Thread: Best Southern IN Lake for Crappie

Originally Posted by cevans

Fishing in Indiana will never become better. Never! We educate newbies and the public how to fish, electronics are way better, fishing equipment is better, and fishing pressure is a constant increase on fish populations and the water we have. DNR can only do so much with the budgets they have as their budgets don’t increase enough to improve the situation in the state. If today’s fisherman does not learn to adapt and overcome, his catch rates and size of fish he does catch, will not improve. It is what it is. I was on West Boggs last Sunday tweaking and setting up a new 360 and helix Mega 10 DI on the front and setting the networking up. 26 boats in wintertime on that lake Sunday! And they were keeping every crappie they caught no matter what size it was. I was the only person catching and releasing and some looked at me like I was a idiot. I never caught a fish that touched a 10 in line on my golden rule. Those fish just do not have a chance to grow.

Unfortunately........you're right

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That is the problem everywhere I go. People keeping everything despite size and creel limits. Not enough enforcement. ''No money in the state budget for more officers,'' is what they say in IL. It sickens me to hear this is happening everywhere...

Why are state lakes so poor, if Patoka had good fishing I don't think that dogwood and boggs would get the pressure they get. How can pretty much lakes in Illinois have a lot better crappie fishing when they are demographically pretty much the same.

Originally Posted by kyrich

Why are state lakes so poor, if Patoka had good fishing I don't think that dogwood and boggs would get the pressure they get. How can pretty much lakes in Illinois have a lot better crappie fishing when they are demographically pretty much the same.

I think it's the direction of where the available funds go. The surrounding states have way better managed fisheries than we do, at least in the southern part of the state. But, I've seen millions spent on horse camping. And each year or two there is an increase in your DNR stickers, entry fees, and camping costs. But I'm not seeing the return. If there weren't a couple lakes closer by that I hit early for spring crappie, and few others i like to redear and eye fish, I wouldn't even buy a license and all my money would be spent in KY. Which most of it is anyway, because of my options of lakes to fish.

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Same here I fish Ky lake all the time but Asian carp is killing it but to me , there is place in southern in that’s that great to fish . I went to patoka
test a prop on my boat so I bought the launch permit to be legal done some damage to my boat because the docks had no bumpers.


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Indiana has only 3 big lakes. One is Wawasee 5000 acres in northern part. Monroe 10,500 acres central, Patoka 8000 south. Most other lakes under 2000 acres. Patoka has a shad problem. Not enough water to handle the fishing pressure.

I have never seen that many crappie fisherman on patoka And don’t think it is over overfished if anything it needs a lot crappie taken out and get someone to manage our lakes


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Everybody quit fishing Patoka for crappie and gills. Years ago you could catch all the nice gills and red ears you wanted. Then they got small due to shad. 5-6 yrs ago I could limit out on 10-15” crappie cranking and long lining jigs as well as jig fishing single pole. Shad in the lake are over 14 inches or more in big schools. Why you think Crappie USA quit holding tourneys there? It is still my favorite lake to fish, but I don’t fish it as much as I used to.