Patoka today, 7-16

[cevans]

Launched at Osborne at 7am today, and decided to start cranking Bandits and before I had second bait in water, caught a nice 14 inch crappie on Mad Cow color 200 series set at 8' deep and going upstream thru cut at island above Osborne had picked up 2 more keepers. Working 12 to 20' of water for the next 3 hrs caught about 18 crappies and a few small bass Worked my way abou 3 miles above Walls and farther I got away from the Osborne area, slower the bit got. Tried about 15 diff colors, but Mad Cow was the hot bait beside a blue gill looking bandit. All other colors wouldn't hit. Ended up keeping 6 nice crappies, out of 6 bass,,2 were over 13" but no keepers on them,,also caught 6 yellow bass. Left lake at 2pm,,bite was over by 11 or so. Lake looks awesome at 10.5 ft up flooding timber everywhere,,saw 2 other fishing boats launched at Osborne and when I went past Walls,,2 more fishermen had launched from there. I never saw a boat on the lake anywhere all day. No docks at either ramp usable either. Didn't see no mud or mudline anywhere and water at Walls was alittle discolored but not very much as it was still blue green. At Osborne,,clear. You cannot get under the 145 hwy bridge below Osborne no matter how small boat your using. Painter Creek bridge is still workable as long as your pedistals aren't in the seats or you have high windshields. At 2pm,,lots of pleasureboaters and pontoons on main lake. Water temp started out at 80 and at 2pm shot up to 84. Bandits caught fish from 8' deep to 12' deep running at av. speed of 1.6 to 2 mph. I also had to pull out and use my umbrella rigged for shade by 11 as there was little breeze and air temp in the sun got up to about 88 by 2pm. Its going to get hotter than hades the next few days so stay hydrated.