Monroe Trip

Wow, did we have fun. I can't get over what a beautiful lake Monroe is. We fished our butts off. There were four of us on a fishing pontoon. I lost count of how many dozen minnows we went though.
We probably caught 150-200 fish. Most were too small to keep but alot were almost keepers. My buddy caught a 15 1/2 inch white crappie. Didn't have a decent scale but it was a hog. One of the youngens caught a 26 inch yellow catfish on a crappie rig. That was worth the price of admission.
We probably didn't catch 10 fish on artificial. Tried everything, fished it every way.
We fished the north side of the lake for a day and a half and fished ramp creek area the second day.

What's up with the two biggest lake in the state of Indiana having so many small fish to cull through before you find some keepers? Although a 15 inch Crappie is surely a hog in my book, you shouldn't have to catch 25 dinks for every keeper...fishing gets expensive.

I've heard from lots of people on this forum that they continually have to cull the crappie at Patoka and Monroe. Seems like these lakes need better management for panfish.

[QUOTE=redearhoosier;411522]What's up with the two biggest lake in the state of Indiana having so many small fish to cull through before you find some keepers? Although a 15 inch Crappie is surely a hog in my book, you shouldn't have to catch 25 dinks for every keeper...fishing gets expensive.

I've heard from lots of people on this forum that they continually have to cull the crappie at Patoka and Monroe. Seems like these lakes need better management for panfish.[/QUOTE]

what we need is for everyone to not keep "a mess" when they go out. Our two biggest lakes are tiny compared to lakes in other states. You can only take "a mess" for so long before you've ate them all.

BTW, congrats Ron! Glad you guys had a good time.

[QUOTE=idbefishing;411525]what we need is for everyone to not keep "a mess" when they go out. Our two biggest lakes are tiny compared to lakes in other states. You can only take "a mess" for so long before you've ate them all.

BTW, congrats Ron! Glad you guys had a good time.[/QUOTE]

Well it's hard to ask people not to keep their fish, after all, that's why most people go for crappie/bluegill. Those two lakes are PLENTY big enough to withstand the pressure, it's a management/shad problem IMO.

[QUOTE=redearhoosier;411532]Well it's hard to ask people not to keep their fish, after all, that's why most people go for crappie/bluegill. Those two lakes are PLENTY big enough to withstand the pressure, it's a management/shad problem IMO.[/QUOTE]

Yeah it's a management problem alright, no limit on panfish.

[QUOTE=idbefishing;411551]Yeah it's a management problem alright, no limit on panfish.[/QUOTE]
i could care less to catch them, but there should be a size limit and a keeping limit period. i see people keeping stuff way too small to even get a piece of meat off of all the time

you guys catch any walleye?? I heard there are some nice ones in Monroe

no walleye but I can't say we ever fished for them. Caught 1 small striper, 3 cats. All on minnows. Threw tons of different color road runners, nothead jigs etc. Almost no luck on them.