camping near hovey

[catfishjason]

hey,

i am looking to head to hovey in early spring, i was wondering if anybody had some information on camping near the lake, public or private. any information would be helpful.

jason

[bassmanic1]

Hey all ,
I have fished Hovey since 1983 and can state that the fishing was great until they corp built that @#@#$% dam on the drain . The crappie could move in and out of the Ohio . In the spring it was fairly easy to get a limit of crappie , and lots of gill when they spawned . In the last 5 years all I have caught there is 2 white bass , a few largemouth and 1-2 small crappie . The main fish in the lake now are those big-head/silver carp . Last year a 7 pounder jumped in the boat and landed in my 11 year old daughters lap - scared the pee out of her ! If you do go watch out for the carp , even a trolling motor makes them jump . Ive heard of guys welding rebar on their boats to keep em out and using trash can lids for shields . If Hovey lets you down try Deer Creek up past Cannelton Dam , it has some stumps and is connected to the Ohio so the crappie move in and out . Or Patoka Lake which is getting better for specks . Good luck .
Tight Lines

[Moose1am]

Thanks for the warning about those big carp or should I say flying fish. Those things are scary beasts. I wonder how many water skiers on the Ohio River have been hit by them so far? :)

It's a shame that someone has not blown up that **** **** in the drain at hoveys. I am sure that many a crappie fishermen have dreamed of doing just that.

I have never fished Hovey's lake. I have heard and read a great deal about it over the years. I know people that fish it and use to kill the crappie in the drain.

I use to duck hunt at Hoveys and my buddies still hunt there.

Have any of you guys ever fished for crappie in the Little Pigeon Creek where it emties into the Ohio River by Yankeetown?

That creek is full of stumps along the bank at the launch site and looks very fish. I would bet that some crappie will swim up tthat creek to get out of the river's current and to find spawning grounds in the spring.

Regards,

Moose1am

[auric]

Hovey used to have a primitive camping area, apparently not any more. Your closest bet might be Harmonie State Park, just south of New Harmony.

[HoosierDon]

Jason, I just talked to the Posey County Sheriff's office and they tell me that there are some primative campsites at Hovey. If you want anything more than that the closest is Harmonie State Park just South of New Harmony which would be about 20 miles from the lake. Hope this helps.

Don

[catfishjason]

hey,

thanks for the info, i thought hovey did have primitive sites, but thought they had been closed. i will check further because it will be a 4 hour trip for me and i do not want to get all the way down there and not be able to find a place to stay. any information about the fishing would be greatly appreciated. preferable crappie when they start biting in the spring and what to use. thanks

jason

[Moose1am]

Hovey Lake has the State's Fastest growing Crappie population according to Dan Carnahan (Indiana State Fishery Biologist for district 7 or 8)

Hovey's is closed to fishing until the duck and goose hunting season is over which is sometime around the end of Feb. March and April are the prime times to fish for crappie at Hoveys from what I read. The bank along by the launch ramp and the ranger station is said to hold some spawning crappie. Also the Drain area is hot in early spring. The drain was closed a few years back by a concrete **** of some kind and everyone really complained about that. The river has to get up high before water can enter or leave the drain area and go over the top of this new structure.

I have heard that at times you can drive or hike to the drain area on foot. I have never fished the drain but it's history is told by all the old crappie fishing oldtimers. Every years in the past Steve Ford or one of the other Evansville Courier Sports Writers wrote about someone fishing the drain and catching huge crappies in the spring time.

Last I heard the shut down the camping at Hoveys. You might call the Hovey Station and ask before you plan on camping at Hoveys.

I think that someone mentioned the camp ground at Harmony Park which is a very nice camp ground with electric and water at each site. I camped there in the past and recommned it as a good camp ground.

There is a small camp ground just West of Evansville, IN on HWY 62 which leads to Mt Vernon. I think it's called Rocky Camp ground or something like that.

There is a motel on the West Side of Evansville that is really nice also. From Evansville it's about 20 to 30 minute to the Hovey Lake Launch Site.

