Patoka lake

[Moose1am]

It's still a little early I guess. When a cold front comes though that water being shallow will cool off faster than the deeper waters.

I think that the changing water temperatures caused by cold fronts will keep the fish in deeper water.

Also the angle of the Sun in the sky needs to be a little bit higher to trigger the crappie spawning urges.

I see were you were going with the warm water theory and I am surprised that you didn't find any fish up that way. I would think that some crappie live in the Patoka River areas upstream of the lake.

Crappie are really spooked easily in shallow water and I have found that I had to cast out a slip bobber to get the baits away from the boat about 30ft before I could catch the bigger fish.

I'll bet that fish can hear the trolling motor too. I know before the days of trolling motors I use to catch a lot more bass than after I got the trolling motor. I know the fish can sense the vibrations in the water but I am not sure that they put two and two together and say to themselves, "here comes a fisherman we better get out of here". But I do think that they turn off or get anxious when they hear something that's not familar to them. If I were walking in the woods and heard some strange noises it would make me aprehensive and wary.

I do know that in the old days when I used only oars and the main motor and would motor upwind of the fishing site and then let the wind blow my boat though the area that we caught a lot more bass. And when I got the new boat and the trolling motor I didn't use oars anymore and even with a new boat the fishing catches were not as good. I could easily blame it on KY lake getting older and losing the wood structure though. This effect is more pronounced in shallow waters than in waters deeper than 20 ft.

I have caught crappie one after another in deep water. But then again those fish were not big crappie. They were 10" fish at the most until this last year when I discovered where the big crappie hang out. They hang out right were I predicted they would be but it took me a few times to actually locate them. When the wind changes the fish move to different parts of the lake.

Which brings me to another topic that may have effected your fishing. The current of the river. We have had a lot of rain lately and fish crappie don't like to stay in the current as they burn up too much energy. If there was a good flow though the river the fish may have drifted back down into the lake and settled in the 20ft deep water.

The river channel that runs across the mouth of dumblin creek is easily 20 ft deep. And it's adjacent to some shallow spawning areas. Crappie may not spawn in the river for many reasons. But they will spawn in the quiet wind protected areas of the lake where the eggs can receive lots of sunlight to help them hatch. Also the soil conditions have to be just right. The males have to have a bottom that's not too silty or the eggs will get covered up by silt and not hatch. And the eggs will float away on hard soil if the male can't make a depression in the bottom to hold the eggs in place. A really loose silty soil and a really hard rockey soil may not be to the liking of the male fish right now. These fish are getting ready to spawn in a few week and they most likely will be found laying in the deeper water adjacent too the best spawning sites on the lake.

Dark colored bottoms with the right soil texture (Marl/sand) are where you will find the males and females starting to stage.

I wish that the Google Earth Program was REAL TIME SATELLITE VIEWs and no just a photo taken two years ago on one particular day.

There are so many varialbe to consider and I guess they all have to be just right for the fish to start to move into the spawning areas.

I often wonder how fish in the lake depths know that the shallow water hundrends of yards away is warmer. Do they see the increaseing amount of sunlight and the sun higher in the sky and automatically know that it's time to spawn. Does the sunlight release harmons in the fish that direct them to head to the shallows to spawn? Nature has them programmed to respond to natures cues. Anchient man followed the sun and stars. And I would bet that the animals and fish relate to the sunlight just as anchient man and modern man does today.

I know a spot where I can almost guarantee that big crappie will be there at a certain time of the year. Late March and Early April is when the big fish head to the spawing areas. I refer everyone to the In-Fisherman Calander which had the time of year divided up into 10 different categories. Right now we are just coming out of the cold water period and entering the next phase. These calandar periods are not the same every year and they vary by latitude also. Canada may have 8 months of the cold water period (10) while Florida may have 8 months of the summer period. Both are located at different latitudes and the angle of the sun is different at each different latitude and thoughout the year.

Lucky for us the crappie don't all spawn at the same time and in the same place.

This is the best time to catch the big females loaded up with eggs before they start to scatter into the shallows to spawn. They don't stay in the shallows very long. They head up into the shallows, drop their eggs in the next and let the male fertilze the eggs and then guard the eggs. Meanwhile the females head back out to the first or second dropoffs near the spawning flat to recouperate.

To find the females look for the spawing sites and search the first drop off near these areas. The females may be bunched up in big schools during the prespawn so if you find them you may catch more than one big fish. And the big fish can be intersperced with the smaller fish at times. But I have read that the fish tend to school up together by age group or size of the fish. I also have read that the bigger females tend to take the best site and spawn earlier than the smaller fish.

