Patoka 80's and 90's

[redearhoosier]

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.

[Moveon]

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?

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.

[GeoFisher]

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?

O'bannon RAPED the DNR, funneling money to other stuff.

Indiana has not recovered since.

Later,

Geo

[Moveon]

And what proof do you have of that? The Legislature is who decided where the money goes. They have to approve the budget.

I'm not sure what O'Bannon did with DNR but I'd rather get my information about what he did from some one more reliable.

O'bannon RAPED the DNR, funneling money to other stuff.

Indiana has not recovered since.

Later,

Geo

[GeoFisher]

And what proof do you have of that? The Legislature is who decided where the money goes. They have to approve the budget.

I'm not sure what O'Bannon did with DNR but I'd rather get my information about what he did from some one more reliable.

Of course you're not too sure what O'Bannon did because you're too busy slathering it all over Obama to understand just what has happened.

Here is a story for ya.

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/sta....html?mode=jqm

And another

http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/200...hallenges.html

And Another.

http://www.wibc.com/blogs/state-budg...asures-camping

Obannon was NOT a friend of hunters, campers and fisherman, yet we named a freakin STATE PARK after the dead sum bitch.

For someone who's always spouting off about how smart you are......you'd think you were smart enough to use google.

I guess not.

AND you need to understand, the cuts were PERMANENT cuts to the budget for Fish and Wildlife.

Later,

Geo

[raporter]

Of course you're not too sure what O'Bannon did because you're too busy slathering it all over Obama to understand just what has happened.

Here is a story for ya.

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/sta....html?mode=jqm

And another

http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/200...hallenges.html

And Another.

http://www.wibc.com/blogs/state-budg...asures-camping

Obannon was NOT a friend of hunters, campers and fisherman, yet we named a freakin STATE PARK after the dead sum bitch.

For someone who's always spouting off about how smart you are......you'd think you were smart enough to use google.

I guess not.

AND you need to understand, the cuts were PERMANENT cuts to the budget for Fish and Wildlife.

Later,

Geo

Ray Charles could have seen how bad he treated the outdoors person.

[Moveon]

Ray Charles could have seen how bad he treated the outdoors person.

You guys are beating a red herring
Our Governor is a Republican today and I could care less what happed twenty years ago.

What did your GOP past two Governors do to help the IDNR F&W get funding? NOTHING.

I spoke personally with the IDNR F&W director years ago before he was the Director and he told me then that they didn't have the funding. He still doesn't have the funding today. The F&W division at IDNR is not a high priority of either party in IN. They are more concerned with funding their friends than improving our lakes and Rivers for fishermen.

And to blame the guys who work there for a living for trying to make due without the funding is NUTS. If you want to blame anyone for lack of funding for hunters and fisherman in IN then blame those in real power. The GOP Governor now and the GOP Governor Mitch who was there for 8 years. Long after O'Bannon was gone.

What did your guys do to get the matching funds so that IN IDNR F&W could get their hands on the 25 million extra federal dollars? Nothing much. Nothing that made the main stream media down here in Southern IN.

[Moveon]

You are so hung up on Obama this and Oboma that that you can't even see straight anymore George. Get over it he won two elections in a row and beat the pants of your guy TWICE! Grow up and stop gripping about Obama

You turn everything into a political mess in here.

BTW: O'Bannon and Obama are two different people just in case you didn't know that!

I know for a fact that the Federal Government could give IN IDNR another 25 million dollars if the State Legislature would appropriate the matching funding. But the Current Governor has not requested those matching funs from the GOP controlled House or Senate in the IN legislature. That speaks volumes that they just don't care about our hunting and fishing opportunities.

You are the one in here that brags about how much you know and how smart you are. But that would make you a Democrat if you were that smart!

You need to learn how to make your links work in here as I'm not going to copy and paste the BS Blog sites run by god only knows in here. If you were smart you would have already known that I don't read have the stuff you post in here. It's not true half the time and the other half the time it's not worth reading.

BTW the guy in charge of IDNR F&W is most likely a republican. He use to be a very good friend of mine and I could find out more about IDNR budget in one afternoon phone call than you would ever find in all your stupid internet blogs.

I love the commercial where the guy thinks that EVERYTHING he reads on the internet is True. That's you George. That's you!

