Dogwood lake

Dogwood lake Glendale, In. is now open horsepower with ALL boats on a 10 mph speed limit for the entire lake.
They also for some reason I think was silly they took all the marker bouys out of the stumps heading to the east end.
Jim

That's a good idea to just limit the speed and not the motor Horsepower on the lakes in INDIANA. I hope they continue to do this with other Indiana Lakes like Hoveys and Turtle Creek.

[QUOTE=Moveon;449329]That's a good idea to just limit the speed and not the motor Horsepower on the lakes in INDIANA. I hope they continue to do this with other Indiana Lakes like Hoveys and Turtle Creek.[/QUOTE]

Is it REALLY 10 mph now, and did they REALLY remove the marker bouys.......

I find both to be hard to believe. If it is true though, that is GREAT for the 10 mph rule and horrible about the bouys :) :)

I will DEFINITELY call them in the morning to confirm, and post here.

Thanks,

Geo

The lady at Glendale said it also included Hovey, and Merom has been open horsepower for a couple years.
812 644 7711 is Glendale phone no.

Wow! That's great news. I have been wanting to fish hovey lake for years now but my boat motor is too big at 35HP and that put me off. I hear that Hovey's had the biggest and fastest growing Crappie in the entire State of IN. Check the INDR Fishery Biologist Research Reports to confirm my statment about the growth rates of the Hovey Crappie. I also read that there are Threadfin shad in the Ohio River and also in Hovey's. If that's true then that would explain why the crappie grow faster in Hovey than anywhere else. I don't know of any other lake or river system in IN that has a population of Threadfin Shad. Threadfin shad spawn more often each year and are smaller in size than Gizzard Shad. The adult threadfin shad can easily be eaten by a 4 year old 9" long crappie and thus can produce faster growth rates for the crappie.

Thank you Mark Reiter (IDNR F&W Dept Chief) for giving us our water's back. Your the best man!

PS: for years now I have been wishing that the IDNR would do this and it's finally come to happen. I was so glad that the property manager at Sugar Ridge F&W area decided to allow big motors on Bluegrass F&W's big pits and that worked out great. I was so afraid that some guys would abuse the rules on the no wake speed limit and get IDNR to retract these new rules. But everyone behaved for the most part and they are now extending the rules to more of the smaller lakes in IN. That's great news for the fisherman and even the duck hunters. Duck hunters fish too, and they use their boats for both hunting and fishing.


[QUOTE=BASSENATOR;449343]The lady at Glendale said it also included Hovey, and Merom has been open horsepower for a couple years.
812 644 7711 is Glendale phone no.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Moveon;449349]Wow! That's great news. I have been wanting to fish hovey lake for years now but my boat motor is too big at 35HP and that put me off. I hear that Hovey's had the biggest and fastest growing Crappie in the entire State of IN. Check the INDR Fishery Biologist Research Reports to confirm my statment about the growth rates of the Hovey Crappie. I also read that there are Threadfin shad in the Ohio River and also in Hovey's. If that's true then that would explain why the crappie grow faster in Hovey than anywhere else. I don't know of any other lake or river system in IN that has a population of Threadfin Shad. Threadfin shad spawn more often each year and are smaller in size than Gizzard Shad. The adult threadfin shad can easily be eaten by a 4 year old 9" long crappie and thus can produce faster growth rates for the crappie.

Thank you Mark Reiter (IDNR F&W Dept Chief) for giving us our water's back. Your the best man!

PS: for years now I have been wishing that the IDNR would do this and it's finally come to happen. I was so glad that the property manager at Sugar Ridge F&W area decided to allow big motors on Bluegrass F&W's big pits and that worked out great. I was so afraid that some guys would abuse the rules on the no wake speed limit and get IDNR to retract these new rules. But everyone behaved for the most part and they are now extending the rules to more of the smaller lakes in IN. That's great news for the fisherman and even the duck hunters. Duck hunters fish too, and they use their boats for both hunting and fishing.[/QUOTE]


I know it isn't popular to say on Indiana fishing sites BUT This administration has been the best thing that ever happened to the Hoosier outdoors person.

