Patoka lake

[fish4food]

10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish!!

[Moose1am]

10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish!!

That's because 90% of the fish are in only 10% of the lake. LOL

I fish this one particular strip pit and have figured out where the crappie are located over time. I see or read where other's try this lake (PIT) and don't catch any fish. Now I have gotten skunked a few times too. I don't alway catch fish on every trip. But I always have a good time on the water. Well except for the time I fell out of my boat and lost my radio/headset.

I drive by this lake a lot more than I actually fish it. The pit is only 90 acres in size and you can see the entire lake from the two roadways that cross near the pit. So you can't really hide from view.

I have found the crappie in classic crappie spots. They like the drop offs with vertical quick dropping levels where there is a little bit of brush.

But even on this small 90 acre pit there are so many different spots to fish. These are not your typical strip pits in many ways. Some strip pits that I have scuba dived in have sheer vertical cliffs with very little shallow waters. But this pit has a lot of shallow waters and a channel too. It has shallow water with quick drops, It has small islands, it's got very deep water and many complex structural elements. There are three long pits that interconnect each other. It has weeds (Eurasian Milfoil, leafy pond weed) and there are long sloping points on this water. Most strip pits are like a big bath tub with little cover or structure. Those pits are were you find the fish concentrated on just a few of the structural elements on the lake. Cerulean springs near Dawson Springs, KY back in 1973/75 was one such pit that I recall. I found a lot of the big bluegills on a sloping gravel road way that went into the pit. They were spawning in crystal clear water in about 15 to 20 ft of water. These fish were as huge as coffee saucer plate. There was a old mine building that was 3/4 flooded. It was three stories high with open windows and stairways. The bottom two or three floors were flooded. Water visibility was over 100 ft. I saw 3 lb and 4 lb bass suspended in the water inside and around the submerged building. That taught me a lot about how big bass relate to structure. Probably 90% of the big bass were located in this structure. The pit was to big to cover with swim fins only. And with a 72 CF scuba tank on your back you can't swim very far without tiring. Now if an underwater scooter were used one may cover the pit better. But one tank of air being used in a relaxed manner in less than 10ft of water would only last me about 45 minute to one hour. It depends on how well you can control your breathing rate. I use to make a tank last me a full hour in shallow waters. The deeper you go the more air you have to use with each breath so bottom time is very limited. This rock quarry at at Dawson Springs is only about 50 ft deep from what I observed. I didn't get to see the back part of the pit as we didn't have any rubber boats or anything to get up back there. So we only swam in the near parts of the pit. But I only saw on big fish that was not near structure. That was one big female largemouth bass that was swimming along the bottom in the middle of the quarry. Maybe she was just swimming from one structure to another. She was about 200 yards from the submerged building. I followed her for a short time but she easily could out pace me. She used just enough energy to stay about 40 ft in front of me. It was fun swimming in the water watching her. I get a big kick out of swimming with those bass.

Later that same day I was diving near the shoreline where the quarry walls dropped off quickly. I found this old refrigerator or some type of white appliance ( could have been an old washing machine ) that was on the bottom near the steep walls. There was a school of smaller bluegill that were suspended in the open water above this appliance. It was obvious to me that they were relating to this as structure. There was nothing else in this part of the pit and it seemed that 50 or more small bluegill were in one big school of fish. All in one small area of the lake. I have dove in another pit back in the 1970's and observed similar schools of bluegills in just one or two parts of the lake. The rest of the water was almost devoid of fish. The bluegills were swimming slowly and on the move. You can learn a lot about fish behavior is you can watch them for a while. If I could I would spent more time underwater watching the fish behavior. But my scuba tanks only allowed me one hour of time underwater. I never spend more time than that underwater on any one day. I didn't want to have to read the decompression tables and fool with that stuff. So all my dives were limited to less than one hour per day.

I liked to keep it simple when it came to diving.

I wish that everyone could get some dive time in and see what the fish do. I think it would make everyone better fishermen. It's nearly impossible to tell what the fish are really doing if you can see them in the water.

For example sometimes you catch a lot of fish and then suddenly they stop biting. Did they get full or tired of your baits or did they move away to a new location? Can't tell if the waters stained or muddy and you can't see them. We can only guess what happened to the fish. My guess is that the school of fish moved. But where did they go? That's the best question to which I don't have an answer to anymore. I can't fit into my wet suit anymore. LOL.

It's a bitch getting older.