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How is Patoka for spring gills? Never tried it and just curious. This week is looking fantastic for fishing. We found some decent crappie at our favorite Illinois lake yesterday. Water temps went from 58 to 65 during the day. The males were starting to move and get their tux's on by the end of the day. Stopped by Dogwood on the way home to get a report. Found the cleaning station open and a few people cleaning some crappie they took on jigs. Glad the stations are open!
Patoka can be great if you hit it at the right time, and can find them. Over the years, I have had excellent Bluegill and Redear success from Patoka ranging from Mid April to late June. I catch them mostly on beemoth and crickets. Like everywhere, you have to sort through the small ones to find the big ones. However, Patoka does hold some dandy sized panfish. When they are on, it's a blast!
buy lots of crickets or other bait u use. Hint at where to find the best beds and easiest to see...not around timber in gin clear water where the sun shines the most and you don't mind bobbing around like a cork. :) You can fill the boat if you don't mind culling.
I remember going to Patoka in 89' or 90' and we hit it just right. The bluegills and redear were nesting and we caught about 50 10-11inch class fish, all big dark males too. That's the Patoka of yesterday though, I've heard bad things about it now days. It was truly a first class pan fishery, such a shame.
Same here. I wonder,,,what happened and caused it to change? You could fill a cooler then and catch great sized gills?Quote:
Originally Posted by redearhoosier
cevans...go back and research the lake surveys in the mid 90's. Somewhere in the 1995- 1996 time frame the shad population exploded down there. That's when the 9-11 inch fish you were catching suddenly became 7 inch fish.
HHD
So true, and now that I think of it,,so has those pesky little yellow bass.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoosier Hog Daddy
Ya'all lost me at get their tux's on? My fish are always naked.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whaler
Despite the wind I just had to get on the lake. Caught around 20 with the biggest being 11 inches. There were some tux's on some little males.
that's what they call it when they are in the mood for love and have they're best color on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Valparaiso_Girl
I don't understand why,what or how the shad increase hurts the crappie population.:dono In my head I think the stripers are eating all the panfish.:donoQuote:
Originally Posted by Hoosier Hog Daddy
Stripers weren't even introduced into Patoka until mid 2000's and long before the lake had problems with the gill population. If your strickly striper fishing on Patoka,,good luck as the population in my book leaves a lot to be desired. Better fishing for the hybrids on Monroe. Or even the Racoon.
I should have clarified, I was talking about lakes in general. So the shad population gets too big for a lake, what does that do? Don't panfish eat shad? Aren't minnows baby shad?
I made that comment about stripers cause, me and my buddies figured the stripers were eatin' all the gills and crappies at The Coon and that is why we don't catch very many big ones.
:cool:
In general,,I don't care for the stripers, hybrids mixed in our lakes. Sure they say,,they are there to combat the shad,,but they eat everything and get very big quick. Sure they are fun to catch, can only keep 2 large ones,,yep,,they eat good too. But its the overabundance of shad that is our problem,,look at Monroe,,100 dinks,,and one keeper or a ratio that really is out of proportioned to large crappies and at Patoka, the demise of a great pan fishery that was once tops for everybody. You can still catch big gills,,but have to catch a ton of small ones now. I don't know what the answers are,,kinda like when they put the northerns in Patoka,,I blamed them on the demise of the smallmouth as I could catch a lot of them in the early years of the lake. When it comes to crappies and gills,,are we overfishing them or did we over fish them to start the downsizing? Not sure of that either,,but fishing pressure can contribute.
Anbody read the DNR study on Bass Fishing put out after studying the Bass Tournaments during 2006-2010??? Look it up on DNR's website as it floored me being a former Bass Tourney fisherman that quit about 1992 or 3. 2010 avg fisherman fished 10 plus hours during a Bass tourney just to catch 1 legal bass. 130 tournaments used in 2010 to compile that information on the top 10 lakes they fished. Largest Bass came out of Monroe at 7.3lbs followed by Patoka at 7.2. Ouch!!! We used to weigh in an occasional 8 off both those lakes in the 70-80s and that comes from 90,0000.00 plus hours of tourney fishing for bass. We also had 2 years of 1000lb total weight weigh ins on Patoka in the early years as well. That will never happen again.
the shad get to big to quick for most panfish to eat and out compete them at their early stages of life for food
From my understanding, year of the young shad, crappie, bluegill, white/yellow bass, all rely more on microscopic life and vegetation in their first year. When the majority of our waterways lack severely in vegetation, it's hard to keep all those mouths fed. This, in turn, will cause the fish to grow at a slower pace. Often times, the fish are still relying heavily on the same shortage of food in their second year of life. Take a lake like Monroe or Patoka. Some areas seem to produce better fish than others. Those areas that produce generally have a different ecosystem. I do believe that your stripers are eating their fair share, too, but that should only make the fish healthier, since the numbers would be down. As far as the Coon goes..........white bass changed that fishery 30 years ago. It's a tough balance between having plenty of prey, but at the same time having enough predators.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chill
Thanks guys. Now I have a much better understanding.
:cool: