indiana is awful! where do you rate it?

[shaner]

I have fished in Minnesota, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan and my home state of Indiana. I spend most of my "outdoors" money in Indiana but i don't really see any improvement to quality of my outdoor experience. I think i would probably rate Kentucky as 1 and Indiana dead last at 5!!!
Where have you been and where do you rate Indiana. 1 being BEST.

[djbm88]

over the years I have fished Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, FLorida, Ohio and good old Indiana. I think Tennessee would be number one on my list with Ky 2nd. There is no doubt who is last on my list...INDIANA. They continue to raise fees year after year and very little of it goes back into improvments or better management.

[raporter]

While we don't have the number of really good places like Ky and Tenn we do have some excellent fishing if you know where to find it. It may not be popular to say so but Our man Mitch has done more for the sportsman than any of the previous administrations. Before he was elected some of the ramps on Patoka were not being serviced and there was talk of closing several. We now have handicap fishing areas, all ramps are open and we have new docks that were badly needed. We must not be to bad as I see several Ky, Illinois and Ohio boats on our lakes.

[Moose1am]

Patoka Lake is very nice but it's somewhat crowded on the weekends. I rate Patoka Lake right up there next to KY and Barkley Lakes. I would rate it 3rd while KY lake would be Number 1 and Barkley Lake number 2 on my fishing lakes list.

I have fished up in Ontario Canada at Eagle Lake and that was a great fishing lake. We use to drive up to Ontario to fish for a few weeks at a time.

Indiana is too industrialized to really have good fishing like KY which is more rural in nature.]

I think that IN is more developed with a larger human population.

One resource we both have in the Ohio River. Since the USEPA was formed in the 1970's the amount of raw sewage dumped into the Ohio River has declined to some extent.

The Ohio appears to have less of some pollutants than in the past and some fish are making a comeback in the River. I still don't advice eating any fish caught from the Ohio River as there are many other chemicals (organics) that are in the water that were not there 100 years ago.

I read about other folks in IN fishing the White River and some other rivers in IN for small mouth bass. Now SM Bass must have good water quality to survive so that's a good sign.

While we don't have the number of really good places like Ky and Tenn we do have some excellent fishing if you know where to find it. It may not be popular to say so but Our man Mitch has done more for the sportsman than any of the previous administrations. Before he was elected some of the ramps on Patoka were not being serviced and there was talk of closing several. We now have handicap fishing areas, all ramps are open and we have new docks that were badly needed. We must not be to bad as I see several Ky, Illinois and Ohio boats on our lakes.

[TR21Bassin]

I've fished several states in my life and no matter how long the list Indiana would be at the bottom. I live in Indiana and probably fish less than 10 times a year here. I would rather drive and spend the money on gas and fish some good fisheries.

Besides I've already paid taxes on my boat and registration in Indiana. Why should I have to buy another boating permit to fish state lakes. Haven't in 3 years and never plan to.

I guess it sums it up when you live 45 minutes from Patoka but would much rather driver 2.5 hours to Barkley or Ky.

Charlie

[wkerber]

I grew up there fishing the Eel river and Wabash river in Cass County. Thirty years ago those 2 rivers were great fisheries, especially for smallmouth. Then farm land went up in price and the farmers started plowing right up to the creeks that feed these rivers. Any rain turns the water to chocolate milk due to a lack of watershed. Most years are poor spawns due to water quality and the weed beds are almost gone as well. Use to turn over a large flat rock in a riffle and get 30+ crayfish and 2 or 3 hellgramites, now you might get a crayfish or 2. Sad to go from what was probably number 2 or 3 with regards to river fishing to dead last. And, I do mean dead.

[olducker]

I guess it sums it up when you live 45 minutes from Patoka but would much rather driver 2.5 hours to Barkley or Ky.

Charlie

I'm with you just 1.5 hours to Barkley or KY FOR ME

Kentucky # 2 Tennessee #3 FLorida #1 Indiana #5 That's all I Fish eH

[Jim_H]

wkerber, were you a conservation officer? I also fished the Eel and Wabash as a kid and still do once in awhile, and I remember a conservation officer name Kerber, just curious.

[slowride]

Indiana has no water compared to the other states, it *****! We should dam up the white river and make a 60k acre lake...........

[MikeAxsom]

This discussion is of particular interest to me from a resource management professional perspective. For those here who may not know me, I work in a county management agency that receives no revenue from the state. But many of the issues are the same no matter who is running things.

One such constant seems to be a direct correlation between user satisfaction and fee levels in many minds. While I agree that fees should not be excessive, and that fees for recreation resource use should never be used to fund any other public services; I have to wonder about a few of the comments I read here and some I hear in the field.

Can anyone here state what IS the correct price for license/boating/launch fees? And if the fees were lower would that make up for what you feel to be poor service and insufficient opportunity? I don’t mean that to be a smart aleck question either. I would like to hear exactly how tight is the connection between cost and value perceptions in these types of discussions.

Conversely, if an agency, state or local, were to develop a plan to drastically improve management of a fishery, build new facilities and increase overall production and service, would you recommend that fees be raised then to cover the real and actual cost of all that?

One of the common complaints we get where I work, at West Boggs, is also about fees. But we are often taken to task because some of our fees are higher than the state’s, and or that state permits are not accepted here. When we try to explain that we do not accept state passes because the state does not share that money with us, many people actually seem to think we are ripping them off like they were lied to when they bought the state pass.

Another thing we see often is that some of the loudest and rude complaints about fees come from people who obviously spend a lot of money on boats, trucks and RVs. It is not unusual to have a person in a $40K truck pulling a $50K boat spend ten minutes raising sand and berating a gate attendant that does not make any rules about having to pay a $5 launch fee when they already have a state permit. We hear about how stupid the governor and all the legislature are, how crooked IDNR is and how bad fishing is all over this state.
Then one of the next few vehicles in will be a young family in a 10 year old car blowing oil and with kids hanging out all the windows. Sometimes those folks are counting quarters to get the entry fee, but they are almost always happy and think a day fishing for $5 for the family is a great deal.

Anyone here know why that is?

[Tobias]

I understand exactly where your coming from Mike. My thoughts are this...............the Indiana waters just don't match up to KY,TN, and others. Most (reasonable) people can understand the fees......but have a probblem w/ the quality of water, facilities,and overall experiences we get here in IN. You have a great place down there where your at Mike, but it's one of the very few in this state.

The post that really got me was the one that said Patoka is as good of fishin as KY and Barkley. Patoka is the best "big lake" fishin in this state but doesn't remotely hold a candle to the KY lakes.

[bassmanic1]

The fishing in Indiana is what you make of it . A lot of guys dont have the funds to pay for a trip down south and the out-of-state lis. fee's . Personaly I fish a lot of strip pits in southern IN which is fairly loaded with them . Most have towns close by for gas & bait . Greene Sullivan , Minnehaha , and all the 1000's of unnamed pits across the state . Dogwood , West Boggs , Brookville all have good fishing and you dont need a 20' Ranger to fish them . Hovey Lake used to be known all over the mid-west for crappie fishing but Ducks Unlimited and the DNR took care of that . The Ohio river gives up massive catches of monster catfish and Cabelas held a catfish tourny there not long ago . All in all I wouldnt call IN fishing "awful" . I think EVERYBODY is a bit grumpy due to the price of gas , which I believe is the government is behind to stop global warming .