Turtle Creek ( Merom )

[bassman62]

While reading many of the shad post concerning West Boggs, there were several post discussing depletion of the shore line grass being a ALSO problem with the bass fishing , anyone here remember Turtle Creek in its heyday Wow what a bass lake, since the killing of the grass there, hence NO BASS or at least very deminished , I am wanting to start a disscusion about this issue to the various lake Mgmt. people to weigh the value of shoreline grasses, pro/com to bass

[Stevens]

Well from what i know, and i dont know a whole lot, grass is always positive until it reaches 60% bottom coverage, when the lake has that much grass in it bluegill and bass growth declines. The perfect scenario is to have 25-40% bottom coverage which will provide the perfect habitat to grow healthy fish.

[GeoFisher]

While reading many of the shad post concerning West Boggs, there were several post discussing depletion of the shore line grass being a ALSO problem with the bass fishing , anyone here remember Turtle Creek in its heyday Wow what a bass lake, since the killing of the grass there, hence NO BASS or at least very deminished , I am wanting to start a disscusion about this issue to the various lake Mgmt. people to weigh the value of shoreline grasses, pro/com to bass

They didn't kill the grass in Turtle Creek......We've been over this a billion times here also, but here is what I understand.

Turtle Creek was a MONSTER in the heyday.....I caught LOTS of bigguns there....used to drive 6 hours 1 way from Muncie, In to fish it for 1 day, and then drive back........That was Late 80's/ early 90's.

A few years back not sure EXACT year, we had an UGLY drought and serious HOT weather for 3 months straight......that hot weather caused electricity use to go through the roof. The Merom Generating station was taxed to generate at above 100% capacity.........they generated 24 hrs a day for something like 22-23 straight days.......THAT generation caused the water temp to rise over 120 degrees.......KILLING all the vegetation.

It has not been the same since.

You hear stories about how the sprayed it, but that is NOT what happened.

I have fished Turtle Creek 1 time in the past 5-6 years......probably will never fish it again.......NOT until they at least get the vegetation back.

Turtle Creek could be a FANTASTIC lake again........time will tell.

BTW....the shad in Turtle Creek are threadfin.....I don't believe there are any gizzard shad, and EVERYTHING there likes threadfin shad.

Later,

Geo

[GeoFisher]

Some turtle creek links:

http://www.hepn.com/turtlecreek.asp

http://www.hepn.com/assets/files/TCBrochure.pdf

For more information, contact:
Turtle Creek Reservoir
PO Box 7
Sullivan, IN 47882
Phone: 812-356-4744

BTW........I JUST called and got the lowdown........

Call if you want the info......or BACK CHANNEL me.........

Thanks,

Geo

[roadrunner]

Geo I was thirty minutes from Merom and I can not tell you how many great days we had a Merom. It was text book lowland reservoir what I mean you could pattern the fish just like the text books said. You could go back every day and catch fish in the same location plus you could time the hot bite, it would be hot at about the same time changing some either getting earlier or later bite but the change was gradual.

With that said you are dead on with the hot weather and the running both generators and heating the water for about a month or a month and a half. Now with that said I would like to here some management folks weight in on hot water lakes. I know Merom crappie reproduction was falling off before the vegetation was gone Merom was a great crappie lake also then we started catching two pound crappie and no small ones then they disappeared. What I have found is that this happens in most cooling lakes for coal fired generation plants. Happened at Newton and happened at Coffeen. Newton also lost all their weed cover and it has never came back at least not the off shore weeds like Merom had.

[LJP]

Newton has gone downhill thelast few years.

[Tobias]

Once those "new" lakes get a few years on them, and the public learns about them they always go down hill.

[muskyman87]

When I've hit both Newton and Turtle Creek the past few years, I've still done pretty well. I must say I've done a lot better in the past at TC during its hayday, but I still manage to get decent numbers and always get one over 5lbs every time I go. So, I can't complain.

