding the crappie this year. I still found some in about 20 ft of water suspended ten feet down from the surface at Otter Pit.

They fish find shelter, food and good dissolved oxygen levels in the weeds.

Another thing that I often forget is the the weeds take up CO2 from the water. This will change the pH of the water in the area around the weeds. CO2 when mixed with water is an weak acid. Carbonic Acid. By adding CO2 to the water at night the water becomes more acidic. By taking away CO2 from the water during the daytime the water becomes more basic. The pH swings may be minimal in lakes that have high buffering capacity. Limestone type lakes will have lots of carbonate to buffer the pH levels. One would have to use up all the Calcium Carbonate before the pH levels would shift very much.

Ever had one of those days when the fish almost jump in the boat? Sunday was one such day for me. The day started out nice weather wise but I got a late start as usual. I had to repair the ground wire on the boat trailer as it broke.

I decided to go fish at Blue Grass Pit this day. It was a nice day with clear blue bird skies.

I avoided my normal fishing spots in favor of exploring the pit. I ended up catching a few on the very last cover at the North End of the pit. But these were all pretty small crappie. They were in 10 ft deep water near the mouth of the cove. I caught maybe ten fish and then decided that there were no big crappie here. It was getting later in the day and I figured this other spot would be better.

I got to the area where I wanted to end the day and caught my first crappie of any size. I threw out a marker buoy and started fishing this area. I ended up catching over 50 crappie. I returned all but 25 which I kept in the live well. When I got to the ramp and asked if anyone wanted these fish nobody wanted these crappie so I returned them to the lake also. Some were nice size too. I didn't feel like cleaning a mess of crappie last night.

But I had fun and it gave me something to do Sunday.

I caught a few short bass too. I explored this one spot and fished the entire edge of this big drop off. I must have landed about 10 small bass or more.

I was fishing with live minnows and a small 1/16 oz lead head jig tipped with either minnows or crappie nibbles.

Water surface temperatures were in the lower 80's on Sunday. Winds were light and out of the West when I arrived and then they calmed down before it got dark.

There are still plenty of crappie in Blue Grass Pit from what I saw.

Moose,

I have never fished the Bluegrass, but drove out and around the area yesterday just to look it over. Doesn't look like the ramps can handle my boat, but should be fine from my brother-in-laws john boat.

I know you have posted several times on the Bluegrass lakes and was hoping you could provide a general overview of the "fishing situation".

Now that the waterfowl hunting season is almost over, I have been thinking about giving it a try this winter to see if I can attract some attention from the crappie/bass and ?muskie???. I noticed they have a minimum of 18 inches posted for bass. So, how hard is it to get a 18" plus bass out of there?

Thanks and Good Fishing,
Gary

18" Large Mouth bass are there but there are not very many of them. I think that would be about a 4.5 to 5 lb bass but it could be a 4 lber.

I saw a 6 lb bass come out of Otter Pit on Sunday when the Azteca guys have a small tournament one day.

I personally have caught lots of 1 lb bass and even got one 15" LMB on Otter pit several years ago. Note: Otter pit's LMB size limit is 14" I believe. Bluegrass Pit and Loon Pit have the 18" size limit for LMB.

The ramps at Otter Pit, the North ramp at Loon and the South Ramp at Bluegrass are concrete and the only problem I have with them in the shallow slope. I have to back my two wheel drive truck into the water to get my boat to slide off the wooden 2 x 4 on Edge on my boat trailer. I need to add some of those plastic slick things to the top edge of those 2 x 4 to make the boat come off easier.

In the summer months the algae grows in the shallow were on the concrete and makes that ramp slick with that slimey algae. I sometimes will take a stiff push broom over there and try to scrap some of the algae off the concrete but that's a loosing proposition.

So I purchased a come a long to pull my truck's back tires out of the slimy. Once they hit the dry pavement I can get the truck out ok.

I have seen people launching anything from a small rubber boat to a big pontoon boat and even saw a pretty big sail boat launching at Loon's North End.

There are gravel ramps at the South end of LOON pit
and at the North end of Bluegrass Pit. They are very shallow too.

I have not seen nor heard of any muskie over 36" being caught... yet. give them a few more years and hopefully they will have grown to 36" long where we can catch them. I personally would have to release the muskie after taking a picture of it first.

