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I live in Southern Indiana and am looking for a good spot to take my kids bluegill fishing not too far. I have heard Ky Lake thats 4 hours. Patoka is not great or even good anymore for bluegill or at least I cant catch them!! Any expert input here??? Thanks!!!
Reelfoot would be great. Rend is good also and may be closer. Some good guides over there at Rend like Scott. Lots of gills and crappie on both of these lakes. Ky. lake can be tough without a guide if you have never fished here. Big lake and lots of water to eliminate. Look on the state boards for some good info. Full moon around the first of May would be ideal !
West Boggs in Indiana. Lot closer and plenty of fish.
IMO find some farm ponds in your backyard. Get the kids catching and once they get the bug start looking at big water. I've been fishing since I was 4 years old. Many farm ponds and lotsa gill's. Creeks were in my fathers opinion a bit treacherous for me so I did not get to go when he went creek fishing. But the next day, we always went to nearby pond or small lake that had decent bank access. I have many memories of those days and still wish I could have just one more with my father.
Eventually we went to a lot of places and although I remember many of those trips, when I think about fishing with dad, the first thoughts come to mind are the little farm ponds.
Dogwood,,,goose pond over at Linton, its new and getting very good over there.,,also check out the pits at Linton,,full of gills, crappie and bass.
Where in southern indiana?
Another vote for Dogwood...
-T9
Around Greenville
Are they draining dogwood
no,,,not draining dogwood...draining West Boggs at Loogoottee, IN after the fall. They will poison it out, then restock it for the 3rd time in an attempt to kill all the shad again. If your kids are small..just be careful of boating at Dogwood. Its full of standing timber, and there is a running lane bouyee'd for motor running and a 10 mph over entire lake. But its full of gills and redears, crappie is ok fishing and so is alittle bass. Last yr, DNR sprayed the lillypads in a effort to kill them out,,but they will be back and there is a lot of weedbeds also.
cford,, your in Greenville? Have you tried Hardy Lake up 65 not far from you? And especially in the spring,,when the gills are on the beds,,Patoka? Every bay on main lake of Patoka will have tons of gills all sizes all thru mid June I am betting as cold as the weather is. You can't carry enough tubes of crickets for them and sort them out for a big mess.
ive never fished patoka for bluegill, heard it used to be great but had heard it has really declined?
National forest lakes. Not to far from you and great fishing.
Is there any good bank fishing or could I rent a small boat at any of the forestry lakes
If you need to rent a boat you might consider Ferdinand State forest. Very good panfish there too.
I always make a trip to Deam lake for spawners. There's a lot of good red ear and bluegill to be caught then. Really close for u also
Depends on which side of the state you live on. If I just wanted to take kids fishing for bluegill, I'd probably run down to the west side. Fish greene-sullivan st forest, hit shakamak and lenape, and then maybe hit minnehaha fw. You need a small boat and a trolling motor for all of those, but the fishing for bluegill is very good in those area's. And can fish from bank at a lot of places. Can rent a cabin at shakamak, and be able to drive to all of those in a hour or less.
I loved fishing down there when I lived in that area. Shoot can even run down to dogwood, which has rental boats.
I like all the above Glendale, reelfoot, rend, love KY lake. Probably depends on if you want to fish a weekend a week or a few hours. What really dictates it is the age of the children. I took my grandson when he was 2 to a farm pond I knew I could catch at least a small bluegill in a minute or 2. Young kids don't care about how big they are just want some action.
Very true gone_fishing
Deams Lake, Lake of the Seven Springs...both in Southern IN and excellent for bluegills.
As a long time bluegill/redear angler in Southern In., Glendale used to be the best for catching big redear and gills. Indian was special too, I've got a buddy who caught a 3.1lb crappie out of Indian twelve tears ago. Rumors of two plus pound redear being caught at Celina have circulated for years too.
The very best chance of catching trophy bluegill and redear are at LBL though, hands down trophy shellcrackers that will blow you away. We went down there for the first time last spring and we're now buying a fishing camp, it's world class fishing for crappie, redear, bass and BIG cats too.
Couldn't agree more REH. I will be there mid May chasing those huge redears.Quote:
Originally Posted by redearhoosier
Was there last May and the water was real high. We ended up catching a bunch of gills and redears in a gravel parking lot the was flooded.
On the National Forest lakes do you think a limit on the gills and a smaller limit on redears would benefit the lakes? They are a great resource that is being abused.
They need to do something about the Forestry Lakes no doubt about that. I emailed the biologist down there and a lady responded that they don't do creel surveys anymore because it's Federal instead of State owned. I guess 20 years ago it was a state owned and managed deal?? Since it turned over, I guess the creel surveys stopped and that's a big mistake IMO because now we don't have a clue about the health of the lake.