It seems timing is the key to both lakes. The only time I will hit either is December through March. Once things warm up, the fish seem to shut down quite a bit. I'm guessing oxygen levels start changing quite a bit, or at least that's how they act. I do well during the colder months but the lack of vegetation has changed how I fish though.

[idbefishing]

Well, I don't think the lack of vegetation in lake that used to have them hurt the fishery. It hurt the fishing because fish don't relate to anything we're used to and we struggled to catch fish. For example, a well known lake that used to have tons and tons of dinks, shad, and full of grass, on shore, off shore, everywhere. One could go and catch dinks all day. A few years back, they sprayed it and almost wiped out the grass. The fishing started to hoovering, keeper and non keeper alike. All those dinks started a buffet on all the smaller fish because they had nowhere to hide. Now, the dinks have grown, BIG TIME, most are keepers. The fishing has never been better. My beloved home water has awesome fishing and a good mix of vegetation but the veg. got thicker and thicker. The perch population got out of hand. They introduced walleyes to help control the perch. That didn't do much good. They then sprayed it, wiped out the grass. The fishing there started to hoover big time. Night fishing is about the only time to catch decent fish. The bigguns are still there, you just can't find them. The veg. is starting to come back and fishing is slowly improving. All it needs now is for a fishing publication to print an article saying it hoovers so everyone back off of it. This publication listed it as the top 5 in the state and then all hell broke loose. Y'all don't even get me started.

[persingerxc]

A new user to fishin.com, I would love to chit chat about Turtle Creek with a few people.

A little background information first…I’ve fished the lake since 1984 and my father has worked at Hoosier Energy for 30+years. Most of my weekends were spent in the employee’s finger until the age of 14 until I could fish In-tank Canal (employees only). The in-tank is an area where the water is pulled from the lake with constant current. Not quite White River current fast, but definitely strong. Its **** close in relation to “good fishing” as to the restricted hot water area. For those that have fished the hot water side from the road (or snuck in as a teenager) you know exactly what I’m talking about. I remember guys flying airplanes, remote control boats etc just to catch these fish. (FYI- Hoosier Energy is trying to make the hot water area accessible to fishing. Contracts, fences, paving ie are in the works). I have also spent my fair share of days on the main lake when dad had the aluminum boat. I’m sure everyone who fished the lake remembers when the bass length limit was 16’ (2), 18’ (2), and now 20(1).

I read the entire post and I’m seeing some good points and some wrong points. I would like to share some things in areas of grass, minnows, shad, bass population, fish population, lake temperatures etc. I would love to give some factual information and some opinions about the lake. My dad was definitely in the scene when decisions were made about the lake. Sometimes he was included in or around those meetings (good and bad).

Crappie
If you recall back in the 90’s Monroe did a “Crappie Thon”. They pulled an X amount of fish from the lake and tagged them. If you caught a certain fish with a colored tag you could report the fish to an “authorized member” and collect your money etc. This brought in a ton of revenue to the city, lake, and lined pockets of local supporters involved in the fishing scene. This same idea was meant to happen at Turtle Creek Reservoir. In relation to Illinois/Indiana they wanted to turn Merom and the local community into “Paynetown/Bloomington, Indiana”.

What they got was Sullivan at its best and very few high paying jobs minus the CO-OP (en-route to Merom). After this idea bombed they decided to turn the lake into a bluegill, catfish, and bass heaven.

You could go on any given day during the mid 80’s until mid 90’s and catch 15-20 1.5-2lbs fish. I have a 2.7lb/17.5 inch crappie on my wall that was caught in 1984 when I was young. It was absolutely amazing crappie fishing; I was just too hyper to realize it. I wanted to catch every bluegill in the lake at the time.

