Looking for good fishing one day’s drive

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  • amboy49

    Master
    Rating - 83.3%
    5   1   0
    Feb 1, 2013
    2,293
    83
    central indiana
    My wife and and I and another couple are thinking about doing a four day fishing getaway in May. We’d like to find someplace that is not more than one day’s drive from Central Indiana. We’ll be looking for bass and pan fish ( crappie and bluegills ).

    We’ve discussed Kentucky Lake and Barkley in Kentucky. Also, wondering about Patoka ? Perhaps even Reelfoot, but that’s a little farther away.

    Hoping for some suggestions from first hand experience.

    Thanks in advance.
     

    AGarbers

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    24   0   0
    Feb 4, 2009
    1,360
    48
    Martinsville
    I went to Barkley in 2010 and caught the biggest crappie of my life. If you have a boat with side imaging sonar, look for stake beds in the bottom. It is quite common for folks to make their own crappie hot spots down there. And I think they allow six lines per fisherman. Spider rigging is the thing down there.
     

    Vamptepes

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Jul 20, 2013
    859
    18
    Eagledale
    My brother and his friends used to go to reelfoot every year until a couple years ago. The management of the lake went down hill and the quality of the fishing did also. Also will you be bank fishing or using a boat of some sort? Patoka and dogwood are where we normally go for crappie fishing if we head outside of our local area.
     

    gcoop

    Marksman
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Feb 6, 2011
    173
    18
    Indianapolis
    One vote for Dale Hollow Lake at Hendricks Creek Resort. They have everything you want for a very nice fishing trip. About a six hour drive from Indy
     

    ghuns

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Nov 22, 2011
    9,308
    113
    I went to Barkley in 2010 and caught the biggest crappie of my life. If you have a boat with side imaging sonar, look for stake beds in the bottom. It is quite common for folks to make their own crappie hot spots down there. And I think they allow six lines per fisherman. Spider rigging is the thing down there.

    I'll second that.

    Took my kid and my little brother down in March a couple years ago. We hired a guide and fished Barkley for crappie the first day and Kentucky Lake for bass on the second.

    Highly recommend this guy...

    ANDY ALLEN’S FISHING GUIDE SERVICE

    He has sunken brush piles marked on his GPS all over Barkley. If we ever went 5 minutes without catching a fish, we moved on to the next one. We caught TONS of fish.

    The next day on Kentucky Lake, it was windy as hell. There were 6 foot waves on the main lake and the temp had dropped almost 40 degrees from the day before. We were the ONLY people at the boat launch getting in the water. He hugged the shoreline and we fished all the little bays and channels, up around docks and other structures. We caught a bunch of largemouth and a couple big smallies. Nothing gigantic, but enough for fun day.

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    1DOWN4UP

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Mar 25, 2015
    6,418
    113
    North of 30
    Rock-fishing in the Patuxent river and Chesapeake Bay. My kid is the one in the middle a few years ago with his besties.

    View attachment 75519 [/QUOTEThose are the hybrid stripers if I am not mistaken.Has anybody ever fished Lake Shaffer or Lake Freeman for those things? The state record for them used to be 79 lbs for those, caught in Lake Shaffer. Still,NOTHING tastes as good as panfish.
     
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