Looking for good lakes to bass fish during winter months

[banjopicker2003]

looking for a good lake to fish during winter months.. anyone fish up at turtle creek lately?

[BASSENATOR]

You could go to Dove Holow at Glendale they don't close it for duck hunting. Probably a little stained now because of the rain.
Check with Jim at the tackle shop I have a anoyher place I'll tell you about. Jim

[banjopicker2003]

I'LL STOP BY THE BAIT SHOP AND TALK TO YOU. I DID'NT KNOW THAT YOU COULD STILL FISH DOVE HOLLOW DURING THE WINTER. WHAT ABOUT BOGGS LAKE?

[BASSENATOR]

Yes Boggs is open all winter, just need to keep track of the water level. They do have a drawdown going on. I may be there Friday myself.
All the small lakes at Glendale are open to fishing.
If you have a Illinois license a good place to go is Red Hill state park, they have a nice fishing lake there. It is trolling motor only.Last week when I was there the water was in the low 40's but I did catch a 4 and a 5 lb. bass plus 4 small ones. Jim

[ThumpThump]

Fished with guide Terry McWilliams of www.FishIndy.com on 12-14. Wow what a day on the White River. He put us on a spot where we were catching 2-3 pounders almost every other cast. Largest fish was a 5.5 lb LM and a 3.5 lb SM all this on DEC 14 in Indianapolis with less than 40 degree water temps!
If you ever wan't some great fishing close to home, check him out.

[whistlinggopher]

What a crock, 2-3 pounders every other cast? Its not that good when the conditions are totally prime! Sure you werent in Canada or Minnesota?

[Moose1am]

How far down is Boggs lake right now? Might be a good time to scope out the shoreline cover if there is any around the shoreline that's exposed now that the water is lower than normal.

What's the total cost to fish at Bogg's. What are all the differnet fees that are charged at Boggs?

[ThumpThump]

>What a crock, 2-3 pounders every other cast? Its not that
>good when the conditions are totally prime! Sure you werent in
>Canada or Minnesota?
>
>
What a crock?? You mean what a fishing spot!!! I had such a good time I had to have him take me out again yesterday 12-19. Caught 6 nice smallies the first couple hours, then he took me back to his honey hole and I caught 7 nice fish 2+ lbers in the first twelve casts including a 5 lb largemouth.

air temp 45 water temp 39 fishing temp HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

[idbefishing]

5lbs LM in the white river huh? as far as the number goes, I can believes it if you know where the fish are congregrating for the winter. It no rocket science that fish concentrating in certain spot in the river to hold out for the winter. How much does Terry charges for a day? does he do half day?

[ThumpThump]

>5lbs LM in the white river huh? as far as the number goes, I
>can believes it if you know where the fish are congregrating
>for the winter. It no rocket science that fish concentrating
>in certain spot in the river to hold out for the winter. How
>much does Terry charges for a day? does he do half day?

Yes we caught 3 LM over 5lbs on two trips. His info is at www.fishindy.com.

[BASSENATOR]

Been waiting on a Boggs report and I got one today. My source said the lake is down about 3 to 4 Ft. He said it is still possible to launch a boat. As far as a charge during this time of year there is usually no one at the gate. You may see a sign to fish free or maybe one to go by the office and get a pass. The office is the next drive on the W.side going S. from the main gate.
Try not to fall in, there is a report of a duck hunter drowning at a private lake N. E. of Boggs today. Jim

[Moose1am]

Patoka Lake, Lynnville Lake, KY lake, Rend Lake, Gibson Lake? Snakey Point near Oakland City, IN. Creeks emptying into the OHIO River. Dams on the Ohio River when the river is lower and stable. Right now the River is too high to launch at Newburgh, IN. But the Yankee town ALCOA launch ramp on little Pigeon Creek was OK today, 12/26/06 around 2 pm. If the creek comes up another 3 to 5 ft then the parking lot will be flooded. So check the river level for 12/26/06 and then use that as a guide to when the launch ramp there at Yankeetown will be usable.

BTW where do you live and where do you normally fish? These places are all based on my living in the very Southern Tip of IN.

Hovey's lake will be open after duck season. That may be the end of Feb and for sure in early March this years. Check the waterfowl seasons to see when they end in the Ohio River Zone. After the waterfowl season is over the crappie fishing at Hovey can begin. They have some huge fast growing crappie down at Hovey's lake. But the lake is restricted to motors 10HP or smaller or electric trolling motors. It's about 1300 acres in size normally.
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I don't know very much about fishing for smallmouth bass and especially not very much about fishing for them in river systems.

But I read the In-Fisherman Book on Small mouth bass fishing and I think it was saying that during the winter months the Small Mouth Bass crowd together in huge schools. So all the sm bass are in just a few deep holes in the lakes. I do remember the authors cautioning the readers of their book not to over fish an area in the Winter Time as it's easy to fish a lake dry. Again this was what the authors of this book were saying.

I have been trying to read up more on Small Mouth Bass and Ray Rigsby had a good forum on this subject. Those guys are good at finding and catching the SM Bass and I read that they like to fish the White River in places and do rather well. They also fish places like Dale Hollow. I've personally seen Ray Fish the Purdue Bass Club Fishing Tournament at Patoka Lake a few years ago one September and he caught a nice 5 or 6 lb SM bass that day along with another fish or two. He was one of the few guys to bring any fish into the weigh-in. I took a student out and fished the back end of Painter creek until the fog lifted and then tried to find some deep spots near the mouth of Painter Creek but without luck. We finally caught one 14.5" (short LB Bass) in the mouth of one of the coves near the mouth of Painter creek. We should have fished that area harder because there were fish in there. Later I got a better map of this area and figured out why that bass was in there that day. BTW this was one of them blue bird days with highs in the 70 deg Range and not one cloud in the sky and the BP was way over 30" HG. But the bright skies and the sudden drop in water temp had put the bass down into deeper water.

Regards,

Moose1am