How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
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LD483
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:00 pm
How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
Hey guys this is my first post but I thought I would ask you guys (hopefully) some one from The middle of Illinois can respond if they have ever fished Coffeen Lake. This is the first power plant lake I have fished and I know it is a great place to go for nice sized bass in my neck of the woods. Problem is that I am not the best at working out a pattern on a normal lake as I am sure a lot of people can relate too. But on top of this flaw It seems to be even more difficult to find a pattern on a Powerplant lake. Right now in the warm end of the lake it could be close to 85% and in the cool end 65-70. Even when the water in areas is 55-60 I can not find a good pre-spawn, spawn, or post spawn pattern because the water level could rise 5-10 degrees in one day. EX... When the temp is 60 I try pre and spawn patterns but sometimes there is nothing biting. Any idea how to find a good pattern in a lake where temps can flux so dramatically in one day. Or is it just try everything and hope you have time to find a pattern in one day...
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carl
- Posts: 436
- Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2003 4:00 pm
How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
My guess is they have already spawned, but that's only a guess. During winter, and early spring I tend to fish closer to the discharge. During the summer, as on most lakes, the fish will scatter. For now I would concentrate on points, rip-rap, any grass that's turned green, even if it's still brown, pulling a bait across the tops might work. I've fished Hiedake, and Lake of Egypt. I've always had a Carolina rig tied on, and that usualy will put some fish in the boat. Wish I could be of more help, but I usualy avoid lakes with alot of power boats. I'm sure the saff will have better advice. Carl
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LD483
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:00 pm
How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
Thx for the advice here is how my trip went.
My Friend and I just purchased a boat with a brand new 25 EL Mer 2 stroke...
. Needless to say we tried it out all weekend at Coffeen. Saturday we arived at 5:45, we spent time near the center of the lake fishing the West side. We moved all the way back into one of the side coves. The temp in the cove was 64 and early on I laid into 2 - 2.8 lb big mouths using a 10 black and blue Berkly power worm caught in 7-10 ft they were sitting near submerged trees, We were trying to work our way out of the cove and see if we could find any Post-spawners in transition none exept for these two. After that we moved up to the north end of the lake fishing the Long cove on the East side of the lake (the one before you get to the train tracks). My friend thru on a spinner proceeding to hop it in and around any visable cover. He caugt a 2.9 in a thick patch of weed/moss 
(Big fish of the day). We caugt 6 a piece most 2 lb or better with 2 under 12". (some on carolina rig in the coves but most on spinner and worm) We didn't even bother fishing the warm end I never seem to do well there.
Sunday the storms rolled in We were on the lake around 7:15. There was some rain on the lake but not as much as we expected. The water had cooled down to 61. We started off in the Northern cove I spoke of on the Saturday trip. I had on a Black and red Buzz Bait, my Friend had on a Spinnerbait. Again we started of in the front of the cove and worked our way out about 15 minutes into fishing I was clunking around the same patch of moss my friend caugt the 2.9 lb fish the day before and happened to look up just in time to see a big fish Roll on my buzz bait. I worked it into the boat (and into the weeds....LOL) and woo hoo it was my biggest Coffeen bass yet 3.9 Lbs... Tim decided to throw on a top water chugger and almost immediatly hooked into a 2.8 pounder. We fished the cove thouroughly but no more fish... And that was the Game of the rest of the day... The fish hid and we played go seek. I think he caugt 3 and I caugt 3 all the first two were the big ones the other fish were under 1 1/2. We wanted to fish carolina rigs off the points but with the storms moving in it was to windy to even try. We're making a 5 day fishing trip next week to Cedar lake near Murphysboro, IL. If anyone has info on the lakes down here and can offer some advice on how the fishing has been it would be much appreciated.
My Friend and I just purchased a boat with a brand new 25 EL Mer 2 stroke...