And remember that Patoka Lake has so much timber that you have to search though all that timber to find the fish. They can be anywhere. This months issue of Crappie World (Feb 2008) has a good article on finding crappie in timber filled lakes. Basically look at the bottom features in timbered flats. You may find a small ditch that runs though the timber that can concentrate the fish. I know that finding a small ditch (mabye only 5 ft deeper than the surrounding flats) can attack huge schools of crappie at this time of the year. The fish use these ditches as highways from the main river channel to the spawning coves. A very good detailed topo map can help. I got hold of one of these topo maps of Patoka Lake and found ditches that are not shown on any other maps. And thanks to my friend patoka larry I was shown which of these ditches produce the best. Larry and I caught many fish (limites) from this area. It would have taken me years to find this spot. But with these maps that he gave to me and I copied I saw why we caught fish in this spot during July and November. We don't fish that spot much anymore as I won't fish it without him being there and he found other spots where there are not as many fisherman fishing those spots.

Patoka is loaded with crappie. But finding them is the hard part as the lake has so many good potential fishing spot.

One of my fishing mentors (Buck Perry) use to say that 90 % of the fish were in only 10% of the water. He's right about that you know!

Look for big "U" turns on the creek where the creek channel is undercut on the outside bend and there is a shallow tongue on the inside bend.

The Fish Hot Spots map show many bend in the old creek channels. Get some marker bouys out and mark the channel edges or criss cross the area with a depth finder and make mental notes on where the creek channel is below the surface and the lay of the land. If you are lucky enough to own a side scanning sonar unit you are 1000% ahead of the game.

Just for fun I would try to find a web site that shows the river levels and the amount of water flowing out of Patoka Lake on the day you fished that part of the river above Kings Bridge.

Did you noice a current that day? Water temperature in the river was warmer for sure. Maybe the fish are waiting until the current slow down before they head upriver. I have never been that far up into that part of the river/lake. And the time I was up by Kings Bridge the water was below winter pool at about 532 ft .

[Sore Thumb II]

Yeah there was a current but where i think where i mess up was the lake was 4-5feet above SUMMER POOL and i should have been fishing in about 25-30 foot of water i think that is where they were cause of thats where they should be at winter pool

[Hoover28]

Hopefully the weather changes soon, I'll be heading down there mid-April. So we'll see what happens. I hear fishing off main lake points is your best bet this time of year. I will probably stay fairly deep depending on the water temp.

[Moose1am]

If I were a betting man I would predict that the lake will warm up faster rather than slower this spring. But you never know about the weather these days.

April 1st I would be upstream in the headwaters of the lake. The back end of Painter Creek, Little Patoka River, Patoka River and Lick Fork will be good for prespawning and or spawning crappie in early april.

Depending on the water temperature, water color and the amount of wind effects the crappie will be spawning on the same spawning areas that they used the years before. Unless the lake drops drastically or rises drastically from historial levels.

I had dafadills popping out of the ground in Dec this winter. It got cold after than but when it's that warm in Dec and when we have had a mild winter (relatively speaking) I think that the crappie will be spawning in Later March or Early April this year. But I could be wrong. LOL

But they will be seeking good bottom, calm areas and warm water to lay their eggs like they do every year. The timing of the spawn depends on mother nature. So keep your eyes on the water temperature and the amount of sunlight we are gettting.

Being on the internet gives us a huge advantage. We can talk to others who fish to the south of us and figure out that when they start catching shallow crappie with eggs in them that we won't be far behind. For ever hundred miles to the south it may take a week longer to warm up the water up here. For example in Arkansas and Lousiana the crappie may already be ready to spawn. If you hear someone from Northern or Central Arkansas talking about the Bradford Pears in bloom you know that they are catching crappie with eggs in them. And in two weeks we will be warm enough to see the blooms on the bradford pears too. I watch my neighbors bradford pear trees to see when they are budding and getting ready to bloom. And I watch the dogwoods for buds. When they form buds the crappie here will be ready to start moving into the spawning areas. Remember that there may be many differnet spawning areas for the fish to use and that not all the crappie will spawn at the same time. And that there may be different fish populations in Patoka Lake. There maybe some big slabs that spend their entire life on the main lake. But there may be populations on the main lake that migrate up the river to the upper reaches of the lake to spawn.

I know that in KY lake the fish come up out of the main lake areas and into the creeks like Blood River, Cypress Bay, Sled Creek and the famous Jonathon Creek.

I would look for deep main lake crappie to be spawning in May or if it's a really cold spring this year as late at early June. The main lake takes much longer to warm up and it's very clear water. The crappie may spawn on deep submerged underwater humps on the main lake or around the islands or long points. And they will come up out of the river bed and go a short 300 yards into a small creek to spawn. You can find them stagging in the 10 to 18 ft depths between the old river bed and the back in if this creek. And you can catch them in this area almost all year long too. I know that the fishing guide Tim Gibson fishes this area all the time. I have seen him come into the area when I was fishing it with my friend. It's a very popular spot. I don't fish it anymore but I am glad that I have the knowledge of where it's at and why it's a good spot to fish even in Nov.

[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.