Patoka Lake, 5/30/09

[nofearengineer]

Me and Woody (Mark) met up at Patoka Lake In Dubois County, IN for some fun. We got there nice and early, right before sunrise, and the lake was glassy calm. My prediction was correct...all of the pure boaters, and many of the fishermen had been out the prior Memorial Day weekend, and had decided to rest this weekend. No rest for the wicked though...me and Woody were ready.

Well, after blasting over to my favorite arm of the lake, I went to get my rods out of my locker, and promptly broke the tip off of one of my new St. Croix spinning rods. Ticked me off, but hey...it's under warranty, and I was fishin', so I didn't let it bother me too much.

We were sure there there was gonna be a top-water bite, so we both threw spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, etc. NADA...we saw shad boiling, bustin' the surface, etc., but still nothing. We really couldn't figure it out, other than all of the larger fish we saw on the finders were down deep. We thought that really didn't make sense, but hey, who are we to argue with the facts? Additionally, the other shore of the arm was the windy side, and I've always heard a little wind on the shore helps, so we ran over there. After tying on a DD-22 Norman crank, it only took maybe 3-4 casts, and I landed a 3 lb'er, the biggest bass I've ever caught out of Patoka.



After setting down the camera, Woody tied on a DD-22 of his own.

Funny thing about the DD-22...it floats. This will be an important point later in the story.

Realizing that for whatever reason, the bass were holding on deep structure we decided to go with it. Like that old saying: "Fish conditions, not memories." So we got out our Hot Spots map, and found we were right over a submerged roadbed. It certainly fit the beginning of a pattern. so we drifted the whole length of it and saw a lot of fish, and II think Woody boated a dink. We checked our map some more and decided to fish the creek channel that runs the whole length of the arm. So while using the troller back to the other side where the channel is, I tossed out the deep crank again. I caught a 14" hybrid stiped bass on it. I finally managed to get the thing off the hook and into the livewell, cast out, and got smacked by another one. So this deep structure stuff is workin.

We worked back into the arm, following the channel best we could, with Woody boating another hybrid for the livewell, and me catching and releasing a 14" largemouth. It was about this time that the "fun" started. While making a particularly hard cast, my bail flipped over on me mid cast. The abrupt snap of the lure on the line jerked the rod out of my hand, and we watched it sink into the 30' depths.

I was pretty much crushed. I had managed to go from fishing two St. Croix spinning rods to breaking one and losing another. Woody offered some consolation in the fact that I did manage to catch that nice bass. He was right...it's only money, but it still stung a little.

Luckily...there had been a channel marjer buoy fairly close by, and we had a rough idea of where it went down. I tied on a heavy spoon, and Woody tied on some heavy contraption to try to drag the bottom for the rod, but with the wind, and not perfect idea of where it was, we couldn't find it. Of course I backlashed one of my baitcasters trying to cast into the wind, and spent about half an hour trying to fix that...unsuccessfully. So I dug my old standby spinning rod out of storage, retied the spoon on it and started dragging the depths. No luck. I then thought to use my bait cast net I keep in my locker, so I busted it out and shook some of the cobwebs off of my casting technique. But with it being so deep down, it became apparent after just a few throws, that I was simply out $90...accept it, Bryce (that's me). So I said F-it, and moved on.

So I grabbed another deep crank out, and went about fishing the channel. After about another hour or so, of no more bites, I notice some little white thing suspended under water, about 5 feet down. I'm thinking...um, no...it can't be...not possible...I let out a WHOOP of joy. Woody is like...WTH? It's my lost crankbait, floating in the depths. Apparently, enough line came off the reel before the bail shut, that the crank almost made it to the surface. I took careful note of our position relative to the marker buoy, and drifted back over it while reeling up the crank I had tied on all of the way to my rod tip. It took a couple of passes for me to reach it and tangle the two crankbaits up, but I finally got it in the boat. I pulled the line in by hand, and saw my rod come out of the depths. I have never been so happy in my life. Me and Woody whooped it up good over that, and laughed about it for a long, long time. What are the odds of pulling out a fishing rod in 30 feet of water two hours later?

Anyway, we had a blast. We didn't catch any more, but we did have some good fried chicken Woody brought, and we did have a good time at the end of the day relaxing while trolling the deep divers, hoping for a few more hybrids for the table, and even laughing about what we do do if we somehow hooked up on a 15-20lb Striper. The weather was really nice most of the day, and we got treated to a nice panorama on our way back to the ramp.



Woody and I found out we have a heck of a lot in common, family-wise and such. All in all, we spent about 14 hours on the water, and it seemed like about 14 minutes. I could have fished more, for sure. Woody is one heck of a fishing partner, and I can't wait to hit Monroe and Brookville with him. (Oh, and Patoka ANYTIME, brother)