I'll give you a tip about Bluegrass Pit. Launching from the South Parking Lot is where I like to launch from. That ramp is pretty decent and it drops off into deeper water right out from the ramp. I have caught lots of small bass right at the ramp fishign with minnows. I have seen one guy catch several crappie fishing an ultralight jig. He waded out about 10 ft into the lake there at the edge of the ramp. He was wearing hip waders and fishing with 2 lb test stren line and a 1 /16 or 1/32 oz jig. Not sure what type of jig he was using but I think it was a feather type jig. Anyway he would cast out and let it sink about 6 second to 10 second and then set the hook and pull in a nice 8" crappie. I saw him doing this at the North end of Loon in Sept one year before. He fished the little lagoon on the West side of Loon's North Parking lot. He cast out almost across the lagoon too. He was using a pfluegar ultralight reel and about a 5 ft long ultralight St Croix rod. If memory serves me right. There are a lot of those little 8 " crappie.

Going from the ramp head straight acoss the lake to the Eastern Shoreline. There is a shelf out there that's full of submergent weeds. Find the drop off and fish the edge in about 7 ft to 18 ft of water. If you find some underwater brush along this edge there will be fish there sometimes. Not all the time but enough to make it worth while checking out. A single #4 hook and a minnow with a few spit shots is a good choice for crappie. Fish vertical and vary the depth and speed of the boat. Hover over any brush piles and start at the bottom and reel up very slowly until you get hits. mark your line at that depth with a black magic marker so that you can return to that depth. I make the mark right were the fishing line comes off the reel. Then I know that when I let out line and see the mark in front of the reel I am back at the same depth where I was catching fish.
I caught about 50 crappie one evening along that ledge. As you go North along this bank and ledge you will come to the first bay. There a few crappie in the bay. Go into the bay and then follow either bank until you come to a secondary bay. There is one on each side. Both can hold crappie in the shallow waters during the Late March and Early april.

Now if you come out of these bays back onto the main part of the pit. The part that runs NORTH / SOUTH and head North you will come to bay # 2. This bay like bay #1 runs East/West. The mouth of this bay can be good. The North side of the mouth has a ledge about 18 ft deep at the edge of the edge and I have caught lots of 1.5 to 2 lb lmb there. The flat goes from the bank on the North side of the mouth of the bay almost half way across the bay out to the South. Going West along the drop off you can follow the drop off around and out into the main lake and then it will turn back North. It will turn back into the East Side of the main lake a few 100 feet North of the Mouth of Bay #2. If you have a boat and a depth finder and some marker buoys you can mark this drop off and find some spots along it with some brush piles. I have not caught a lot of crappie along this drop off but I just started to fish it last summer and it was late in the summer. I didn't fish Bluegrass that much. I use to catch a lot of crappie in Bay #1 in the back 2/3's of that bay. There is a shelf on the South Side of this bay pass the first inlet. There are some willow trees that grow along the bank and there are some stickups out in the water. This little shelf only goes out from the bank about 50 ft or so and then it drops down into 25 ft deep water. I have caught crappie by the dozens in this spot from time to time. And I have seen others who saw me fishing this spot and then went to fish it too. Last summer this spot went dry on me. But at times you really have to stick it out and fish this spot for a few hours before you get the crappie to hit good. Maybe they are not there and swim into this area or maybe they are there and not hungy at first. I'll never know for sure. But at times it's a hot spot. I have taken a limit of 25 fish in this spot more than once. Most fish are 8" and a big one might be 10" here.

I have seen some 13 and 14" crappie that came out of Bluegrass pit. One guy gave a 13" white crappie to me at Otter Pit's launch ramp. He said he caught it at Bluegrass pit on a crank bait.

Last summer I finally started troll some bandit 300s and although I didn't catch any crappie on them I still think I will next year. I need a way to slow my boat down to 1.5 mph or less. The only way I can do that now it to motor slow into a headwind of about 15 mph. I need a trolling plate on my motor or I need to tow a couble of wind socks or 5 gallon plastic buckets behind the boat to slow me down. Another trick that I will use next summer is to take the back hooks off one of my crankbaits and tie on a 2 ft long leader of flurocarbon line ( something stiff) and then tie on a jig to the leader. I'll let the crank bait take it down to 10 to 12 ft and hope that crappie grab the jig. That's a trick that was written up in the Herters Guide Book many years ago. Dad gave me that book when he passed on.

