Patoka Lake 3/21/11 Report

Patoka lake is still Stained to muddy in the Lick Fork Area. Water temperature was in the mid fifties today. Winds were brisk making fishing difficult. It was cloudy too and the weatherman said there was a chance of rain or thunderstorms today.

We caught fish in the 10 to 15 ft depths off brush piles. But nothing to brag about this day.

Wind made boat control impossible and messed up or fishing style. Wind was blowing so hard that we could not stay in one place with the trolling motor. Also the trolling motor on the boat broke making fishing even harder. So we just made the best of it and tired off to a few trees. Was not the best day on the lake that I had fishing but it was warm enough to be outside in just a "T" shirt and I got some sun on me.

Overall I enjoyed the day.

It's going to be a week or two before the crappie come into the shallows to start spawning. They are probably stacked up in the mouth of the bays waiting for the water to warm up more. That was the only place we didn't fish and that was because of the high winds and the lack of a trolling motor. We did try drifing but the wind was too much and we went too fast to keep the baits down deep.

[QUOTE=Moveon;446711]Patoka lake is still Stained to muddy in the Lick Fork Area. Water temperature was in the mid fifties today. Winds were brisk making fishing difficult. It was cloudy too and the weatherman said there was a chance of rain or thunderstorms today.

We caught fish in the 10 to 15 ft depths off brush piles. But nothing to brag about this day.

Wind made boat control impossible and messed up or fishing style. Wind was blowing so hard that we could not stay in one place with the trolling motor. Also the trolling motor on the boat broke making fishing even harder. So we just made the best of it and tired off to a few trees. Was not the best day on the lake that I had fishing but it was warm enough to be outside in just a "T" shirt and I got some sun on me.

Overall I enjoyed the day.

It's going to be a week or two before the crappie come into the shallows to start spawning. They are probably stacked up in the mouth of the bays waiting for the water to warm up more. That was the only place we didn't fish and that was because of the high winds and the lack of a trolling motor. We did try drifing but the wind was too much and we went too fast to keep the baits down deep.[/QUOTE]

I agree the wind was terrible yesterday and today. The fish however have been very willing to take a jig. Yesterday I quit counting after 100 with many 11 and a few 12 inches.
Today was slower but still caught 80 with several 11s and one 14. Most fish were caught real close to the banks 14 to 18 INCHES deep on jigs under a bobber.
Where were you in Lick Fork? What kind of boat were you in? If you see an old grey beard in a 17' tournement V Tracker with a blond dog give me a holler.

And before someone thinks I was over my limit they were all put back as I do not like crappies to eat, to danged soft for me.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/raporter/100_3020.jpg[/IMG]

Little fella likes his fish FRESH!

You know I love & hate fishing in the spring - you've been cooped up all winter - weather starts to break it gets warm & sunny enough that you just know you can catch some fish - then the front comes in . . . you should've been here yesterday . . .

Good report it's always better to fish than to wish you were fishing!

We fished out of a Crestliner Boat and we also had a little dog with us.

[IMG]http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j404/moveon100/Joey.jpg[/IMG]

We launched out of the Fisherman's campground and fished the Lick Fork Area and the Marina Area. We new that the warmer water was near the shorline and we should have fished that more. We did fish a lot of shallow water but we fished it by drifting with the wind and probably didn't fish it slow enough. Water is still cool even in the shallows near the bank.

We did catch a few fish using a curly tail chartruse grub with a lead head jig 1/16 oz size. Just cast that out and let it sink for a few seconds and reel it back in slowly. A few crappie were chasing this bait.

The one thing we failed to use was Crappie Nibbles and I still am not sure why I didn't put them on that day. I had them with me in my fishing box.

Fished today but up the river, water stained, windy but not as bad as yesterday but fought it all the same, temp. vaireried to 55 to 59 on the wind blown banks, still better than sitting at home wishing you were there!!!! :cool:

Those are the days I really love my AutoPilot TM.

[QUOTE=raporter;446862]Those are the days I really love my AutoPilot TM.[/QUOTE]

Always wondered how well those worked and if they were worth the money?

They are dependent on the limited accuracy of the GPS system that is used to let it know where it's at and where it's going.

I guess if you have a huge brush pile it will keep your boat over the top of the pile somewhere.

GPS is limited in accuracy due to a number of factors that we can't control.

It's only accurate to about 10 ft with WAAS and about 30 ft without WAAS.

That's plus or minus ten feet 95% of the time. 5% of the time it can be off further than plus or minus ten feet.

95% confidence Level is about two std deviations from the mean value. If you were to go out to three std dev it would include about 99% of the data points. But your error circle would be much larger.




[QUOTE=ElectricSLT;446991]Always wondered how well those worked and if they were worth the money?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=ElectricSLT;446991]Always wondered how well those worked and if they were worth the money?[/QUOTE]


I think Moveon may be referring to the new model with the "Anchor" application. My buddy is getting one of those as soon as we can get to BP. Mine is just the one that keeps you going in a line. This is my second one so Yes to me it is worth it. I am able to fish in that wind instead of fighting for boat control. While mine didn't come with it I added the Co-Pilot so my control is on my wrist like a watch.

I never heard or saw anything about this one until last Monday when I stopped at PoorBoys and picked up a copy of Hoosier Angler Magazine Spring 2011. The ad was on the very back page or cover of the Magazine.


RHODAN HD GPS AHCNOR+
[URL="http://www.gpsanchor.com"]www.gpsanchor.com[/URL] or 888-434-7726 Sarasota, Florida


[QUOTE=raporter;447022]I think Moveon may be referring to the new model with the "Anchor" application. My buddy is getting one of those as soon as we can get to BP. Mine is just the one that keeps you going in a line. This is my second one so Yes to me it is worth it. I am able to fish in that wind instead of fighting for boat control. While mine didn't come with it I added the Co-Pilot so my control is on my wrist like a watch.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Moveon;447059]I never heard or saw anything about this one until last Monday when I stopped at PoorBoys and picked up a copy of Hoosier Angler Magazine Spring 2011. The ad was on the very back page or cover of the Magazine.


RHODAN HD GPS AHCNOR+
[URL="http://www.gpsanchor.com"]www.gpsanchor.com[/URL] or 888-434-7726 Sarasota, Florida[/QUOTE]


First time I have seen that one. I was refering to the latest Minnkota Auto Pilot that has that built in to it. Anyway as soon as my buddy gets his I will post on how well it does.