Patoka report

Hey guys ,
Took a days vacation and headed to Patoka Lake this morning early to beat the heat . Got half-way up the I-64 spur and had a trailer tire tread seperated but didnt see it until I got to the lake { luckily I made it on cord } , changed the tire and headed out to my favorite spot . Got there and put the trolling motor down - nothing . Batterys had been charged so either the motors bad or wiring is shot . Oh well , might as well fish . Caught one 15" bass on a red shad power worm but that was it . Water temp was 81 deg. Lake was down a bit but not much . No boat traffic to speak of which was nice . Got hot so I headed home . On the way my check engine light came on - boy when it rains its pours , but I made it home OK .

When it rains it poors. Boy you can say that again. I have had some of those days too! Good to see you got to fish and made it back home.

It's sure been hot this last week. I was getting up at 4 am to avoid the heat. Didnt' fish that much be did get out and do some scouting for wildlife and check out where all the other fisherman were fishing. LOL Not finding any new spots but seeing people fishing the spots that I already knew about. Hey it's a public lake and I can't stop anyone from fishing. There's plenty of crappie for everyone. And I turn all my bass back to the water asap. Just good to see that other's have figured out the same spots and are cathing fish there too. I can't fish 24/7 so someone else might as well fish those spots.

I fished a few days ago and noticed that my trolling motor seemed low on battery power. I have a Optima Blue top Trolling motor battery that I got back in Nov 2003. Actually I purchased the D34M950 Optima Marine Deep Cycle battery for my trolling motor use. I purchased the 34M1050 Optima Starting Battery Blue Top at the same time.

This coming November these batteries will be 4 years old.

I found out that the trolling battery's wing nut on the Ground Connection was loose. I tighten the wing nut back onto the battery terminal post and the trolling motor worked much better.

My Minn-kota All Terrain 50 lb thrust trolling motor runs all day long on the Optima Blue top D34M905 battery. Optima makes a slighly larger deep cycle blue top battery and I wish I had purchased that one at times. But so far I have never run out of battery juice while fishing on a 200 acre electric motor only lake. This lake now allows gas motors at idle speeds. This lake is the Blue grass, Loon and Otter Pits in the Blue Grass F&W area.

Always check the battery connection to make sure that they are tight. Make sure that the wiring connections are clean and free of rust or corrosion. I use some fine sandpaper on my terminal connectors to make sure that I have a good electrical connection.

I am hoping that my Optima Batteries last me a full six years. I use my Minn-Kota battery charger to charge up my Batteries as soon as I come home from a fishing trip.




[quote=bassmanic1;303277]Hey guys ,
Took a days vacation and headed to Patoka Lake this morning early to beat the heat . Got half-way up the I-64 spur and had a trailer tire tread seperated but didnt see it until I got to the lake { luckily I made it on cord } , changed the tire and headed out to my favorite spot . Got there and put the trolling motor down - nothing . Batterys had been charged so either the motors bad or wiring is shot . Oh well , might as well fish . Caught one 15" bass on a red shad power worm but that was it . Water temp was 81 deg. Lake was down a bit but not much . No boat traffic to speak of which was nice . Got hot so I headed home . On the way my check engine light came on - boy when it rains its pours , but I made it home OK .[/quote]

Moose ,
The trolling motor I run is 24 volt - 1 of the batterys was dead so that was the problem . I have a Optima blue top marine battery I got last year for my jon boat so I put it in and the motor works fine now . The weather heads are saying that its suppose to cool off next week but they were saying that last week and look at the temps now but they are saying we will have rain by the week-end and lord knows we need it . I have a weeks vacation next week but I doubt Ill go to Patoka , it cost $30 gas in the truck and however much I put in my boat so the jon boats the way to go . Easy to handle , battery powered and fish close to home . I will probably hit Oakland city NL , some pits at Sugar Ridge and maybe Bluegrass . I was wondering can you run a outboard on Otter pit ?

Yes you can run the outboard motor on Otter Pit at Idle speed only. Which makes it nice to load and unload the boat at the ramp. The water levels are low so watch out for the trailer tires going off the end of the ramp. I wish that the ramps were longer especially at this time of the year with the water level so low.

With a 24 volt system you can pull crank baits on any of the blue grass pits.

How fast will your boat go with that 24 volt trolling motor set on high and the optima fully charged up?

I am thinking about heading up to Sugar Ridge one of these days and testing my rifle. I need to get it sighted in for this fall's hunting season.

I plan on buying some folding table legs and a piece of 4 x 8 wood in order to make myself a folding portable shooting table. Or I may just find one already made and buy it. I need something to shoot from.

Yea Jeff Lyons and the other weather guys keep saying that it's going to cool off but Mother Nature is not co-operating with them. We sure need some rain. I am to the point where I am watering my lawn once a week just to keep the roots alive. It's been a very long time without significant rainfall.

They are predicting about a 35% chance of rain this weekend. But that's a 65% chance that it won't rain. Odds are in favor of the continued drought. I saw some clouds today but they were way up north of my house. Isolated rain clouds could form but they may only cover 35% of the area.



[quote=bassmanic1;303336]Moose ,
The trolling motor I run is 24 volt - 1 of the batterys was dead so that was the problem . I have a Optima blue top marine battery I got last year for my jon boat so I put it in and the motor works fine now . The weather heads are saying that its suppose to cool off next week but they were saying that last week and look at the temps now but they are saying we will have rain by the week-end and lord knows we need it . I have a weeks vacation next week but I doubt Ill go to Patoka , it cost $30 gas in the truck and however much I put in my boat so the jon boats the way to go . Easy to handle , battery powered and fish close to home . I will probably hit Oakland city NL , some pits at Sugar Ridge and maybe Bluegrass . I was wondering can you run a outboard on Otter pit ?[/quote]