Quality versus Quantity

[stripernut1]

I guess im fortunate to live on lake #1,#2 and #3. All i have to do is change tactics😎

[Moveon]

I guess im fortunate to live on lake #1,#2 and #3. All i have to do is change tactics

The lakes I fish are managed for trophy fish so any Large Mouth Black Bass (LMBB) under 18" long has to be returned to the water immediately after you catch it. And you can only keep LMBB that are 18" or over with a limit of two (2) fish.

But if you want to catch crappie or bluegills they are much more plentiful and that's what I fish for. I could fish for the trophy bass but I'd rather catch 25 9" to 12" crappie and have them for supper than to mount a trophy LMBB.

We also have Trophy Muskie that were stocked in two of the lakes I fish and that can migrate to the third lake. These fish have been stocked as fingerlings for several years now and some have grown to over 42" long. Not the largest Muskies in the world but they are much bigger than any other fish we catch down here beside the big catfish that also grow in these lakes.

Each of the three main lakes is hydrographically connected to the Ohio River though a couple of big creeks that feed into the Ohio River and at times of major flooding the fish can move from the Ohio River into these three old coal mined stripper pits.

The only down side is that the coal mining left the ground disturbed and the open pits were not filled back up totally and covered with 2 ft of top soil as it now required by the Surface Mine Reclamation Act of 1976. Jimmy Carter Signed that law into effect back when he was the President of the USA. So now the coal mines have to reclaim the land properly which cost them some money but it makes the land that they mined better for farming and other land uses. Before this law the miners left the open pits to fill in with rain water and they were an eye sore. Acid Mine leaking into the nearby area was common. They did plant some pine trees on some of the older abandoned stripper pits and those can be see at Sugar Ridge and other Indiana Fish and Wild life Areas near Sugar Ridge and Lynnville, IN.

Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area was mined by AMAX coal company and a lot of the 2,500 acres was either not mined or was reclaimed. But there are 26 pits still there filled with water. And some are 60 ft deep and about a mile long. These are the pits that I have been fishing for the last 10 years. They have milfoil and other exotic underwater plants that allow the fish fry to hide from larger predators so the fish reproduce well. The only problem with such a small lake is the lack of food. Here is where the Muskie help keep the smaller fish population down. Muskie can feed on the shad and all the other smaller fish that live in these waters. Muskie and gar coexist in these lakes as to the invasive species grass carp and big head carp which migrated into these pits from the Ohio River.

You might catch a big flat head catfish or a blue catfish using minnows while crappie fishing with a drop shot on a break line. Or you might catch a 2 lb. White Crappie in the same spot another time.

Unlike some old strip pits these pits have some shallow areas that fish can spawn in. The side of these pits doesn't just go straight down in the entire pit. Most pits have steep sides that drop off sharply after you get a few feet from the shoreline. There are areas in these pits where that happens but all three pits are shaped differently.

So you have a combination of all three types of lakes that Geo described above. And the good thing is that I'm only about 10 to 15 minutes away.

[zx150]

Depends. I like to do a little of each. Some times it's nice to get your string pulled a bunch in a day. Other times its nice to catch a hog.

[Bandit1]

Tournament - number 1
Fun fishing- number 2
If a kid is with me- number 3 all day. When Austin was younger, I looked for places such as these over anything else.

Jason