The state park

[Ketchn]

We used to go to the Meridian State Park fairly often when our preteen was a wee one. We don't visit down that way much anymore. The lake was teaming with red ear , bluegill , catfish , bass and pretty good crappie as well.
Somewhere along the way the dynamics have changed, the lake has been low for many years and that may be a contributing factor, and the masses tend be much larger than they used to be as well.
Not sure exactly why it is the way it is now though, I suspect part of it may be the new imposed limits on keeping fish , some kind of ill advised remedy is my guess for the lower numbers of fish at some point and or the size of the fish.
I can say that 10 years ago is not anything like we found last week. The lake still abounds with coppernose bluegill, only not very many huge ones like we used to ketch. The lake also used to have solid crappie in the 10 to 13 inch class and it was well known locally for an excellent channel cat population along with really nice size bass. The red ear population was strong as well with the numbers being a pleasure to see .
So this is what we found and have seen coming in the last few years , the red ear are flat out gone ? The channel cat are now nowhere to be seen , The big bass also disappeared ? And it goes on , the state put out several brush piles about 5 or 6 years ago.
The crappie numbers are great ,the only problem is you can't find one over 10 inches , the huge bluegill turned into zillions with very few being the large versions.
I am pretty sure some misguided fisheries advice and management plans have caused much of the current situation. They used to stock channel cat every year , they quit that , they used to give a hoot who kept what as well. It would seem from first glance to me after hitting it hard that they are low on predators and created too much cover for the fish and took some of the food chain fish away from the original population.
Then here comes the new regs. and the super low fish count you can take when you visit now.
Too bad some person or persons hasn't figured it all out as of now , but such are some of the issues when the less than have a clues folks start "fixing" the lake ......
Sad is me to see such a really sweet location to ketch some nice size panfish go south , the only upside I see now is there are limitless numbers of stunted bluegills and crappie ........
The good news is this , the throngs of little ones on that dock the other day on spring break were just flat out ketchn the living fire out of them bluegill for sure and we did well right with them on crappie and the bluegill too ....
From about 5 or 6 years old to 11 or 12 them kids were just ripping , of course some got lots of help from me with tiny jigs and the how to ketch them tips and several ketched their FIRST ever fish as well. One dad had 3 or 4 girls with him and another did as well . The second dad was clueless ,so I helped them . then came some young boys with about half the Walmart shelf and some big bass equipment. I tuned them up and even loaned one my daughter's rod while she rode her bike ,,,,his first cast with that bass master classic set up ,was by FAR the worst Osprey nest in a reel I ever seen and it was loaded with BRAID !
that thing looked just like one of them "meme" images I swear
told him the only cure for his Grandpa's bass rig was gunna be a pair of scissors and just put it down and let me help him with loaner rod and some advice .....
Now get this , he actually ketched his first ever little bass and about a herd of bluegill too ....
It was a rather chilly outing with the north wind strong and steady , most of the fish bit very light and they were all parked on the bottom in 13 fow .
the amounts of fish that came up on that dock was pretty mind blowing I must say , Bet I saw 500 assorted fish in several hours and we were ketchn em 3 at a time right along with the crowd .
we used jigs with crappie nibbles on them and the rest of the crowd used worms .
This was the part one of 3 day spring break mini vacation and the fish we found along that trail.
I have lots of images ,but at this moment in time ,the image uploader will still not cooperate with me to show ya .....maybe soon is my hopes ....stop 3 of our mini trip was big fish fun ....just saying ....
onward I say ....and then ....
.... KABOOM is near.....

[Slabjerkin']

Very good read and informative .. nothing like making kids smile and having fun catching fish..

[SuperDave336]

Good read. Those places if anyone cares and manages it can be brought back. Lots of good memories there. Good job helping the kiddos!

[Ketchn]

Good read. Those places if anyone cares and manages it can be brought back. Lots of good memories there. Good job helping the kiddos!

it reminded me of mankind and how some of those "expert" advice and fish management type folks are highly guessing instead of actually knowing . the water quality is terribly clear and in most cases that is not the best thing for panfish and or the entire food chain , water that looks like "soup" typically produces way better quality fish .
they should likely fertilize the heck out of the lake and restock some of the species , but since it's also a really popular place to swim , it ain't likely they gunna make it look like pea soup .....

[Ketchn]

one of them lil crappie ate BOTH my jigs on a tandem I was dropping btw ....

[BobC]

There ya go. Some nice photos of a good day out by the water! Enjoyed your read.
Bob

[JUNGLEJIMJIGS]

Certainly looks like an enjoyable day with lots of fish over the rails. Sometimes regulations miss the mark. What works on some lakes doesn't work in others. Need more bass in the 15" range to control all those little gills. Drought like conditions certainly didn't help either.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Good stuff for sure