Population of these guys is still amazing, now the problem today is the size. Dad just caught 185 gills this past Saturday (1 Aug 2009). Now granted they are not the paper plate ½ inch thick bluegill we remember. Big dark and thick…Man those days are way over. You’re lucky to catch ten hand size bluegills. Guys they are still there and by the truckloads

***Recommendation: Tear drop jig (#3/4) tipped with a bee moth or night crawler, cricket distant third) GRADE: B

Catfish-[
This is where some of it begins. I would say sometime in the 90’s they decided to turn the lake also into a trophy catfish lake (I don’t know who was running the show then). It was already a top bluegill/red ear lake in the state. The bass was on the verge of something big (I think in 1998 is when the 20 inch limit came out (not completely sure on date). In 2001 the lake would rank #24 in the Nation for bass

At the time the channels and the flat heads were really turning on in the creeks…The Blue’s were huge and you could routinely go to Merom and catch 20-50 cats a night and always catch one over 15-20 lbs. Ten channels per person limit was no problem for the avid fisherman. Hell on a good night you would catch four or five yellow bellies, some were huge around 5-7 pounds, just stupid

Somewhere someone did a survey/study and the information provided suggested that the catfish were not populating like they should. So they decided to stock the lake yearly for an “x” amount of years. They blamed some of this on the weeds and how hot the lake constantly was

Honestly, I have no proof of stocking last year, but two weeks ago dad and I went to Merom to catch some gills and cats for a future cookout. Along the way I decided to stock a local pond back in Southern Indiana. I caught around fifty (50)----6-12’ inch channels. I’m tracking on spawning etc, but these little channels are quite annoying. Now keep in mind two years ago they took away the channel cat limit. You can take as many channels as you desire from turtle creek. We were yelled at about 4 months ago by a guard for throwing some small squeakers back. That’s how bad it is!!! They are telling the employees to catch fish out of the lake and take them home (you figure that one out

This is how bad it was. I was bass fishing early in the morning, but gave it up because of the channels. I was catching channels routinely on top water bait (spook)

Got off on a tangent there, on the flip side, man there are some serious catfish in merom. Everyone knows it was an extremely abnormal lake, but normal if your used to fishing hot water power plant lakes. You catch catfish in the middle of the day when it’s 90 degrees. But now you catch a 30 or 40 pounder about every other trip. ***Dad landed a 57 pounder back in March

Last two trips to Merom- 160 catfish (around 25 qts of fillets). Catfish GRADE: A

Next, I would like to contribute some of the shad etc to all the minnows (including myself) poured into Turtle Creek. I think it was something every fisherman did, at the time. Hell I will admit I was uneducated on what I was doing. But because every guy in the state of Indiana loved catching crappie I’m pretty sure WE are to blame here. That’s a very opinionated statement, but I’m pretty confident it’s somewhat true.

Let’s not forget the desperate tries by DNR to eliminate some of the CARP population (very, very, very out of control at this point). My best friend called yesterday and shot another 20 carp, DNR doesn’t even exist anymore!!! You just check in at the shack

[persingerxc]

BASS

I called the old man again today to discuss this after reading the post. Just to make sure I was clear on some things. First, the lake was sprayed (numerous of times actually). It wasn’t meant to kill the grass. It was meant to control it) If you recall it was pretty nuts. I remember pulling up the trolling motor about every 15 mins and pulling pounds and pounds of grass off the prop. You had to actually navigate through the moss (man I miss that).

You probably also remember parts of Turtle Creek looking like Reels foot, TN---Timber galore etc. (I have pictures) This was the other problem. As the timber rotted and as the grass released it was sucked into the discharge. The plant had tons of problems with debris getting sucked into the system. So they tried cleaning the lake, drawling, spraying etc. It was costing the plant tons of money every time a unit went down

HINT: The fishing is always better with both units on. How to tell? Look up at the smoke stacks. There are two actually. If one is going then a unit is being worked on. If both are up then the lake is pulling; up and running. This was the problem they were always working on units etc, pulling debris…It’s cost Hoosier MILLIONS. The fire in the smock stack that cost a man his life didn’t help either, that was a major setback for the company

