Please read this about Gizzard Shad.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_gizzard_shad[/url]
Gizzard shad are filter feeders and don't eat other fish or everything in sight. And I don't think that they spawn ever month during a full moon. They are prolific at spawning but I think someone is exaggerating above.
They eat the plankton and zoo plankton floating and swimming in the open waters of the lake and therefore make it harder for other fish to have enough to eat. Which is probably why the bluegill's size has decreased at Patoka Lake.
Gizzard Shad of a smaller size are eaten by larger bass but the smaller bass can't eat the larger Gizzard Shad. So they really don't help feed the entire bass population. Just a very small portion of Bass over 5 lbs are big enough to eat the larger Gizzard Shad.
Fishing Pressure at Patoka is too much.
[QUOTE=EricSnow;535064]The introduction of gizzard shad has nothing to do with the "decline" of patoka. Just look at all the lakes in Kentucky with Gizzard shad and are great fisheries. The fishing pressure and the fact the IDNR couldn't manage a mud puddle is why Patoka *****. They should drain it and make it a land fill.[/QUOTE]
The fishing pressure at Patoka Lake has been way too much ever since it opened. It's not that big and it's fished to death. When I first went fishing up there at Paotka Lake I could not find a bay without 2 or 3 other boats fishing there before I arrived.
One thing too remember is that Patoka Lake is more like a High Land Type Lake (See In-Fisherman Lake Definitions) where as KY lake is more like a Lowland Type Lake.
Patoka Lake is much clearer that KY lake for the most part. Especially on the main lake. Patoka Lake was very clear when it first opened and I went to fish it back in 1978.
It's harder to fish a clean clear lake if you are not used to fishing this type of lake.
I use to bass fish all the time and switched to crappie fishing back around 2003 to see if I could seek out the paper mouths exclusively. I've been chasing crappie ever since. I can tell you that Patoka Lake has some nice Slab Crappie but it's also full of little White and Black Crappie too. You have to wade though a lot of smaller crappie to get to the slabs.
Takes money from the Legislature to manage fish
I'n not sure that the manage practices are any different from other states. They all go to the same type of Universities and study Fishery Biology the same way.
But the budget is set by the State Legislature and the Governor and the IDNR Fish and Wildlife Division can only do so much with a limited budget.
If you want more lakes and parks then write to your state senators and state representative and tell them to fund the IDNR with more money.
I'd love to see the Ohio River damned up to make a big lake like KY lake. But then a lot of people would be flooded out. Same would happen if we built more dams across the other rivers in IN.
I'm lucky in that I live right next to the Ohio River and have other smaller lakes that I can fish. The IDNR purchased land (2500 acres) from the coal company when they finished mining in this area and there are over 600 acres of water to fish in this new Fish and Wildlife Area. There are 28 different lakes to fish. And they have stocked them with bass, catfish, Muskie, and lots of pan fish to catch. I can catch lots of nice sized crappie in a few of these lakes if I troll crank baits down deep. The fish are there one just needs to learn how to catch them in the summer heat. I can also catch them by vertical jigging and moving very slowly (less than .5 mph) around drop off with cover of some type on them. The fish are in the lake. I know guys that routinely catch 3 or 4 bass over 18" long on each trip. Now of course there are days when the fish don't bite. But there are a lot of big bass being caught in these pits. It's catch and release for fish under 18" in length in the two largest pits. But all the other smaller pits have a regular 14" size limit and five fish limit.
I drive out there every day of the week and can find 6 to 25 boat trailers parked in the parking lot at various times of the day. Not everyone is driving down to KY to fish.
With that said above I still agree with you that KY has a lot better fishery. I wish we had KY Lake and Lake Barkley here in IN. All we have is Patoka and Monroe Lakes and they are both too small compared to the lakes in KY.
I've driven down to KY lake more than a few times in the past to access their fish.
BTW: who did you vote for to go to the State Legislature and what is their stance on increasing the fishing resources in IN?
[QUOTE=redearhoosier;535098]Patoka has the same problem all other lakes in Southern Ind. face....they're run on a shoe string budget and apparently suffer from mediocre management practices. I'm tickled I started driving to LBL, that's what world class fishing is supposed to look like!!
Southern Indiana in particular should be managed for top end bluegill/shellcracker/crappie fishing but none of the lakes can claim this. It starts with a lack of vision and funding, it then trickles down to the lousy management practices Indiana seems to cherish.
Indiana won't spend the money to build bigger lakes either, Ky free wheels it with their fisheries and they now claim world class waters not just for bass, but crappie, shellcracker and catfish.[/QUOTE]
