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Fished dogwood for the first time yesterday. Lake is beautiful. Didn’t find any crappie but did get a bunch of 12 to 14” bass on minnows and jigs. I just read several post on it regarding its downfall. Hope it’s getting better as the lake is beautiful and full of wood/structure to fish.
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Fished it 45 years ago with my Grandpa and it was nothing to catch 100 bass in the evenings on a jitterbug.. had tons of big bluegill/redear also.
Haven't been down there since but your right it was a neat looking lake back then there was tons of standing dead timber as I remember.
Went to Dogwood yesterday too. Had not been there for two years. Two boats on the lake this time of year and decent day for a change gives a clue about the condition of a lake. Marked fish on DI & SI but not a crappie or gill came to boat. Temp of 54 and decent clarity. Lure or presentation made no difference except to bass. Lakes/ ponds will have natural cycles but this down cycle was caused by lack of laws and enforcement of bag limits.
Hate to hear this, maybe it will get better as I was considering hitting Dogwood. Keep us posted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whaler;[URL="tel:3811166"
My dad, uncles, cousin and myself tripped down there for three to four days of fishing for a run of years. I don't think we've been since around 2011 or so. The fishing, notably the size of the fish really took a nosedive around that time frame.
We camped out in tents several times and then wised up and stayed in Theiroffs motel up in Washington the last couple of times we went. My grandpa started fishing Dogwood back when they opened it to the public.
We went from catching 10-11in redears on a routine basis to catching 7in redears if we were lucky. That lake suffered from massive pressure and at that small size, just couldn't sustain the quality it was known for.
I can remember on one of my first trips down there, must've been around '87, we were anchoring up in the stickups in 20ft of water catching 9-10in bluegill near bottom. They were big dark colored bluegill. It was one hell of a trip, i sure would like to go back to that trip in a time machine.
What year did Dogwood open to outboards over 10HP?
Couple of years ago, DNR let all Boat sizes with any hp motor run on Dogwood taking away the 10 hp limit and putting a 10 mph speed limit on it. This area as turned into Amish country also. They keep everything they catch and combined that pressure to existing fishing pressure has had its effect on the lake. Then throw in the weed problem now, choking some of the bays all but impossible to fish along with Lilly pad growth, limits available water to fish that the masses of fishermen have left and it’s made it what it is today. DNR does spray trying to control and you have a State Hatchery below the dam, you would think they would stock. It does have some healthy bass in it tho. Slowly, it’s another body of water with a too late 9” size limit on crappie, that they can’t effectively enforce 24/7 and it is what it is even tho it’s still a beautiful piece of water with a lot of standing timber still in it. I used to catch some of the best bluegills/red ears, as well as a few crappie you would ever want to catch out of it many moons ago. It gets pounded hard even tho it’s tough fishing.
maybe 4-5 yrs ago??? Don’t totally remember.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duckmann;[URL="tel:3811587"
Don't clean many but do take some for older friend. While cleaning some a few years ago one man said that he had caught and cleaned a thousand fish that week as he complained about the size of gills. He was cleaning a four inch fish. He had three friends with him who did the same. When you have dozens of campers doing the same thing year after year plus local pressure it can deplete the breeders. It will only get worst. Todays electronics reveals beds and structure never before seen. You can almost read the name and size of old tires on the bottom.
Whaler, ya talked me out of checking Dogwood out. Even Boggs is getting pounded so badly with fishing pressure this early and they are keeping everything there they catch no matter how small it is. People look at me like I am nuts when I throw a fish back if it doesn’t hit 10-11” long. think I will spend more of my time on Monroe as Patoka sucks too. Not many good places left without traveling a lot of miles or going out of state to catch decent sized fish.
Pressure has taken a toll on it for sure. I too see people keeping small fish all the time. Still has some good fish but not what it used to.
I still love the lake you just have to work at it a little harder.
I lived in Washington from 90 to 2000. Nearly lived at Glendale year round. Caught many nice gills and redears. I think the HP limit helped control pressure some. Never felt that the Amish were present in any numbers as fishermen at that time. They were a menace during deer gun season since they would organize drives when everyone else was trying to stand hunt. Biggest problem at Glendale for years has been (mis)management.
I agree very poor management. I mostly bass fish it and still catch a few good fish each year. A lot of small fish in the 12 to 14 inch range.
Indiana never was very good at managing or creating trophy panfish lakes. The main problem up there is the small bodies of water just can't handle the pressure the way a 25k acre lake can.
The biggest lake is Monroe at barely 10k acres. Just look at neighboring states like Kentucky. Ky lake is 160k acres, Barkley is 58k, Cumberland is 50k, Barren River is bigger than Monroe! Illinois has a couple of stud lakes that would swallow Monroe and Patoka.
Have to agree that is why I do most of my fishing in Illinois. Still make it to Glendale several times a year. Didn’t even fish Green Sullivan at all last year. That is the first time I have done that in a long time.