Yea........NO HP limit, and NO markers.

The marker issue is a liability issue from what I was told. No need to worry though, the channel will be outlined next year with pretty glass BASS BOATS.

I can tell you this.............BE CAREFUL.

Later,

Geo

I guess that is one way to enforce the speed limit . . .

I emailed them a question about the horsepower limit on our lakes this winter and asked them why they couldn't manage it like bluegrass and this was their response


Mr. Paul,



You have raised a very interesting question. I'm afraid I don't know why the 9.9 hp restriction was placed on some of the lakes located on Fish and Wildlife properties. I have spoken with several people, some in the Division of Water and others in the Division of Fish and Wildlife to determine why these lakes are regulated in this manner. Evidently this decision was made prior to most of us holding the positions we have now.



That being said, we are looking at changing this restriction to a more appropriate method of controlling the boat traffic.There is discussion underway now that I believe will correct this issue and allow more sportsmen to enjoy these lakes.



I would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention, keeping regulations current in a continuing process and sometimes issues like this may fall through the cracks. Thanks again,



Major Felix Hensley

Support Services Commander

Boating Law Administrator

Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources

Law Enforcement Division

317-233-3847

[email][email protected][/email]

Thank you Mr. Paul. Sometimes a well placed letter does wonders.

The only good thing about this is I can start my 70 h.p. to get the boat on the trailer.

Exactly. Now the only problem with doing that is that people power load the last few feet instead of getting up to the front of the boat and hooking up the winch rope to the boat's bow and cranking the boat up the last few inches.

Instead they sit there with the big 250HP engine and power load up the last few feet while digging a big hole in the dirt at the end of the launch ramp.

This is the main reason why they restricted the motor size on boat engines on these small lakes.

What needs to be done is to lower the water levels enough that they can pour concrete deep enough into the water to prevent holes from being formed in the lake bottom at the end of the ramp. That's can't be done in all the lakes of IN as most are not flood control lakes like Patoka Lake.

At Bluegrass Pit I have broken an boat trailer axle and also have a wheel fall apart after I backed the trailer down the ramp too far and the wheels went into the big hole at the end of that concrete ramp. The concrete ramp does not extend far enough into the water so that there is enough concrete for the boat trailer to stay on when the water level is really low.

It's fine if the water levels is up. But in the fall of the year after a long drought the water levels fall way too low for the good safe use of those launch ramps.

I watched them pour the concrete at the Ramps in the Bluegrass F&W area. They would pour the slab on dry land using a form and then pushed the slab of concrete into the water with a bulldozer or something. I just saw the concrete slabs sitting on the dry land before they pushed them into the water. I am not sure how they really got them into place.

I have seen them fill up the hole at the end of the launch ramps with gravel. They use a trailer with a shovel on the back of the trailer to push the gravel down the ramp and into the holes. The blade can be raised up and lowered back down into position for using it. It's raised up for travel. Nice setup that they use to try to solve the problem

The only problem is that after they fill in the holes it doesn't take long for the big motors to wash the gravel out of the hole again and then your are back to having a big hole at the end of the launch ramp concrete.

So now you know the rest of the story.:)

PS: Some boat trailers are easier to load up the boat on than others. I can easily drive my boat up onto my trailer in one motion without having to stop until the front of my boat hits the wooden stop. So I don't have to power load most of the time. But at times I too have to back off the trailer and try it again. And if the water is too low to get the trailer all the way into the water then I too have to power load the boat up on the trailer. The trailer needs to sit lower in the water to prevent this from happening in MY CASE. Either that or I need smaller trailer tires! :eek: LOL

PSS: bottom line is that I am happy with the new IDNR policy and hope they extend it to other lakes in IN. We can all help by trying to avoid power loading and digging the holes at the end of the concrete as much as possible. I'd hate to have to go back to only using my trolling motor to launch and recover my boat.


[QUOTE=slipbobber;449415]The only good thing about this is I can start my 70 h.p. to get the boat on the trailer.[/QUOTE]