Of course you're not too sure what O'Bannon did because you're too busy slathering it all over Obama to understand just what has happened.

Here is a story for ya.

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/sta....html?mode=jqm

And another

http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/200...hallenges.html

And Another.

http://www.wibc.com/blogs/state-budg...asures-camping

Obannon was NOT a friend of hunters, campers and fisherman, yet we named a freakin STATE PARK after the dead sum bitch.

For someone who's always spouting off about how smart you are......you'd think you were smart enough to use google.

I guess not.

AND you need to understand, the cuts were PERMANENT cuts to the budget for Fish and Wildlife.

Later,

Geo

[GeoFisher]

And what proof do you have of that? The Legislature is who decided where the money goes. They have to approve the budget.

I'm not sure what O'Bannon did with DNR but I'd rather get my information about what he did from some one more reliable.

And guess what. I found another article about how OBannon left out the matching funds from his 1999 budget that is USED to purchase parks like your beloved Bluegrass..........

http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorize...faa6cdd9a.html

[TommyBass]

Gizzard Shad can hurt an ecosystem, but not that much. There are lakes all over with excellent bass fishing and huge populations of gizzards. They are stupid for draining Boggs, the bass fishing there was amazing. Waveland has good tournament weights right now too, and its been plagued by Gizzards. I live near lake Sullivan and the bass fishing in it has never been better. Millions of gizzards all over it, millions of crappie too. This year the bluegill were even big. Sullivan has been putting out great weights, and you can catch 20 lbs practice fishing when there aren't 100 boats out there.

These lakes I mentioned are also very small compared to lakes like Patoka, and not even a cove on lakes like KY. Their ecosystems are extremely fragile and easily influenced, and they are getting along fine with Gizzards. IF you want great sized bluegill, then no, they probably are not the best for the lake, but that's about it. There are TONS of little crappie in Patoka, which are just fine as a food source to bass, as well as the many little bluegill etc. Each year those shad spawn it gives millions if not billions of tiny little fishys for the bass to eat. And being that Indiana isn't an all year growing season for fish, it takes several years for a Gizzard to get to the size that not many fish will eat it. There is always a class of gizzard shad that bass can feed on.

I don't know what Patoka's problem is, I think a lot of it is pressure. There are a TON of good sized bass in there but they are hard to catch, and no, the small fish do not seem to be very numerous.

[GeoFisher]

Gizzard Shad can hurt an ecosystem, but not that much. There are lakes all over with excellent bass fishing and huge populations of gizzards. They are stupid for draining Boggs, the bass fishing there was amazing. Waveland has good tournament weights right now too, and its been plagued by Gizzards. I live near lake Sullivan and the bass fishing in it has never been better. Millions of gizzards all over it, millions of crappie too. This year the bluegill were even big. Sullivan has been putting out great weights, and you can catch 20 lbs practice fishing when there aren't 100 boats out there.

These lakes I mentioned are also very small compared to lakes like Patoka, and not even a cove on lakes like KY. Their ecosystems are extremely fragile and easily influenced, and they are getting along fine with Gizzards. IF you want great sized bluegill, then no, they probably are not the best for the lake, but that's about it. There are TONS of little crappie in Patoka, which are just fine as a food source to bass, as well as the many little bluegill etc. Each year those shad spawn it gives millions if not billions of tiny little fishys for the bass to eat. And being that Indiana isn't an all year growing season for fish, it takes several years for a Gizzard to get to the size that not many fish will eat it. There is always a class of gizzard shad that bass can feed on.

I don't know what Patoka's problem is, I think a lot of it is pressure. There are a TON of good sized bass in there but they are hard to catch, and no, the small fish do not seem to be very numerous.

Spoken like someone who will be putting gizzard shad back into Boggs.

I'm sorry, but Boggs has gone to hell in a hand basket over what it used to be.........

Later,

Geo

[nitro929]

When bass are babies they
eat what shad eat plankton. Shad over compete with the bass bluegill crappie fry. So you have a high death rate in your classes of fish or they are stunned. Southern Indiana's winters do not usually cause a very high rate in shad kills so the DNR stock lakes with a high population of shad with walleyes stripers and hybrids to help control the population . so I have been told I am no biologist.