(Un)official Hoosiers Thread

[CroakHunter]

Had a full day planned to fish patoka tomorrow. My partner went up there today to fish a little and scout it out for us. I got a text 2 hrs into it saying he blew his motor up and had a 3 Mile troll back to the ramp, 1 month after he had the lower unit replaced...looks like I'm beating the bank tomorrow

[frosty]

40 minutes ago, CroakHunter said:

Had a full day planned to fish patoka tomorrow. My partner went up there today to fish a little and scout it out for us. I got a text 2 hrs into it saying he blew his motor up and had a 3 Mile troll back to the ramp, 1 month after he had the lower unit replaced...looks like I'm beating the bank tomorrow

That sucks but at least you’re fishing! 

[IndianaFinesse]

Preapawn fishing is finally going here, and dang they moved fast. On Sunday the few we caught were mainlake near wintering areas, but by Tuesday (similar results today, except we caught a few more mainlake using the wind) they were 1/2-3/4 back the coves! Not just the buck makes either, out of the 20 we caught in about 2 hours only 2 were under 14" and if 5-6 under 15", good quality fish.  Getting them all on shallow cranks close to the bank.

[The Bassman]

Finally caught the pre spawn bite big time this afternoon.  Caught a couple dozen with nearly half over three lbs. and a couple nearly five.  Fish were chasing bait to the bank. Also, with the water warming it's nice to feel a decent fight. Enough with sluggish cold water bass.

[frosty]

2 hours ago, The Bassman said:

Finally caught the pre spawn bite big time this afternoon.  Caught a couple dozen with nearly half over three lbs. and a couple nearly five.  Fish were chasing bait to the bank. Also, with the water warming it's nice to feel a decent fight. Enough with sluggish cold water bass.

I’m glad somebody caught them! I managed 3 dinks, and one that went just under 2. I need to find new places to fish ?

[The Bassman]

Did a carbon copy redux today. One was a little better than 5.  Gill hooked a three lbr. real bad.  I know it's just a fish but I hate to do that.  @Team9nine has an article on his blog about going barbless. I pinched down my hooks on my lipless and really didn't notice any less success staying pinned.  Something to consider.

[CroakHunter]

Caught them flipping and throwing a spinnerbait. All less than 4 ft of water. Had what I think was a big one break me off in some gnarly stuff. Typical stuff. Windblown points, rock, and wood. 

[frosty]

I got a 3 pounder and a dink in flooded tailwaters of cageles mill dam. Total this weekend was 6 bass, all of them on the ned rig. I wish Indiana bass were more aggressive ?

[IndianaFinesse]

Just got back from the tournament at potoka, and I learned 2 things:

 

A: My least favorite lake is not in fact Monroe, it is potoka.

And B: I hope to never go back to potoka again 

 

We had a record 146 boats today, after the USA bassin tournament yesterday, plus a surprising amount of locals. No idea what won the USA bassin on Saturday, but the dozen or so we talked to all blanked.

 

We prefished all day Saturday with 3 bites and 1 fish to show for it. Absolutely no pattern whatsoever to them.  Today we drew the 2nd to last start position, which really didn't bother us cause we didn't have anything to go to anyways. Same as prefishing, we fished everything everywhere with little results.  Upriver every direction, the gravel pits, mainlake points, secondary points,small coves big coves, opening or coves, causeway, standing timber, steep dropping banks, we hit everything.  Ended the day with 2 lost fish to show for it, one a dink and the other would have been a solid keeper but pulled off of the jerkbait hooks. 

 

Turns out only 10 boats out of 145 weighed a fish, 135 blanked! And there were some sticks there, one of the guys finished 10th in a recent open event, made the ilf/mlf world championship, won our state tournament last year, and blanked today with only 1 bite. It was terrible, but at least we are in a 135 way tie for 11th lol. 

[CroakHunter]

1 hour ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Just got back from the tournament at potoka, and I learned 2 things:

 

A: My least favorite lake is not in fact Monroe, it is potoka.

And B: I hope to never go back to potoka again 

 

We had a record 146 boats today, after the USA bassin tournament yesterday, plus a surprising amount of locals. No idea what won the USA bassin on Saturday, but the dozen or so we talked to all blanked.