You do know that Hovey Lake has a 10 hp motor size limit. That is why I don't fish hovey lake. My boat has a larger motor than 10hp. Sometimes I wish I only had a 10hp motor on my boat because I really really want to fish Hoveys.

I have also heard that straight across from the launch ramp at the edge of the cypress trees is a good spot but I have never fished there and confirmed that story. I learned of this area from a guy that works at the Walmart in Boonville IN who told me that he use to fish Hoveys and did good there.

I would think that the fishing at Hovey would depend a lot on the Ohio River Levels. If the River is at flood stage the water inside Hoveys is going to be muddy probably and hard to fish.

I would also check with the Mt Vernon Chamber of commerce or their tourisms people to see if they know of any nice motels in Mt Vernon or any campgrounds that I am not aware of. I think that the camp ground at Harmony Park is your best best in the spring time.

Regards,

Moose1am

[mperry]

I have been wanting to fish Hovey for a long time. I am not able to find it on a map. Is it easy to get to or could someone give me directions. Also Moose you said there was a 10 horse limit. Can you still put a big boat on and just use the trolling motor. I have read a lot of articles about Hovey and it is supposed to have very nice crappie. If I can get directions I will probably try it this spring.
Thanks
MPERRY

[Moose1am]

Where you coming from? You can get off I-64 at the Evansville I-164 Exit and then go south to Evansville until you reach the Lloyd Expressway. Take the Lloyd West to Mt Vernon, IN. Look for Hwy 69 South and take it all the way to Hovey Lake. The lake will be on your left as you are going south on Hwy 69.

Basically you take the highway 69 South out of Mt Vernon, IN and it takes you straight to Hovey Lake.

I fish BlueGrass Fish and Wildlife Area's Pits which the largest is a little over 200 acres. It takes a while to get from one end of Loon Pit to the other. It's almost a mile long. I use the Blue Top Optima Deep Cycle battery on my Minn-Kota All Terrain 50 lb thrust trolling motor. I can fish the Blue grass pits all day long if the winds are light. If the winds get up over 10 to 15mph it can be a bear to go against the wind.

I wish I could get the State DNR to get rid of the 10HP limit on some of Indiana's smaller lakes like Hovey, Turtle Creek and Dogwood. It would be nice to use my 35 HP motor on those small lakes and go at a slow speed. I did talk to the woman (secretary) at Hoveys a few years ago about this rule and she said it was to help protect the lauch ramp. Evidently the very end of the concrete is mud or soil under the water and it gets washed away when big motors are used to push the bigger boats up onto the trailer. Not sure why they can't just put some 6" diameter or 12" diameter rip rap rock at the interface to the concrete and the soil. That would prevent the soil from being washed away maybe. That seemed to be her biggest complaint about the bigger motors at Hovey Lake. Hovey's is basically a shallow dispan lake from what I have read. I have not been on this lake with my depth finder but maybe someday I should. I do know some guys that are pretty high up in the Wildlife Division but I have not talked to them about this issue. Maybe if we were to get enough guys to ask for a change in this policy we might be able to get something done in this regard. I am sure that the DNR has their reasons for this limit even though I wish they would get rid of it myself.

Larry is right about the Cypress Trees. Hovey Lake is full of these Cypress Trees. You can see them from the launch ramp about 1/4 mile out across the main lake. The lake use to be only a few hundred acres until the Corps built the Uniontown Lock and Dam. Now the water has been rasied and it flooded many of the old bottom land forest areas around the original Hovey lake which expanded the lakes size. The DNR map that I have shows the lake's original size and the surrounding areas as dry land but I don't think that is accurate. Fish Slough, Dry Lake and Rail Marsh areas may not be under water depending on the Ohio River Levels. Hovey is a very fertile lake as it's often flooded by the Ohio River Waters in the Winter Months. It's Right at the most southern tip of IN. If you go a few miles West you cross the Walbash River and are in IL. You cross the Ohio and your in KY. Can't get much further South than Hovey's Lake in INDIANA.

