Cataract 4/14 HELP!!

Fished Cataract on Friday and caught about 30 4-6 inchers. Water was down about 2-3 feet and stained not muddy. Visibility about 2 feet. Found water temps. from 56 main lake to 64 in protected coves. Spent most of the morning over the main channel were I caught most of my fish. 16-20 feet seemed to be the sweet spot. No specific color or bait stood out. Moved shallow in the afternoon and caught another 8 or so dinks out of 2 FOW. None seemed to have eggs or appeared to be fanning. Is it not quite there yet?? Should I try a different approach. Hope this helps somebody!! Not a bad day but I know there are some big ones in there!

Spawn in the big lakes won,t happpen for a while so enjoy the calm and hammer away at them. As the water warms so will the better fishing. Your taking temps from the surface down about 3-4 ft. Then it drops as the water gets deeper. Be a while for the spawn to happen and eggs are no way ready. Small ponds fish will spawn earlier than big lake tho. They been dropping the cCat about 0.4 to 0.5 per day for quite a while. Fish might be alittle destabilized and just a guess on my part as haven't fished it yet. But the fish are there for sure. Good luck.

Thanks for confirming what I was thinking cevens!! That's a beautiful area and lake. I plan to get back there around the new moon to camp/fish for a few days. I've fished there 4 times in my life and never strayed from the northern part of it. That old saying "don't leave fish to find fish" has kept me in the same area each time. Need to spend a few days exploring. Thank again!

Ind. Slabmasters just had their tourney on Cat. Yesterday. Here is their results and they had a good tourney.
The Cat has had a lot of pressure on it past couple of years and I think it's cause of the difficulty in catching lots of keeper crappie on Monroe like we used to. But there are still some good fish in the Cat and you have to work thru the dinks.
Indiana Slab Masters - Tournament Results

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Originally Posted by Wally6971

Fished Cataract on Friday and caught about 30 4-6 inchers. Water was down about 2-3 feet and stained not muddy. Visibility about 2 feet. Found water temps. from 56 main lake to 64 in protected coves. Spent most of the morning over the main channel were I caught most of my fish. 16-20 feet seemed to be the sweet spot. No specific color or bait stood out. Moved shallow in the afternoon and caught another 8 or so dinks out of 2 FOW. None seemed to have eggs or appeared to be fanning. Is it not quite there yet?? Should I try a different approach. Hope this helps somebody!! Not a bad day but I know there are some big ones in there!

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Too deep try 10 foot or less.

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Originally Posted by fishbrain

Too deep try 10 foot or less.

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:hesaid

Thanks guys!!! Can't go until next week but I'll let you know .

Went past the Cat today in my travels. If you're launching at Cunot, watch out for the 3-4 craters (potholes) in the road down the hill, Deep and rough. Lake is down 3.5' and only a river channel showing above the Hwy 42 bridge, but the lake looked very inviting. Good luck.

Thank you sir. Don't want any part of that!!

I'm going to fish the Cat as it's near perfect. You should too.

Good luck!! Can't go until Monday and can't get here quick enough.

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Originally Posted by Wally6971

Good luck!! Can't go until Monday and can't get here quick enough.

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Sounds to me like you ain't holding your mouth right.

And I would try shallower, just based on what I was seeing at a different lake on my graphs. Lot of fish stacked up in that 7-12ft range.

How is that new boat working out buddy?

The Cat is going to be very muddy. Came up 6' in the last 24 hrs and is up over 16' over summer pool. And it's going to get a lot more rain next 3 days. Ouch!

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Originally Posted by cevans

The Cat is going to be very muddy. Came up 6' in the last 24 hrs and is up over 16' over summer pool. And it's going to get a lot more rain next 3 days. Ouch!

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Same here with Missy and Salamonie. They were below summer pool 2 days ago, now both above it and rising.

Hey cubswin, how are you? We need to get together and chase some fish! The new boat is fantastic. Mother nature and life has been keeping it in the barn. Still learning how to use my Humminbird equipment. I marked a ton of "stuff" a few weeks ago at Raccoon and The Cat during lower water times. Looking forward to getting back out to see if I can find my "stuff" again.

cat is way high today but fish are still out their