(Un)official Hoosiers Thread

[BrianMRetter]

I'll be fishing Summit Lake & Westwood Run (both Henry County) on Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday. Tomorrow will be the third day of a warming trend, around 70* high temperature. Tomorrow I'm going to fish the north half of Summit from a kayak. Should I focus more on points, or shallow coves & spawning flats?

[IndianaFinesse]

On 4/13/2016 at 5:08 PM, neocrunch said:

 

Fished for an hour and a half tonight, and caught seventeen bass.  Started by the dam and caught eleven of them on a jerkbait using a two to four second pause.  After that I decided to moved into the coves to see if they had started moving up shallow again.  the remainder of the bass were caught in coves in two to six feet of water on the Ned rig.  All but four bass were little dinks, but it was still fun to just catch a bunch of bass.

[IndianaFinesse]

1 hour ago, BrianMRetter said:

 

2 hours ago, BrianMRetter said:

2 hours ago, BrianMRetter said:

I'll be fishing Summit Lake & Westwood Run (both Henry County) on Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday. Tomorrow will be the third day of a warming trend, around 70* high temperature. Tomorrow I'm going to fish the north half of Summit from a kayak. Should I focus more on points, or shallow coves & spawning flats?

 

Start out fishing points and if that doesn't pan out move shallow into the coves.  The bass should be active, so don't spend much time at each spot if you not catching fish.

[BrianMRetter]

Well I had 0 luck @ Summit today. Water surface temps were 52-54*. Trying Westwood this evening

[tstraub]

My in-laws have been camping at Summit all week haven't heard from them in a few days but I know the said the fishing was really slow early in the week.  She primarily goes for panfish and he usually starts off looking for bass but will move to panfish if the action is good.  last report I heard was a few crappie and maybe a walleye or a perch I can't remember.  He said he hooked something big but got it tangled in the anchor rope and lost it before ever seeing what it was.

 

[OddChase]

5 hours ago, BrianMRetter said:

Well I had 0 luck @ Summit today. Water surface temps were 52-54*. Trying Westwood this evening

How was water clarity? I'm going to try and fish Middlefork reservoir tomorrow morning in hopes of finding some early spawners

[BrianMRetter]

Both were very muddy compared to usual. As far as I know theres not much if any rain in the forecast so hopefully itll clear up.

Edit: Westwood was anywhere from 54* all the way up to 65* in some coves

[Amoore9900]

My brother went out on our lake last night and it was slow got 3 but 2 were 5 pounds both on rage crawls a friend went out today and they were more active a 4.12, 5.25 and 6.58 ....I am at barbee and talked to a few boats and they were not getting anything 

[BrianMRetter]

Glad I'm not the only one not getting anything

[BrianMRetter]

Is this still considered early prespawn in central IN? Surface water temps were around 65-70 today, but I only got 2 bites. 1 on a black back chartruese squarebill, and one on a black senko (confidence bait). 

[Amoore9900]

These fish were in about 3 feet of water the 2 biggest came on strike king red eye shad...

[IndianaFinesse]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 6:52 PM, BrianMRetter said:

Is this still considered early prespawn in central IN? 

No, the bass are now moving into the mid to late pre-spawn feeding spree mode. 

 

I made the trip to cataract lake for eight hours today, and the crappie fishing was awesome.  Believe it or not, we caught 213 crappie today.  We kept a limit of smaller males, but let all of the females and the larger males go.  The water temperature was 59 degrees in the morning and 63 in the afternoon with one foot of water clarity.  The crappie were pretty much everywhere, but we caught the majority spider rigging in 8-12 feet of water and some from casting to the banks in the morning.  Most of the crappie were in an area called "stump alley" or "anchor alley" by some because of all of the lost anchors in the stumps.  It's a 100 yard long line of stumps running parallel to the shoreline that are in 10-14 feet of water.  The spider rigging rods were tied with a two way rig with a tube jig on the bottom and a aberdeen hook and minnow on top.  Most of the crappie caught were just little 6-8 inch males, but it's a fun day when you catch over 200 crappie no matter what size.  The lake was packed full of crappie fisherman cashing in on the spring bite, luckily we got on the lake just before sunrise so we were able to get the first pick of the spots.

[Alan Reed]

On April 10, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Cole Richards said:

Fished Lake Lemon Yesterday. The carp where spawning and the bass were moved up onto the flats in 18 inches of water just outside the carp spawning area. Bass were not very aggressive until just before sunset and then they were caught dragging a 6 inch worm across the bottom very slowly.

Not sure why my report from yesterday is showing up as quote from someone else.

[Midwest Fisherman]

Had a great day, fished 4 out of our 7 ponds today with a total of 14 catches. Most were 3.5 - 4.5 pounders. Tried a little of everything but Uncle Ned with the same Hula StickZ was the only thing I could get them to bite on. Used a faster retrieve than normal with very little dead sticking. 

[Amoore9900]

Just went out for 2 hours and 45 min we got 4 2 fish about 2 pounds 1 smaller and 1 4 pounds we were wanting some bigger fish but not a great time of day now..fish were off rocks in shallow water on cranks

[neocrunch]

I loaded up the kayak and went to Summit Lake today. I spent about six hours on the water (9-3:00) and only caught one fish (on a Ned Rig). Regardless, the weather was beautiful and I had a good time. 