. Needless to say we tried it out all weekend at Coffeen. Saturday we arived at 5:45, we spent time near the center of the lake fishing the West side. We moved all the way back into one of the side coves. The temp in the cove was 64 and early on I laid into 2 - 2.8 lb big mouths using a 10 black and blue Berkly power worm caught in 7-10 ft they were sitting near submerged trees, We were trying to work our way out of the cove and see if we could find any Post-spawners in transition none exept for these two. After that we moved up to the north end of the lake fishing the Long cove on the East side of the lake (the one before you get to the train tracks). My friend thru on a spinner proceeding to hop it in and around any visable cover. He caugt a 2.9 in a thick patch of weed/moss (Big fish of the day). We caugt 6 a piece most 2 lb or better with 2 under 12". (some on carolina rig in the coves but most on spinner and worm) We didn't even bother fishing the warm end I never seem to do well there. Sunday the storms rolled in We were on the lake around 7:15. There was some rain on the lake but not as much as we expected. The water had cooled down to 61. We started off in the Northern cove I spoke of on the Saturday trip. I had on a Black and red Buzz Bait, my Friend had on a Spinnerbait. Again we started of in the front of the cove and worked our way out about 15 minutes into fishing I was clunking around the same patch of moss my friend caugt the 2.9 lb fish the day before and happened to look up just in time to see a big fish Roll on my buzz bait. I worked it into the boat (and into the weeds....LOL) and woo hoo it was my biggest Coffeen bass yet 3.9 Lbs... Tim decided to throw on a top water chugger and almost immediatly hooked into a 2.8 pounder. We fished the cove thouroughly but no more fish... And that was the Game of the rest of the day... The fish hid and we played go seek. I think he caugt 3 and I caugt 3 all the first two were the big ones the other fish were under 1 1/2. We wanted to fish carolina rigs off the points but with the storms moving in it was to windy to even try. We're making a 5 day fishing trip next week to Cedar lake near Murphysboro, IL. If anyone has info on the lakes down here and can offer some advice on how the fishing has been it would be much appreciated.
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carl
- Posts: 436
- Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2003 4:00 pm
How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
Fantastic! I think I'll take lessons from you! Cedar Lake is 5 minutes from my house. Before you come email me, or give me a call. I'm afraid the fishing has been pretty tough, because of the cold fronts moving in every three days. But I can give you some info on the lake. Carl 618-351-0196. Cedar is a 10 hp lake, just so you know. The three lakes in this vicinity that are full hp. are Crab Orchard, Lake of Egypt (power gen. lake) and Kinkaid. Scracth Kincaid, it ***** for bass, but is a world class Muskie lake. Glad you guys did so well, Carl
PS. Rend Lake, about 45 to an hour north of me is also an open hp lake. Big one too, wouldn't advise fishing it if the weather is bad, too shallow, which makes for some BIG waves. Hiedeke is also like that, if fact they fly marine flags at the marina.
PS. Rend Lake, about 45 to an hour north of me is also an open hp lake. Big one too, wouldn't advise fishing it if the weather is bad, too shallow, which makes for some BIG waves. Hiedeke is also like that, if fact they fly marine flags at the marina.
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mofish
- Posts: 570
- Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2001 5:00 pm
How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
Oh I wish our Power Plant lake was still open here, but with 911 they closed it down.
Thats a whole nother story though.. Lets see if I can help ya some.. You got to remember I'm in Texas too and the temps are alot different.
When the temps get really hot here. The fish go really deep. We drag Carolina Rigs in water anywere from 25' to 35' on any major drop off. We also head to the upper end of the lake were alot of the creeks are being that the hot water does not affect this area as bad. Here we throw the spinner baits and deep diving cranks around the trees in the creek channels. Remember with the drastic changes in water temp the fish suspend alot. Tops water baits are hot early in the morning and the chugger and popper baits really rack up some good fish. After the sun comes up it back to the deep cranks and Carolina Rigs. When you cannt get them on top or on the bottom try a suspending jerk bait or medium runner suspending crankbait just dont pause it for very long and work the heck out of it. That has caught me some good ones when they suspend like that.
One rig that worked really well was a Carolina rig but instead of a heavy barrel weight we would use a big heavy jig with a Tube on it then tie on a 3' to 4' leader with a floating tube rigged Texas style. If you cant find the floating tube made by Gene Larew just stick you a foam ear plug or packing peanut inside of it to get it to float off the bottom. Man what a fish catcher. Your covering two different depths of water in one cast. We have used longer leaders but the length of your cast suffers alot with the longer leaders..
