Indiana fishing isn't that bad

I fished Patoka last sat and sun for bass only and caught 10 sat and 11 sunday. Sat. I used a buzzbait and sunday I used a black/silver culprit worm. Fished from 6am to 11am both days and had 3 keepers sat. and 5 keepers sunday. I would have like to fished longer both days but had grandkids and their friends to take out on the pontoon. That was interesting for sure. Water was fine for swimming sat but the air sunday was a little chilly after getting out of the water. I think the fish are biting pretty **** good. I won't tell ya'll where I caught them at but I do know the lake pretty good after fishing it for 30 years. I'm about ready to try for crappie in my deeper holes. They should be on them really good if it would just get hot and stay hot. Wife wants some crappie so I'm going to have to get her some.

Patoka is a good lake to fish but it helps if you know it.

Amen. I've been doing fairly well up there also. Fished Sunday and had nearly the same results. Always catch fish at that lake. Most always keepers too. Very rarely will we catch short fish. I keeps me feeding the pump to make the drive. It's definately worth spending the money. Definately need to know the lake to do well.

[quote=Dakota Kid;331875]Amen. I've been doing fairly well up there also. Fished Sunday and had nearly the same results. Always catch fish at that lake. Most always keepers too. Very rarely will we catch short fish. I keeps me feeding the pump to make the drive. It's definately worth spending the money. Definately need to know the lake to do well.[/quote]
Shhh, there are no fish in Patoka, it is all a rumor.:)

Patoka Lake is nice but it's no Kentucky Lake. It's not Barkley Lake and it's no where near Lake Cumberland.

Maybe the old saying: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" is true.

Patoka lake and Monroe are the only two true reservoirs in IN that have any real size to them and they are both far smaller than KY Lake.

The only reason I started going to Patoka was because it was closer. I could get up early and drive to Patoka and fish and still come home that same day. It made for a very long day and it was 75 miles one way but it was still much closer to me than KY lake. To get to our camp at KY lake took over 3 hours. It took me only 2 hours to get to Patoka Lake from the West side of Evansville. Today it takes me only 1.5 hours to get to Patoka lake from the East Side of Evansville.

With the I-164 and I-64 it's much faster to get to Patoka Lake now from where I live.

I could drive up 161 out of Boonville, IN but that road gets a lot of slow pokes on it and it's hard to pass the church ladies who go less than 35 mph at times. I can get to I-164 in less than ten minutes now that the new State Hwy 62 is finished. And with the new Lynch Road Extension connecting Hwy 62 to I-164 it's even smoother sailing.

I am lucky that IN has the new Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area as they have three large strip pits that have concrete launch ramps on them and many other smaller pits to fish with a walk in boat. Some of the other pits have gravel launch ramps that can be used when the water's up.

I understand why Larry likes Patoka as he owns a cabin right on the lake and he can stay there every weekend and fish the lake all weekend long.

I also like Patoka during the weekdays. But on the weekends during the summer months it gets crowded.

I can not remember ever having to compete with water skiers and jet boats on KY lake in April and during Oct back in the old days. They didn't even have jet skies back in 1983.

Fishing when the water's cold is fun as there are not any water skiers on the lake then. They don't come out in force until late June and July.

One thing nice about Patoka Lake is that you can get back into the coves and away from the fast boats. They have a 10 mph limit on most of the fishing areas. Although I would love to fish the main lake areas. Maybe in the early morning or after dark it would be nice to fish those areas.

There are a few good lakes to fish but too many filled with rough fish.

Cecil Harden Reservoir is full of carp. They are everywhere.

Glenn Flint is full of carp and shad.

Cagles Mill is full of carp and shad. It does have some good white bass and flatheads, but largemouth bass is the target of most boaters, and it is pretty bad on most lakes.

Moose,

3 hrs to get to your camp on KY Lake? Must be way down south. From the East Side of Evansville I can be on North or South Barkley and North KY Lake in 1.5 hrs 2 at the most and thats with bad traffic.

Charlie

Charlie:
We fished at Cypress Bay back then. And we always went the old way though Caro, Pool, Princeton Benton Murry and New Concord so it took longer to get there. But this was back in the 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's.

Today you can take the Freeways and get to the North End of KY or Barkley Lake in a 1.5 hours but back in the old days it took us longer.

My Last trip to KY Lake was to the West Sandy Area of KY lake and that's a longer trip into West Tennessee. Fishing was not that much better than the other areas of KY lake.

I don't know the exact mileage but it's not easy to get to Paris Ten in less than 3 hours unless you fly low.


[quote=TR21Bassin;332414]Moose,

3 hrs to get to your camp on KY Lake? Must be way down south. From the East Side of Evansville I can be on North or South Barkley and North KY Lake in 1.5 hrs 2 at the most and thats with bad traffic.

Charlie[/quote]

Just got finished with a tournament today in Cedar Blufff KS it made me feel fortunate in IN with the lakes we have to fish. The Federation Guys there said that in 1993 the lake went almost dry, and as of the last four years the lake is still 16' low. The lake is a mass of timber with thousands of acres unfishable. My good friend has come home from Afganistan after 18 months and is at Fort Riley now so we found a tournament to knock the dust off his Ranger. We didnt know the lake and only boated one keeper but fished very hard for that one and did catch 4 short spotted bass as well but the tournament told a story of how good we have it in IN and our region. There were 4 states of the surrounding area represnted and I was told it is because in these states there just isnt anything to fish.