 

[Josh Smith]

Bucket fishermen were out in force and dug in today, so I took my son to a spot where he could hook up with various fish using a worm and bobber.  He still only caught one and I caught nothing (I was running lures only.)

This hasn't been a good year for me at all.  Lost the first fish I hooked up with and haven't hooked up since.  It's not my skills; not sure what's off.

Josh

[OddChase]

Went out Saturday afternoon and slayed the crappie.. Limited out with my father in about 40 minutes. None of the fish were under 9 inches. Managed to catch a 2 lb bass using a *** Swim Bento. Also managed to catch a cat on the artificial.  

[Josh Smith]

11 minutes ago, OddChase said:

Went out Saturday afternoon and slayed the crappie.. Limited out with my father in about 40 minutes. None of the fish were under 9 inches. Managed to catch a 2 lb bass using a *** Swim Bento. Also managed to catch a cat on the artificial.  

Is there a place where it'd be guaranteed that I'd catch crappie from the bank?  My boy love's to fish for 'em and I'd like to take him out crappie fishing sometime.

Josh

[Cole Richards]

Great day but full of  frustration . Got to the lake backing the boat in and hear a crunch on the ramp , metal pole in concrete  thrown in the water =broken tail light .  Get the boat in get the first spot boom start smoking fish on a jerk bait .  Catch a dink northern and swing it into the boat and end up with 3 treble hooks buried in the hand when the northern flipped out.  10 mins and some blood later back to fishing .  Got a few nice 2lb and 3lb bass in the channels, then I decide to run to some submerged pad fields because the big ones were stacked there last week.  Pull up on the spot in gin clear water to find a school of at least 50 bass all in the 3-5 lb range sitting on the pad stems in the sun . For the life of me they would not hit a darn thing from jigs to chatterbaits to senkos and everything in between .  Ended the 3 hr trip catching 15 total  bass and 2 nice northern , 1 sore hand and 1 broken tail light.

[IndianaFinesse]

On ‎4‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 9:22 PM, Cole Richards said:

Great day but full of  frustration . Got to the lake backing the boat in and hear a crunch on the ramp , metal pole in concrete  thrown in the water =broken tail light .  Get the boat in get the first spot boom start smoking fish on a jerk bait .  Catch a dink northern and swing it into the boat and end up with 3 treble hooks buried in the hand when the northern flipped out.  10 mins and some blood later back to fishing .  Got a few nice 2lb and 3lb bass in the channels, then I decide to run to some submerged pad fields because the big ones were stacked there last week.  Pull up on the spot in gin clear water to find a school of at least 50 bass all in the 3-5 lb range sitting on the pad stems in the sun . For the life of me they would not hit a darn thing from jigs to chatterbaits to senkos and everything in between .  Ended the 3 hr trip catching 15 total  bass and 2 nice northern , 1 sore hand and 1 broken tail light.

Try Cataract, it has some awesome crappie fishing, I would recommend going there. the day you go, make sure you check the Louisville daily lake report online to see if they are letting more than about 200 out. If they are letting more than that out the fishing is nearly a waste of time, I was once there when they opened it up and the previously great bite stopped immediately.  We didn't catch a single more fish that day.

 

 

Fished for three hours this afternoon, but I was fishing with a neighbor kid that wasn't allowed to leave the cove we live in.  So we were stuck fishing the same docks and shorelines over and over, but we still managed five bass.  I also hooked a huge flathead that I lost when it rapped me around a dock post.  all of the fish were on the Ned rig skipping docks in shallow water, since that was the only places we could fish.

Later on I fished for about an hour after dinner.  I found a small bay with a massive mayfly hatch going on, unfortunately the hatch didn't start until 15 minutes before we had to be home.  But in the little time I had, it was fish after fish!  My Ned rig literally never reached the bottom before being eaten by something!  most of the bass but i caught also caught couple of everything else to.   i caught bass, crappie, white bass, everything.  I have absolutely no idea how many fish we caught, the fish were coming in so fast we didn't keep track.  If I had to guess it would be about 30-35 fish between the two of us.  The retrieve was, cast it out anywhere it happens to land, and reel in the fish!  It was extremely hard to leave that awesome fishing.

[IndianaFinesse]

1 hour ago, Josh Smith said:

 

Oops, I didn't mean to quote Cole Richards in the above post.  I meant to quote Josh Smith.

[OddChase]

15 hours ago, Josh Smith said:

Is there a place where it'd be guaranteed that I'd catch crappie from the bank?  My boy love's to fish for 'em and I'd like to take him out crappie fishing sometime.

Josh

Nothing in life, especially fishing, can be guaranteed. However, you'll have great luck fishing some shallow flats in the coming weeks as the crappie begin spawning. Look for places where weeds or grass are coming up out of the water and have a hard/small rocky bottom. I was fishing in a small river/creek where the water was much warmer than the main lake. 

[IndianaFinesse]

16 hours ago, OddChase said:

Went out Saturday afternoon and slayed the crappie.. Limited out with my father in about 40 minutes. None of the fish were under 9 inches. Managed to catch a 2 lb bass using a *** Swim Bento. Also managed to catch a cat on the artificial.  

If you don't mind me asking, where were you fishing?

[OddChase]

3 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

If you don't mind me asking, where were you fishing?

Upper end of Brookeville. It's known for the white bass run but the crappie are usually first.