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Hello guys this april It will be my first trip to Patoka lake fishing. Not looking for anybody spots or anything, just looking for a little info about the lake. Hoping to catch some crappie or some good gills maybe redear. Do you guys use live bait or jigs or both. thanks for any info and good fishing to all you guys Jason
Try out of Painters Creek, long line troll w/jigs tipped w/bee month in the creek channel out of Painter Creek toward the main lake. If that doesnt produce a few fish move to Wall Ramp area, start from the back of the main arm and fish out toward the main lake, concentrate around the ramp espically.
Good luck, if you see and white Triton trolling, it is me! give me a yell and lets trade stories :)
Wade
usually you find gills back in any sandy cut or cove. I like to fish them with jigs and a piece of night crawler about 1inch long. drag your jig on bottom or a lift and drop works good. they like to nest around some kind of structure like a small patch of grass or a small stick in the water or maybe a few scattered rocks in a shallow sandy cove. any one of these spots will produce gills but certain ones will hold bigger gills. sometimes to get the bigger ones you need to fish the deeper edge of a bed. as far as crappie I would fish really shallow. I have been looking at the dates on some of my pictures and the end of march and early april I have caught fish really shallow on a pink jig and chartrues sassy shad. every year is different and this winter is no exception. this pattern mite run latter.
It's a great place to catch fish. Don't get discouraged if you're not catching big ones, just keep fishing. You may catch a hundred to get a couple nice ones, but there are days when you can really get into them and April is a good month to do that. Anything east of the 145 bridge is always a good bet to start, but there are good fish all over that lake. Don't be afraid to keep moving and hitting different areas. Just fish it with confidence and use what you know.
read the post above this one too it has some good ideas
I also would suggest you try larger baits that early if you are wanting some bigger crappie and you don't want to mess with smaller fish. there is a thread in the main crappie forum, I think, about using suspending jerk baits early in the year. it is a good thread. I like swim baits that early too.
Thanks guys I keep all this in mind for when I get there. hope all you have a good year of fishing. but first got to get out of this deep freeze were having
big warm up on its way, we might hit 40 degrees. LOL.
definite warm up coming,,should hit upper 40s at Patoka and will be down there scoping the lake out...hope to take a couple of pics and post them.
I am hearing mid fifties next week!! its about time!!