Congratulations. That the first few weeks in April Patoka Lake Pattern. Fish must still be in prespawn stage and getting ready to feed before heading into the back of the bay to spawn in the shallow were. They come up out of the River channel and stage in the bay before heading back to the shallows and banks.

I wish there was a way to get rid of more of those little crappie. As it appears that Patoka lake is becoming overcrowded.

Still from my experience the 8" to 10" crappie are fat and good eating. Unlike KY Lake they need to get rid of more crappie at Patoka Lake. Then the ones that are left will grow bigger as they will have more food. At least that the theory that the Fishery Biologist for the Patoka Lake area uses for other lakes.

Glad you have a good time and caught some fish too.


Quote Originally Posted by Tyme2fish View Post
We arrived at Walls Lake ramp about 1015 hours. Headed in to Dumplin Creek Bay and fished in mostly 12' of water. Water temp around 60 degrees.Set bobbers to a depth of 10' to 11'. We adjusted depth but most bites were deep.

We must have caught over 90 crappie between the three of us. However, only 3 keepers. The ones we kept were 12". All others were released because of their small length. Only caught a few that we debated about keeping but I talked Knute (The Heathen) into releasing some 8" to 9" fish.
Mrs.Tyme and myself used minnows while Knute (The Heathen) was using a crappie jig.

There was no rhyme or reason on a pattern. Most of the fish were in "open" water and not hugging the obvious stumps. Maybe there were submerged stumps that we did not know about.

Nothing up shallow. If we weren't in 12" of water, no bites not even the small guys.

Trolling motor worked all day long and that's good because of the wind we had today. The powers that be were also releasing a lot of water. The lake came down about 4 to 6 inches while we were there.

Left for the return trip home about 1800 hours.

All in all, it was a nice day on the water. Didn't get rained on,caught some fish, and no equipment breakdowns.