Ice Update

[raporter]

Was above Walls today and caught a ton of dinks. Only two keepers and two jig loving channel cats. Warmest water was 55'. The lake is still up a couple feet making it difficult to fish the trees that are normally just above the water. Water is still dingy.

[Moveon]

Was above Walls today and caught a ton of dinks. Only two keepers and two jig loving channel cats. Warmest water was 55'. The lake is still up a couple feet making it difficult to fish the trees that are normally just above the water. Water is still dingy.

I wish I had the energy to get the boat out and take it up to Patoka Lake and fish for some crappie. This is the right time of the year for those big slabs to be in the upper river section of the lake.

I've been fishing Patoka Lake since it opened back in the last 1970's. I've caught plenty of small black crappie out on the main lake around the shore lines in the spring. But they were all small ones. I started exploring the Walls area only in 2003. All the other times I went to the Lick Fork Area or the Main Launch Ramp at Newton Stewart. Walls has much more timber in the water and there area a lot of fish up there. But to catch the bigger crappie you have to wade though hundreds of the smaller fish or find a good spot where the big ones area and the little ones are not. That's hard to find. I know of one such spot up in the Walls Patoka River section of the lake but I have not be able get up there and fish it like it needs to be fished.

I went out and purchased a lot of camping gear before 2009 but I ended up having a heart attack and required a 4x bypass surgery to get my heart fixed. When I was in the hospital someone stole my aluminum camper shell which I had taken off my truck bed and set next to the house on my concrete driveway. I was going to use that camper to cover everything in the back of my truck when I went on a camping trip. Now I have a brand new tent still in the box and never opened and other camping necessities that I find hard to use. The last time I went camping I went to Patoka Lake in the 1st of April and caught a nice 1.5 lb White Crappie and saw another guy throw back several of the same size fish into the lake. He later won the Crappie USA tournament fishing that same exact spot. Actually he and his partner won the Patoka Lake Cabelas Crappie USA Spring fishing tournament two years in a row fishing that spot. So I know that the big mommas like the hand in that are this time of the year. They are in pre-spawn staging mode in the early parts of April and waiting for the back waters to get a consistent temperature before they go in to lay their eggs. The upper river area of Patoka Lake has more nutrients flowing into the water and therefore has a more robust food chain. Phosphorous and Potassium from the farms lands up river feed the water and the algae and plankton grow faster due to these excesses of "limiting nutrients" in the River waters. Those the fish have more food and such. Also these shallow waters along the old river channel warm up faster. And there are plenty of huge tree stumps and standing trees in this area to provide cover for the fish and their prey. Actually the upper reaches of the Little Patoka River also are similar but don't drain as much land and thus don't have the nutrient load that the Patoka River has itself.

It's going to be raining all week according to the weather man's reports so I won't be getting the boat out. Beside I'm not able to see up close without reading glasses these days due to the fact that I had cataract eye surgery on both eyes and now can see at a distance without eye glasses and have 20/20 vision in both eyes not. But only for seeing at a distance. To see up close I need to wear reading glasses with a 2.25 to 2.50 diopter adjustment. So if it's raining and I have to wear eye glasses the rain gets on the lenses and makes it hard to see to tie fishing knots and do other up close work. At least now I can see the Hummingbird Depth Finders screen without wearing eye glasses. Unless I have to get my head up close to the screen to see details on the screen. Then I may need to wear my 1.25 Diopter reading glasses. I wear these type of reading eye glasses to see the computer screen at arms length distance. So I need two different pairs of reading glasses to see up close an at arms length away from my eyes. Anything farther than arms length distance and I can see just fine. I'm luck I can still see out of my left eye as it required a retina eye surgery to correct a epiretinal membrane that had formed on the back of my left eye's retina. I'm still recovering from that retinal operation. I had it back in Jan and it may take a full year to fully recover from the operation. But I'm recovering nicely and can see 20/20 in the left eye. I still have another 6 months of healing time before I will know the results and can be fitted with multi focal contacts that might allow me to see up close again without glasses. It not then I may require tri focal glasses just for reading at two different but close distances. The upper part of the glass would be plain glass and not magnify anything at all as I can see perfectly at distances beyond my arm's length.

Right now the Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom and the Dogwoods will be beginning to bloom in a week or two. This is the right time of the year to catch some big female crappie loaded with eggs. So get your rain gear on and go fishing. Just don't go out on the water if there is any lighting around.

I didn't get the boat out at all last year but I've got the license and registrations for my boat all caught up this spring and I already bought my combo hunting and fishing license for 2015/16. So I need to get some gas in the boat and go test the motor. I charged up the two Optima Batteries the other day.

Who knows I may one day still decide to load up the back of the truck with my camping gear and head up to Patoka Lake again.

I've seen some nice fish pictures posted on Facebook so I know that the Bluegills are biting now.