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from the retention pond I fish at every day. I don't see any fish in there anymore and the bottom is all grown over with weeds. Just a few weeks ago I could pull out 3 decent bluegill in 10-15 min. Now I don't even see any fish at all. I go to Eagle Creek a lot, but have yet to catch anything at all there. Is this just a bad time of year to fish in IN? Will it get better in the fall?
Jason
Senior Member
I have been doing fairly well fishing at nigh here in southern IN. All those fish in your pond are probably hanging out inside those weeds. The high temps has made night fishing pretty good lately. Although with the lower humidity and overcast days this week, they may have been biting a little better, but I wouldn'd know, haven't had a chance to go with work.
Junior Member
Originally Posted by rw02kr43
I still have a great spot out at Eagle Creek. Every time we go we are catching 100-150 crappie, most of them good sized, with a few small walleyes and stripers as well.
Member
I've never even had a bite at eagle creek. I have tried quite a few spots and never get anything. I came close to hitting a turtle one time with my lure, but that's about it.
Senior Member
if you are fishing from the shoreline or bank the fish may be out of your reach. Big bluegills like to go deeper during the hot summer months. They may also be hiding in an amoung the submergent vegetation.
Not sure what you are using for bait or how you are fishing so I can't really be anymore specific on what fishing techniques you may use.
Bluegills and bass will cruise the shorelines in the early morning hours and right before dark. So you may be able to hook a few during these times.
If your retention pond is big enough and deep enough to fish with a boat that may be something you can think about for the future. a small two man boat is ideal for those small ponds and lakes. Or even an innertube and waders will work in small ponds. All you may need is a float tube, Waders and swim fins to get around and fish the pond.
Eagle creek is a pretty large body of water. It's not Patoka Lake but it's not a small pond either. I have flown over Eagle Creek Reserviour in the past in a small airplane. We use to fly up to INDY and used the Eagle Creek Airport for the private plane. So that's when I first became aware of Eagle Creek Reservior. It looks like a good fishing lake from the air. I remember being able to see the undewater points from my vantage point. But I never had time to fish that lake on those trips. Fishing that lake from the bank would be hit and miss at this time of the year. You would be more mobile and could fish the deeper water area if you had a boat of anykind.
Senior Member
Hey guys ,
Went to my regular spot at sun-up with my brother Sunday morning Bass fishing - he had good luck with a white willow leaf spinnerbait & I got 4-5 small ones on a black Power worm . We both did good on topwater fished on mats of floating weeds/scum . I fished a Zoom Horny Toad and he fished a Mann Rat . Is a real hoot when a bass blows up through the weeds to get your bait . I also caught one crappie on a beetle spin . The fish are there - they just relate to the weeds more this time of year and weeds are hard to fish . Fishing late and early morning or at night is the way to go . Hang in there !
Senior Member
I went fishing for only the third time this summer. I caught about 7 to 10 crappie. Filleted them last night and gave a one quart zip lock baggie full of crappie fillets to the next door neighbor kid. The other kids wanted some too so I got another zip lock bag out of the freezer and gave him some too. Only his were frozen. LOLI fished Bluegrass Pit yesterday. Didn't go out until around 4:30 PM and fished until about 8 pm. I caught the crappie near the drop off but up on the flats where the Eurasian Milfoil grows. EM won't grow too deep if the lake is murky. Bluegrass is less fertile than Otter Pit so it's water is clearer. You can see down thought the water and see a seike dish about 2 ft down. That's about 4ft of visibility.Otter pit is much more turbid for some reason.Anyway Bassmanic is right. During the daylight hours the weeds are giving off lots of dissolved oxygen and even in 80 deg F surface water temperatures the fish are near the weeds. I was catching them at about 4ft deep to about 12 ft deep. There is a shallow ledge that runs out perpendicular to the shoreline and it runs a good ways out into the main lake. You can go along the bank and see where it gets shallow and then deep again then shallow and deep again as you follow the bank and parallel the bank.These ridges run perpendicular to the bank and out about 100 yards to-wards the deep water parts of the lake. The first time I fished Bluegrass Pit I followed the Eastern Shoreline. I launched at the South Ramp and was heading North toward the first big cove on the East side of the lake. We should give these coves a name! Anyway I ran into shallow water along the bank and turned out toward the West to find deeper water. I followed that darn shallow water all the way out to almost the middle of the lake. Finally it dropped off into 10ft of water and I felt safer. So that's how I found my fishing spot. After fishing the lake a few more times and criss crossing this area in a N/S and E/W direction I figured out the lay of the land. The drop off where it goes from 10 ft to 30 ft is where the fish hang out during the day. The suspend down about 10 to 15 ft and roam the open water along these drop offs. As the sun goes down they move horizontally over to the top of the flats or shelves and start feeding on minnows or shad. The weeds get thicker as you get shallower. So they thin out in the 7 ft to 10 ft depths as that area does not get as much sunlight to the bottom of the lake. Here in the sparse weeds is were I catch my fish. And the big bass will some into these flats and or the edges of the flat as well in the summertime.If I were fishing this area at night I would anchor near the drop off but over the deeper water first. Id anchor in 12 to 17ft of water right near the 4 to 7 ft drop off ledge. That way the underwater lights will attack the minnows and gizzard shad over to the boat. And the crappie can swim below the lights and bait fish and swim up to feed. I'd fish my baits right around 10 ft to 12 ft deep and a few at 3 ft deep near the edges of the light. Put out some floating 12 volt lights and a few underwater green lights at 2 or 3 ft below the surface and fish for at least an hour before trying a new spot.Fish are still there but they are not going to be along the bank all day long.I have caught bass out in the open water ten feet deep but over 30 ft of water. They will suspend out there and rest then feed during the low light hours when they can sneak up on the bait fish easier. Why waste energy trying to chase bait fish if they see you coming. Wait until the light is fading or changing like in the evening or early morning hours respectively. Then you can ambush the bait fish easier. It's much easier for the bass to hide when the light levels are low. They blend it much better with the background colors in low light conditions. A bank fisherman may be able to use a slip float and cast out and fish the outside edge of the weed lines on these strip pits. Some of the banks of the strip pits drop off pretty fast and close to shore. I have been scuba diving in pits similar to these and found the bass cruising along the edge of the weed-line at about 10 to 7 ft deep. They are there and schooled up so you have to cover some water to find them.During the day the bass like to sit on a 18 ft deep shelf out near the mouth of the second big bay on Bluegrass Pit. That's the 2nd one from the South Ramp. Both bays are on the West Side of the Main North South running part of the lake. This shelf is shallow for the most part but along the edges of this very large shallow shelf there is a deep secondary shelf. This is where the bass like to spend the hot summer months. The thermocline runs somewhere around 23 to 25 ft deep during August and this shelf is a good area that's above the thermocline where the fish can relate to the bottom. Beyond this secondary shelf the water drops down to 56 ft deep. So you have shallow, medium and very deep water all in close proximity. And the shallow parts of the shelf has plenty fo submergent vegetation growing on this huge flat.
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