LOL only 44? You know you caught more than that? :) We threw away at least 20 dinks.
These fish were begging to get in the boat. We would have caught more if not for the wind today. PL don't like the wind at all!
I hooked up with Larry at the Newton Stewart Launch Ramp and we fished the main lake. We fish this one bay that was full of fat little crappie. We caught fish all day long. We left early today due to the wind. If not we would have easily caught a double limit of keepers.
Man what a nice day to be out on the water. Saw one crazy dude riding a jet ski out on the main lake going 40 mph. LOL He was not too crazy as he was wearing a wet suit. Water temps were measured at 50 deg at the Surface on the main lake. If that guy had fallen off he would have gotten wet and even a wet suit won't keep your head warm after you get dunked in 50 deg F water.
Air temps were 65 deg F on my way back home around 4:30PM CDST. PL is an hour ahead of my time in Evansville, IN. Winds were around 5 to 10 mph most of the day but gusting at times to maybe 15 mph. Most of the day the wind was out of the South but the hills around the lake channel the winds into different directions. Must be eddies of wind that swirl around the top of the hills that make it seem like the wind changes direction.
We fished 30 to 24 ft water and the fish were mostly right on the bottom. We noticed lots of fish on the depth finders showing at 8ft to 16 ft suspended but could not get them to bite. The fish right on the bottom cooperated well. Larry had about a dozen fish in the live well when he picked my up at the ramp.
We fished with 1" long Chub minnows and regular #4 or #2 crappie hooks. Fish two different ways. One way with the hook tied to the end of the line and a few spit shot on the line above the hook. The other method was to tie the hook onto the line and leave a 12" to 16" tag line to which a weight was added. Both methods produced fish. The latter method was used by me because it's easier to get the hook free when it gets hung up in a brush pile. By simply letting the line go out you use the bottom weight to pull the hook down toward the bottom thus freeing it from the snag. The hooks get snagged on the way up most times. By letting the weight pull the hook free you can fish deep in the brush without loosing the rig. The former method give the minnow more freedom to move and entices more bites. But it's harder to get free when snagged and results in more break off and having to retie new hooks and sinkers back onto the line.
I took one picture of PL holding to of the bigger crappie. Biggest Crappie of the day was about 11 1/2" long. It was a fat little crappie too. Most of the fish went about 9" to 10" in length.
The good part for me was that Larry has to clean all the fish. :) He needed to restock his freezer this week because he gave all his crappie fillets to his son before his son shipped of to Iraq last week. I had no intention of cleaning any fish this time of the year.
I may fish tomorrow and keep a few for the freezer if it stays warm.
OH Patoka Lake is Really high right now. PL said it was 8ft above summer pool. Or around 544ft right now. Summer pool is 536. Water was pretty clear out on the main lake were we fished.
Not many boats on the lake Sunday. Only saw two trailers at the North Newton Stewart ramp and there were only two trucks and trailers at the South Ramp today when we got back to the ramp.
I stopped at the Restaurant and got me one of them famous $5 hamburgers.
I almost didn't go today but decided that I better make hay with this nice weather while it lasted.
Late November fishing is good this year.
Lots of our fish were getting off at or near the surface. I think it's due to the fact that they were so deep. With almost 30ft of line out the line stretches so much that it makes setting the hook harder. So it was necessary to give the long rods a good sweep to get the hook set into the roof of the crappie's mouth.
I know I missed about 40 bites because of this. Maybe they were just small fish. PL caught one striper but he threw that one back it was a nice 1/2 lb fish. I told PL that I didn't remember catching these stripers or white bass at Patoka Lake. I have caught lots of them down at KY Lake though.
Regards,
Moose1am
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