I did talk to a fireman buddy of mine today about Celina and Indian and he said those lakes run in cycles. They're not managed good enough but then again, Indiana is lacking in this area. If you compare our management practices to states like Ky, Tn, Mo, and other states that produce trophy fisheries, we're in the stone ages.
My advice for kids and bluegill fishing is to stay close to your local fishing hole. If it's memories your looking to make with em, you can't beat the pond/lake they grew up by and frequented for a sentimental place in there hearts. Other than that, if they are little kids, like under 10, bring a bucket and let em watch the fish swim around in the bucket for a bit, most kids love that. Remember to take some pics, and let the kids take pics too. Hope this helps; have fun!
good advice...BTW, when I take my grandkids fishing, I pack a "kid friendly" lunch/snack/fruit drinks...if at all possible, I don't attempt to teach them too much at one time and if you have a local pond with a playground nearby, better yet...if they don't take to fishing (which some kids don't) you can salvage the day by playing with them in other ways.
Looking for a farm pond here in southern indiana to take the kiddos, if anyone has one be much abliged! PM me wouldnt mind doing some bush hogging for permission to fish work something out
redearhoosier if you are referring to state forest lakes like Ferdinand State Forest you got some bad info. If you were referring to Indian, Celina, and Saddle lakes they are Federal have always been they are in the are tucked into the Hoosier National Forest which is Fed but Ferdinand State Forest and Lincoln State Forest are state. It is a bit confusing when you go a bit farther Ferdinand State forest has land holdings in Dubois, Perry, and Crawford counties some of which are in the area called Hoosier National Forest and there are also a lot of private holdings and other state holdings in Hoosier National Forest.
Oh one other thing it could be that at one time the state managed those lakes even though they were Federally owned.
I read an article about Redear fishing written by Don Jordan and he mentioned that Indian had changed hands in the article. This article is still on the internet if you google his name/redear fishing. I remember going there as a kid and it's always been the Hoosier National Forest.
It is Seven Springs Lake in Elizabeth, IN and is a private lake. I agree it has awesome fishing and I have waited my whole life to get the opportunity to fish there just one time. The Indiana state record Largemouth was pulled from that lake on a Zebco 202 and 6lb test line.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishaholic
For those of us that live in this part of Southern Indiana, I live in Corydon which is about 15 miles from Cford in Greenville. We are very limited on good fishing areas, and even more so without a boat. The state has really let us down, and continues to do so more and more each year. I am 36 now, and when I was growing up there were many public access places I could go to and fish from the bank. The state has not maintained any of the locations over the years, or have closed off the public access sites completely. Land that I used to fish farm ponds on is now subdivisions, and the ponds are no longer there. Those of you who do not live down here in the mountainous part of the state, where ponds/strips/lakes are common in your area are very lucky. Everyone likes to throw up the card "Well, you have Patoka". Yeah, we do. We also got every pleasure boater and their brother/cousin/uncle/friend/etc from the city that comes out there too. You can't get away from them. That's another big reason that lake has gone to heck in a handbasket.
I may give dogwood a try, have tried Deams lake done ok there when they hit the beds. we camp there alot with the horses so its nice. Have tried Monroe done well there but have to rent boats as I spend all my money on horses and big horse trailers lol. Still searchin for a decent farm pond somewhere close, may look for a little jon boat and trollin motor to hit some smaller lakes. Patoka wears me out everytime I go, just has my number I guess but we rent a boat and have a nice time. My girls are 8 and 12 and they love to catch fish and are really into it so I need to find us a decent spot. They love to bring em home to cook too. Nothin better than having the horses out and fryin fresh fish at the camp site, I just gotta catch some fish LOL, or stop by Krogers and throw some in the cooler that way!!!!!!!
Cford,,you might try the 2 lakes at Brown Co. State Park and the one lake at Spring Mills St. Park for blue gills. They had a pic yesterday in the Bedford Paper of couple of young guys with a basket of looked like nice gills at Spring Mills in Mitchell. fishing from the bank. It woul be great for kids.
Did they finally go ahead and get the lake dredged then and back in shape? I asked on here last year and someone responded that they said they thought they were going to. Last time I was there about 4 years it was only about 18" deep from all the silt.Quote:
Originally Posted by cevans
I've never seen the lake except in yesterdays pic in the paper the wife brought from work as she works in Bedford. Pic showed 2 young dudes with wire basket and bottom was full of decient size gills it looked like,,and thought of this posting about Cford wanting to take his kids somewhere.
I agree, Spring Mill is an awesome place for kids and fishing!