Bad News from Indiana

[bkehl]

First of all, that Bill in the General Assembly (H.B.1349) that deals with fenced Hunting (bad) and gives Veterans Lifetime License (good) is out of the House and is in the Senate Comittee ( Rules and Legislative Procedure)and has had it's first reading.

Secondly my friends to the south, if you fish or boat on lakes like Patoka and other state run lakes, you will need to purchase a $20.00 DNR Lake Permit! There are NO daily fees only the Annual Lake Permit. Rivers and Streams excluded.

It's their way of cost cutting, DNR claims that the cost of having someone at the Ramps to collect money is costing to much. The only ones I see working at those ramps (weekends only)are retirees and College kids working for minimun wage. This Permit must be on your boat, you can bet they will be watching!! Trust me, they love to write those tickets!!!
Sorry for this bad news.
BKehl

[opie13]

I don't guess that there will be to many of us from Kentucky that will be buying a license to fish in Indiana anymore. At least not to fish on the lakes.

[skeeter175]

So does that mean when our club fishes Brookville Lake in In. we will have to have a 20.00 permit in addition to the fishing license. We are mostly buckeyes and a few from Ky.

[HoosierDon]

Can't imagine why anyone from Ky would want to come to In to fish........

[Fishhead]

Its going to keep more of the pleasure boaters who only go out 2-3 times a year off the water there and put them on the river. I think T's with under 15 boats can still fish it, but 15 and over must get the permit.

I buy the yearly pass every year anyway, btw B-ville has some of the best fishing and the largest watershed within 50 minutes of NKY, 5000acres and 50 minutes from garage to ramp for me. Starting end of May early June I fish there nearly every weekend and some weeknights. When summer hit you will find me on B-ville every Friday night from 9pm to 10am Sat., then again on Sat night if I'm up to it, It can be awesome!

The weeds are growing fast in B-ville and spreading fast, Zebra mussels are clearing the water even more. Last year there was at least 3 times as much weedbeds as the year before, hopefully it will spread as much this year again. If they don't do something stupid like try to kill off the weeds for the play babies there could be some fantastic SM & LM fishing there in the next 2-5 years. As it is I caught a lot of quality LM & SM from B-ville the last 4 years, biggest SM at B-ville so far at 5-10 and LM at 6-14. good lake to fish, if you do your homework and spend the time to learn it.

In a few years it could peak similar to KY Lake when the weeds really came up there in the late 80's early 90's. Remember when BASS fished KY Lake and Rick Clunn won with that huge bag of SM he caught on suspending jerks? If they don't do something stupid like try to kill off the weeds for the play babies there could be some fantastic SM & LM fishing there in the next 2-5 years.

[skee53]

Thanks For the update Bill. I'll keep watching to see if it passes.
I heard about the lake permits. I don't mind it on my bass boat, but I have a little John, I fish small local lakes with, and I only use it 3 or 4 times a year. It only has a little trolling motor on it and I think paying $20.00 for this one is a bit much. But I support the resource, so I guess I'll be shucking out the forty bucks. Maybe the extra $20.00 will keep half of the Louisville traffic off Patoka so we Hoosiers can fish it now.

[Team9nine]

I agree, I think it's a good thing. Much easier to implement, much easier to enforce, and more fair than the old system. Gone are the days of some poor guy showing up at the ramp at 4AM just to collect from the bass tourney guys and then going home at 7:30A while the rest of the recreational boaters launch free :)

No gripes here...

-Team9

[WaubeeCharlie]

It's ok for all of you who fish these DNR water controlled water offen. Here in northern Indiana we don't have any of these type body of waters with ramps that are run by the DNR. So if I get to even one of them a year I have just got screwed. No I just won't fish them and that we be $5.00 or $10.00 less the state will get from me. If they were my home waters that would be different to were I would get my use from them. So no camping, hotels, gas, food from the area around them as well. The locals can rent the rooms, camp, buy your food from the lakes area this will help out the merchants in these lake areas. Less out of state license sales. Bait shops that fight to keep open won't mind the lack of people comeing to thier shops. So it must be a good thing to keep the others off the lake so you can have it more to yourselfs ??? OK!

[toby]

Where is this lake? I live in NKY and have never heard of it.

[bkehl]

Brookville is one of the Lakes that requires this permit.

[Team9nine]

That's one way of looking at it Charlie, and you might be right and they lose some revenue. But it could also be argued that the opposite will occur, because once the permit is bought, you will now have an unlimited number of trips you can make for that one price, causing some people to take advantage of that and actually camp/drive/go more where they might not otherwise have if they still paid to launch by the day.

Only time will tell. Besides, look on the bright side, you're still money ahead; Because of your location you've been launching free all these years while the rest of us had to pay to fish local ;)

-T9

[bkehl]

Southern Indiana, East of Jasper, or Find Tell City go north.