Thread: Patoka lake panfish.

Indian/Celina are in Hoosier Nat. Forest, and primarily not controlled by DNR as much as Fed. Heavily fished,,still a few good ones in it if you search, but limited. HHD is right,,shad is the problem on Patoka,,and the reason for DNR stocking Hybrids/Stripers/Walleyes, etc. Bouncer...if you considered how DNR lets limits on fish,,they wanted fishermen to catch as many gills as possible to keep the quality up on size of fish. Now yu have the problem of tons of dinks on crappies in Patoka. It all goes back to shad. You can't blame the fishing pressure. If fishing pressure were a problem,,DNR would set limits. As far as Dogwood,,,My personal opion was DNR fubared that lake up by removing the lilly pad cover that protected the fish while getting rid of the 10 hp limit on motor size increasing fishing pressure also. Boggs will have shad back in it as DNR is fighting a loosing battle with the locals in my opinion also. We will have a few years of good fishing when they grow to right size to fish,,but in the end,,it will end up back like it was before they drained it to restock. Indiana just doesn't have enough good fishing water (big lakes) to go around for the masses like other states have,,and what water we do have..gets pounded. Then again...you look at other states that have big water,,and they have fishing pressure on them as well and are being regulated as best as their DNR's can. We can dream about the "good ole days of fishing", but it will never be the same again.

what I would worry about now..is lakes dropping fast,,and spawn being left high and dry.

As an adolescent I fished Patoka with my Grandfather in the 80's and 90's. We would haul out 100-200 BIG bluegills per day apiece. As a responsible adult I realize the error in that. I also realize shad can have a very serious impact on panfishing in the small bodies of water we have in S. Indiana. My point is this. My Pappy and I were two among hundreds doing the same thing everyday. No one will ever convince me that didn't hurt Patoka Lake.
I now fish with my two so s every weekend.... We practice responsible fish conservation!

Yep shad they compete for the same food source as bluegill and young crappie. I hear people saying a lake is overfished for panfish but truth is if its fished heavily there will be less numbers but the ones left will grow quickly and have thick backs. A small lake near me is so evident of that it literally gets pounded and every year it produces huge bluegill.