 

We prefished all day Saturday with 3 bites and 1 fish to show for it. Absolutely no pattern whatsoever to them.  Today we drew the 2nd to last start position, which really didn't bother us cause we didn't have anything to go to anyways. Same as prefishing, we fished everything everywhere with little results.  Upriver every direction, the gravel pits, mainlake points, secondary points,small coves big coves, opening or coves, causeway, standing timber, steep dropping banks, we hit everything.  Ended the day with 2 lost fish to show for it, one a dink and the other would have been a solid keeper but pulled off of the jerkbait hooks. 

 

Turns out only 10 boats out of 145 weighed a fish, 135 blanked! And there were some sticks there, one of the guys finished 10th in a recent open event, made the ilf/mlf world championship, won our state tournament last year, and blanked today with only 1 bite. It was terrible, but at least we are in a 135 way tie for 11th lol. 

Patoka is @Bluebasser86's favorite indiana lake lol. I believe he had a similar experience a few years back. If you're down this way again I would suggest bluegrass fwa.

[BigBassLoveSenkos]

17 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Just got back from the tournament at potoka, and I learned 2 things:

 

A: My least favorite lake is not in fact Monroe, it is potoka.

And B: I hope to never go back to potoka again 

 

We had a record 146 boats today, after the USA bassin tournament yesterday, plus a surprising amount of locals. No idea what won the USA bassin on Saturday, but the dozen or so we talked to all blanked.

 

We prefished all day Saturday with 3 bites and 1 fish to show for it. Absolutely no pattern whatsoever to them.  Today we drew the 2nd to last start position, which really didn't bother us cause we didn't have anything to go to anyways. Same as prefishing, we fished everything everywhere with little results.  Upriver every direction, the gravel pits, mainlake points, secondary points,small coves big coves, opening or coves, causeway, standing timber, steep dropping banks, we hit everything.  Ended the day with 2 lost fish to show for it, one a dink and the other would have been a solid keeper but pulled off of the jerkbait hooks. 

 

Turns out only 10 boats out of 145 weighed a fish, 135 blanked! And there were some sticks there, one of the guys finished 10th in a recent open event, made the ilf/mlf world championship, won our state tournament last year, and blanked today with only 1 bite. It was terrible, but at least we are in a 135 way tie for 11th lol. 

I heard that a 6.3# smallie was caught in that tourney by the winners (who weighed in 2 fish for 10.6).

 

That lake can be hit or miss, especially when the water is high like it is now.

[Team9nine]

18 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Just got back from the tournament at potoka, and I learned 2 things:

 

A: My least favorite lake is not in fact Monroe, it is potoka.

And B: I hope to never go back to potoka again 

 

We had a record 146 boats today, after the USA bassin tournament yesterday, plus a surprising amount of locals. No idea what won the USA bassin on Saturday, but the dozen or so we talked to all blanked.

 

We prefished all day Saturday with 3 bites and 1 fish to show for it. Absolutely no pattern whatsoever to them.  Today we drew the 2nd to last start position, which really didn't bother us cause we didn't have anything to go to anyways. Same as prefishing, we fished everything everywhere with little results.  Upriver every direction, the gravel pits, mainlake points, secondary points,small coves big coves, opening or coves, causeway, standing timber, steep dropping banks, we hit everything.  Ended the day with 2 lost fish to show for it, one a dink and the other would have been a solid keeper but pulled off of the jerkbait hooks. 

 

Turns out only 10 boats out of 145 weighed a fish, 135 blanked! And there were some sticks there, one of the guys finished 10th in a recent open event, made the ilf/mlf world championship, won our state tournament last year, and blanked today with only 1 bite. It was terrible, but at least we are in a 135 way tie for 11th lol. 

Lake is fishing absolutely horrible this year, which is why the only advice I could think of when you asked was, "don't go." 

[LxVE Bassin]

4 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Lake is fishing absolutely horrible this year, which is why the only advice I could think of when you asked was, "don't go." 

Man who you tellin..... This year really has me questioning myself as a fisherman. 

[Alan Reed]

I fished the Indiana Kayak Anglers Event #1 on West Boggs finished 3rd out of 87 anglers by a quarter inch to first and the 4th tie breaker for second. Got a nice payday and some good AOY points.  I caught 88 bass during the 8 hour tournament day which was by far the most I have ever caught.