Winter time hit the hot water spring and summer hit the cooler water. If theres alot of grass on the lake make sure you fish around it alot one of the problems we have here is the Oxygen level in the water when it gets hot any grass you can find is a plus because the fish have to be around it. Look for the deepest grass near any kind of structure you can find. If you can find were the grass intersects a rock pile or a drop off I would spend alot of time here working all levels of the water because the fish will be there its just figuring what they want or when they will feed. When you catch one slow down and work the area completly, chances are there is more there to be caught.
If the water is clear then down size your baits and learn to drop shot. They closed our lake down before I learned to drop shot I would have loved to see what kinda fish it would have produced had I known about it then..
Most of all remember this is suposed to be fun!!! Learn something from each trip that you take there and KEEP GOOD NOTES. That is the one thing I wish I had started doing sooner. Keep a log of each trip that you took writing down the water temps and were and when you caught the fish. Sooner or later with the more detailed notes you take you will see a pattern develope that may need very little tweaking to catch fish every time you go out.. use them read them often. You will be amazed at what you can learn from these notes that you take...Still to this day its hard for me to remember to write things down. Force yourself to do it because there is alot to learn from the past..
Good luck and catch a bunch.
Thats a whole nother story though.. Lets see if I can help ya some.. You got to remember I'm in Texas too and the temps are alot different.
When the temps get really hot here. The fish go really deep. We drag Carolina Rigs in water anywere from 25' to 35' on any major drop off. We also head to the upper end of the lake were alot of the creeks are being that the hot water does not affect this area as bad. Here we throw the spinner baits and deep diving cranks around the trees in the creek channels. Remember with the drastic changes in water temp the fish suspend alot. Tops water baits are hot early in the morning and the chugger and popper baits really rack up some good fish. After the sun comes up it back to the deep cranks and Carolina Rigs. When you cannt get them on top or on the bottom try a suspending jerk bait or medium runner suspending crankbait just dont pause it for very long and work the heck out of it. That has caught me some good ones when they suspend like that.
One rig that worked really well was a Carolina rig but instead of a heavy barrel weight we would use a big heavy jig with a Tube on it then tie on a 3' to 4' leader with a floating tube rigged Texas style. If you cant find the floating tube made by Gene Larew just stick you a foam ear plug or packing peanut inside of it to get it to float off the bottom. Man what a fish catcher. Your covering two different depths of water in one cast. We have used longer leaders but the length of your cast suffers alot with the longer leaders..
Winter time hit the hot water spring and summer hit the cooler water. If theres alot of grass on the lake make sure you fish around it alot one of the problems we have here is the Oxygen level in the water when it gets hot any grass you can find is a plus because the fish have to be around it. Look for the deepest grass near any kind of structure you can find. If you can find were the grass intersects a rock pile or a drop off I would spend alot of time here working all levels of the water because the fish will be there its just figuring what they want or when they will feed. When you catch one slow down and work the area completly, chances are there is more there to be caught.
If the water is clear then down size your baits and learn to drop shot. They closed our lake down before I learned to drop shot I would have loved to see what kinda fish it would have produced had I known about it then..
Most of all remember this is suposed to be fun!!! Learn something from each trip that you take there and KEEP GOOD NOTES. That is the one thing I wish I had started doing sooner. Keep a log of each trip that you took writing down the water temps and were and when you caught the fish. Sooner or later with the more detailed notes you take you will see a pattern develope that may need very little tweaking to catch fish every time you go out.. use them read them often. You will be amazed at what you can learn from these notes that you take...Still to this day its hard for me to remember to write things down. Force yourself to do it because there is alot to learn from the past..
Good luck and catch a bunch.
Thanks,
Conley Staley
Conley Staley
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LD483
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:00 pm
How to Find a pattern on a Powerplant lake
Thx for the advice. I will try both on this lake as well as try them down at Cedar lake witch I will be fishing this coming weekend. Hopefully I can speak with Carl to see what he thinks of the lakes down there since he is from that area... Also I will let you know how your tactics work on my Powerplant lake. Later... LouDog.