I have not fished the Western Banks of the South end of the main pit on Bluegrass. That side seems to drop off pretty good. I have seen some guys fishing that side about 1/2 mile down the lake just past bay #2. There is a flat that comes off that West Bank and goes out a few hundrend feet. Watch others fishing this area to see where the shelf is located. Lots of bass fishermen will anchor or troll though this area casting worms and jigs.

Please return any undesize bass to the lake as soon as you can especially during the hot summer months. That time of the year the bass are at 18 ft during the day and at night they may come up on the flats to eat. That's typical of the KY lake bass that I fished for years ago.

There is a lot of gizzard shade in all these pits. And any fish that swims in the Ohio River can potentially be found in these pits as they are all connected to the river via Bluegrass creek and Pigeon Creek at times of flooding. And there are big culverts that run under Kansas Road and Boonville New Harmomy road that connect Otter to Loon and Loon to Bluegrass pit respectively. So there may be Muskie swimming in Otter pit or bluegrass creek or Pigeon Creek or the Ohio River someday in the future. You just never know. I have caught a few nice 3lb catfish. I have caught some baby yellow bullhead catfish in Birddog pit, which is another pit located south of Boonville New Harmony road and on St Johns Road. This pit has some good bluegill in it also. I think it's birddog pit that has the best water quality. It's located right along the side of Boonville New Harmony road. It's just on the South side of the road and between St Johns road and Zoar Church road.

There is a bunch of maps for the public at the Inforamtion station located at the South Launch Ramps parking lot of Bluegrass pit. Stop there and get a map of the area so that you can find your way around if you are not familar with the area. The rules are also posted on the information sign and there are phone numbers for the guys up at Sugar Ridge that run the Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife area. So if you have any questions about the rules you can call Nate, the property manager, or the fishery Biologist, Dan Carnahan. Both are great guys and will help you if they are not busy at the time. Dan is the guy that does the fish electro shocking studies on all the lakes in SW IN district 7 or 8. He does the studies for Patoka Lake and all the lakes around the Evansville Area. The IDNR web site has a map on their web site that shows the territories of the different fisheries biologist for the State of IN.

I have most of the spots marked on my GPS as Waypoints. Which makes it easier for me to find the exact spot to fish. That's critical on some of the brush piles as they are not big and you have to hover right over the brush pile before you can catch them crappie. At times the crappie won't move very far to take a bait and if you are not at the right depth and exact spot you won't catch them. They are funny that way.

In Bay #1 on Bluegrass it use to take me hours before the fish started to bite. I was looking for this one brush pile that once I found it and marked it with a buoy I could catch a lot of fish. But there were times when my GPS would not get me on the spot and I wasted a lot of time just looking for this small brush pile. It was more likely just a 8 ft tall stickup that looked like a big pile when hovering over it with the depth finder's scroll speed on medium. Sometimes if your boat's not moving and the object is stationary on the bottom it will look much bigger than it really is when you hover right over the stickup. That's where someone with a sidescanning sonar unit would have a head up on those with only 2d depth finders. Someday when I get a humminbird 1197c SI I'll map all of these pits and know where every stump and brush pile and bolder is located.

I know one guy that said he was buying one of these. He's a crappie fisherman that's retired and fishs these pits during the weekdays.

Now this winter I would fish on the bottom in the deep flats. Those 18 ft deep edges and that brush pile on the edge of the mouth of Bay #2 on Bluegrass might be where there are some big crappie this time of the year and during the cold water period. That's period #10 according to the In-Fisherman Calandar.



[quote=Boone;313787]Moose,

I have never fished the Bluegrass, but drove out and around the area yesterday just to look it over. Doesn't look like the ramps can handle my boat, but should be fine from my brother-in-laws john boat.

I know you have posted several times on the Bluegrass lakes and was hoping you could provide a general overview of the "fishing situation".

Now that the waterfowl hunting season is almost over, I have been thinking about giving it a try this winter to see if I can attract some attention from the crappie/bass and ?muskie???. I noticed they have a minimum of 18 inches posted for bass. So, how hard is it to get a 18" plus bass out of there?

Thanks and Good Fishing,
Gary[/quote]

Moose,

Thanks a ton for all the great information on Bluegrass. It would have taken me several fishing trips to collect that kind of detailed info!

Thanks and good fishing on the Bluegrass,

Gary