Patoka Lake is nice but it's no Kentucky Lake. It's not Barkley Lake and it's no where near Lake Cumberland.

Maybe the old saying: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" is true.

Patoka lake and Monroe are the only two true reservoirs in IN that have any real size to them and they are both far smaller than KY Lake.

The only reason I started going to Patoka was because it was closer. I could get up early and drive to Patoka and fish and still come home that same day. It made for a very long day and it was 75 miles one way but it was still much closer to me than KY lake. To get to our camp at KY lake took over 3 hours. It took me only 2 hours to get to Patoka Lake from the West side of Evansville. Today it takes me only 1.5 hours to get to Patoka lake from the East Side of Evansville.

With the I-164 and I-64 it's much faster to get to Patoka Lake now from where I live.

I could drive up 161 out of Boonville, IN but that road gets a lot of slow pokes on it and it's hard to pass the church ladies who go less than 35 mph at times. I can get to I-164 in less than ten minutes now that the new State Hwy 62 is finished. And with the new Lynch Road Extension connecting Hwy 62 to I-164 it's even smoother sailing.

I am lucky that IN has the new Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area as they have three large strip pits that have concrete launch ramps on them and many other smaller pits to fish with a walk in boat. Some of the other pits have gravel launch ramps that can be used when the water's up.

I understand why Larry likes Patoka as he owns a cabin right on the lake and he can stay there every weekend and fish the lake all weekend long.

I also like Patoka during the weekdays. But on the weekends during the summer months it gets crowded.

I can not remember ever having to compete with water skiers and jet boats on KY lake in April and during Oct back in the old days. They didn't even have jet skies back in 1983.

Fishing when the water's cold is fun as there are not any water skiers on the lake then. They don't come out in force until late June and July.

One thing nice about Patoka Lake is that you can get back into the coves and away from the fast boats. They have a 10 mph limit on most of the fishing areas. Although I would love to fish the main lake areas. Maybe in the early morning or after dark it would be nice to fish those areas.