Well my friend called me today but I missed him so he left a message on my answer machine. I called him back and asked him about what's going on at Patoka.Originally Posted by King31
He said that the lake is down a bit. Probably a few feet below summer pool of 536. I'd guess around 534 or 533 maybe.
He didn't give me anything specific as we talked more about other things than fishing. But he said that the crappie still have some eggs in them. They are shallow some times and deep the others.
I'll know more next week if I got up to fish with him for a couple of days. We fish the deeper brush piles in the summer and late fall months.
Bluebird skies will drive the phytoplankton deeper in the water column and the entire food chain will follow them down to the 15 to 25 ft depths during the heat of the day. While other fish will go hide in the submergent vegetation where they find shade, shelter and food along with plenty of Dissolved Oxygen. But to find the cooler waters they will go deeper in the open water areas. if there are standing submerged trees I'd fish the shady side of those trees with a long pole and a jig on a tight line so as to feel them inhale the bait. set the hook quickly as they will spit the jig out as fast as the inhale it. Watch a fish flair it's gills and open it's mouth and **** in food and then spit it back out so fast it will seem like it was never in their mouth if they don't like what they just took in. They do this very quickly if you watch them eat. Go to an aquarium at feeding time to see how the fish eat. Preferably a fresh water aquarium with bass or crappie in the water. I've watched crappie feed in an aquarium for more than 5 years and have just told you how the eat a minnow.
I'm going to do some slow trolling with crank baits this summer. Crappie like to suspend out over the deeper water at depths from 10 ft to 25 ft down below the surface. Once you find the depth that they are suspended at then all you have to do is troll a crank bait or two through the school at the right depth and speed. Crappie will hit a crank bait going though them at 1.0 to 3.0 mph. They like it best around 1.5 mph or slower. Change the color of the baits to see what bait colors are working best. Some days they will bite on different colors. I guess it depends on the light reaching them in the depths. And the water color or clarity has to have an effect on the bite as well.
You might also try using side planer boards to get the baits away from the boat. I've noticed that my boat puts a lot of air bubbles in the water behind my boat by going back though the path that I just came from and looking at the water with my SI sonar. SI = side imaging. I can see the turbulence that's left in the water from my boat's propeller.
Reply With Quote