 

Fished Bluegrass FWA on Sunday in preparation for a tournament in two weeks. I’ll be back there this Sunday after fishing the KBF Trail event on Kentucky Lake on Saturday.

 

 

[CroakHunter]

1 hour ago, Alan Reed said:

I fished the Indiana Kayak Anglers Event #1 on West Boggs finished 3rd out of 87 anglers by a quarter inch to first and the 4th tie breaker for second. Got a nice payday and some good AOY points.  I caught 88 bass during the 8 hour tournament day which was by far the most I have ever caught.

 

Fished Bluegrass FWA on Sunday in preparation for a tournament in two weeks. I’ll be back there this Sunday after fishing the KBF Trail event on Kentucky Lake on Saturday.

 

 

Bluegrass is just a stones throw away from my house. Make sure and post how you do. I mainly fish about 20-30 miles north of there and have been catching them near shallow wood. 

[IndianaFinesse]

On 4/23/2018 at 2:40 PM, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

I heard that a 6.3# smallie was caught in that tourney by the winners (who weighed in 2 fish for 10.6).

 

That lake can be hit or miss, especially when the water is high like it is now.

Yeah that thing was a beast, never seen a smallie that big in person before

 

On 4/23/2018 at 3:37 PM, Team9nine said:

Lake is fishing absolutely horrible this year, which is why the only advice I could think of when you asked was, "don't go." 

And i would have listened to your advice if I could have lol, unfortunately terrible fishing isn't a good enough reason to reschedule a tournament though talked to a few guys that have potoka as their home lake and they told me the exact same thing. 

[BigBassLoveSenkos]

10 minutes ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Yeah that thing was a beast, never seen a smallie that big in person before

 

And i would have listened to your advice if I could have lol, unfortunately terrible fishing isn't a good enough reason to reschedule a tournament though talked to a few guys that have potoka as their home lake and they told me the exact same thing. 

How is your home lake fishing these days?

[Alan Reed]

19 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

Bluegrass is just a stones throw away from my house. Make sure and post how you do. I mainly fish about 20-30 miles north of there and have been catching them near shallow wood. 

I will, I just need to decide which area I want to concentrate on.

[CroakHunter]

3 hours ago, Alan Reed said:

I will, I just need to decide which area I want to concentrate on.

I have looked at it on the navionics website and it's definitely diverse, both bluegrass pit and loon pit. 

[BigBassLoveSenkos]

9 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

I have looked at it on the navionics website and it's definitely diverse, both bluegrass pit and loon pit. 

never realized how deep those pits were until just now looking at it on navionics.  They built a lot of highway from that place

[IndianaFinesse]

18 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

How is your home lake fishing these days?

They finally moved up into the shallows last week, and they're still hitting good. Shallow cranks and lipless up in the coves and some still on points, not hitting big ones yet but lots of fish in the 3 pound and smaller range. No signs of males making beds yet, but that can't be far off either. I'm very busy right now, but if you want to come out this way shoot me a pm and we'll try to work something out.

 

I caught more keepers in the first 5 min last night than I did both prefishing and on tournament day on potoka combined, on my own lol

[frosty]

3 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

never realized how deep those pits were until just now looking at it on navionics.  They built a lot of highway from that place

How deep does it show them? I fish chinook up by I-70 and I know they are very deep cause you can see so far down but never heard how deep they were

[BigBassLoveSenkos]

22 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

No signs of males making beds yet, but that can't be far off either.

With a full moon coming up, i bet we start seeing beds pop up

21 hours ago, frosty said:

How deep does it show them? I fish chinook up by I-70 and I know they are very deep cause you can see so far down but never heard how deep they were

according to Navionics, Blue Grass pit is 52 ft, Loon pit is 66 ft, and Otter pit is 59 ft.  Most pits I've been on max out at around 30 ft.  

[frosty]

I always guessed them around 50’ but it’s tough to judge that when you’re a kid, can’t swim and you’re in a very narrow boat 

[CroakHunter]

6 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

With a full moon coming up, i bet we start seeing beds pop up 

Yeah I got a feeling I'll be dealing with spawners during my tourney on the 5th.