I should talk to my old next door neighbor as he hunts hoveys a lot. Heck he has been duck hunting at Hoveys with his brothers since we were both in College. He use to get me up at 3 am to go hunting with him. But that was a long long time ago and that was when the lake was smaller. We would row out to the duck blinds in a row boat before first light. Man that was a cold day sitting in that blind after working up a sweat rowing the boat out to the middle of the old lake. I use to walk around the Pirowque Slough area on dry land when we went goose hunting there. That was back in the early 1970's though.




Regards,

Moose1am

[Moose1am]

MPerry:

Yes you can launch a big boat and use the trolling motor only. But you will get into trouble if you fire up the gas engine to get the boat back on the trailer at the ramp.

The officials at hovey are really concerned about protecting the ramp. When one uses the big motor to get the boat back on the trailer it washes away the soil and rocks at the end of the ramp.

So get a very long rope and hope that there is not much wind. I also don't remember seeing any courtesy docks either. So if you pull the boat up on the shore or the concrete ramp hope you have some type of keel guard material on the bottom of your boat.
Regards,

Moose1am

[mperry]

I'll be coming from Scottsburg Indiana. I have heard and read a lot about Hovey lake. Been wanting to try there but was not for sure of the location. You said only a 10 horse limit. My boat has 130 horse Yamaha. Can I still put it in if I use the trolling motor and how hard will it be to launch and get back on the trailer. Don't know anything about this lake. Thanks for the info.
MPERRY

[Moose1am]

I last looked at the launch ramp at Hoveys last Year. It appeared to be at a steep enough angle but then I didn't launch my boat on it so I am only guessing from the looks of it. Not sure how long the concrete is or how far it goes out into the water.

I see guys launching large boats on Bluegrass's launch ramps and they don't appear to be as steep at Hovey's launch ramp.

If you have a good strong rope and it's twice as long as your boat trailer you should be able to launch the boat easy enough. Recoverying the boat without using the gas motor can be trickey depending on the wind and how your trailer is made. I have a hard time recovering my boat as it tend to hit my trailer lights if I don't get it guided in just right. I have broken one of my trailer light lenses already and they are not cheap to replace. But my lights site up high on some metal poles and I normally park the trailer so that the lights are sitting just above the water when I am recovering my boat.

You boat and trailer will be different so you may or may not be able to recover the boat easily with a long rope.

I unhook my boats safey chain and the rope that holds in on the trailer and then undo the transom tie downs. Then I connect a 50 to 60ft long 3/8 OD rope to two safey snaps. I hook one snap to the bow of my boat and the other to the wrench area of my trailer. You could maybe hook it to the very back of the trailer. I then back down the ramp until the trailer lights are just almost under water and stop quickly. The boat normally will float off the trailer and the momentum will carry it out into the lake and off the trailer. Sometimes I have to pull up a bit and back up again stopping quickly to get the boat to come off the trailer. But then again that is my boat and trailer. My boat had a hard time getting off the trailer sometimes. I don't have rollers and my trailer has 2x4x 12ft long board on edge that my boat sits ontop of. If you have rollers then your boat should come off easier. I also put one of those walk ramps on the front tougue of my trailer to help me walk out to recover my boat. They also make some long poles that have a special receptical to hold onto the boats saftey snaps. That way you can put the safety snap inside the holder on the end of the pole and use the extention pole to reach out and snap the snap onto the front of your boat. BPS sells these in their catalogs.

The launch ramp is located on the West Bank of the lake. So it's protected from any west winds and we very seldom get winds out of the East. Most of the time the wind comes from the SW here when a warm front comes in and out of the NW when a cold front comes though. If it's windy it makes recovering the boat a bit harder. But if it's too windy you may not want to launch anyway. Unless you have a really really powerful trolling motor. Hovey's is pretty much out in the open and along the Ohio River flood plain so it's pretty flat ground all around the area.


Regards,

Moose1am