GEO FISHER- You are dead on when you talk about the power outages and droughts. It happened more than once…Once in the late 90’s and one recently. You had you occasional wkd outages etc, but nothing major. The lake was making somewhat of a coming back in 2002/03 before the last one. I have seen the temp up over 100 most of the time…The coolest water we could find the other day was 99.7 to 103.9 degrees

They also shocked the lake a number of times; I don’t know how many times this happened. It was more than once though, anyways because my lack of knowledge I will not discuss it. I believe it had to do with grass control and to record fish numbers[FONT=Times New Roman

Now the lake did take a huge hit of pressure from 95 until 03. A real big hit…We would stay at Molly’s bait shot for a wkd or for the week and see TONS of “out of state people”…Ill, TN, KY, MI. The word travelled fast, I know the pressure couldn’t have helped. Molly’s waiting list was booked months in advance, before the lake took a hit in 04/05. (Molly’s went out of business two years ago).

I watched person after person filet 18-20 inch bass at Molly’s bait shop. I’m sure if you were around you witnessed this. You would pull up and the fish cleaning station would look like the shell station on a gas drought. I remember opening up the freezer at Molly’s bait shop (freezer for the fish parts) and to see Kroger bags of bass heads in there…It was really really hard to digest.

Hoosier Energy actually counts the fish taken by employees. They hardly ever actually do their jobs and come and physically check the coolers/live wells. I know I asked the guard how many bass were taken out for the month etc. The number would make you guys sick. Literally the bass were being taken out by the hundreds. Not only were they being taken out legally, but they had a huge problem of people stealing the bass…It got so bad that the CO would routinely show up inside Hoosier Energy and check your truck

He had caught people wrapping them in towels and hiding them. Cutting them up on the boat while on the lake etc…It was crazy what people were doing. These guys were getting a ticket from the CO and just a warning from HE. The second time you would get banned for a year etc…I mean come on? I know our truck and coolers got inspected tons in the 90’s.

Then came the financial crunch…They actually laid off employees (checking guards). Duh these guys were the first to go. So then it was open season again. Until 2005-06 when they enforced the 9-11 security standards. Long story short guys, I think there are a lot of factors that contribute to the lake’s fish population (increase/decrease) or vegetation problems…I think there were some bad decisions made along the way. It is sad to say, but my son will never have the memories and opportunities I did.

Memories that I will have for the rest of my life!!!. If you guys would like to discuss some more things feel free to email me at [email protected]

I am U.S. Army Ranger guys and that integrity check came a long time ago. Nothing above has been fluffed or made up.

There are a few hogs left in Turtle Creek ….. Just not by the truckloads anymore. Don’t give up on them!!! At one time I was a firm believer that state record was in there…The 7-8 pounders I caught in late 90’s would have to be close by now!!!!! I look forward to speaking with everyone on this topic…Take care

[redearhoosier]

A new user to fishin.com, I would love to chit chat about Turtle Creek with a few people.

A little background information first…I’ve fished the lake since 1984 and my father has worked at Hoosier Energy for 30+years. Most of my weekends were spent in the employee’s finger until the age of 14 until I could fish In-tank Canal (employees only). The in-tank is an area where the water is pulled from the lake with constant current. Not quite White River current fast, but definitely strong. Its **** close in relation to “good fishing” as to the restricted hot water area. For those that have fished the hot water side from the road (or snuck in as a teenager) you know exactly what I’m talking about. I remember guys flying airplanes, remote control boats etc just to catch these fish. (FYI- Hoosier Energy is trying to make the hot water area accessible to fishing. Contracts, fences, paving ie are in the works). I have also spent my fair share of days on the main lake when dad had the aluminum boat. I’m sure everyone who fished the lake remembers when the bass length limit was 16’ (2), 18’ (2), and now 20(1).

I read the entire post and I’m seeing some good points and some wrong points. I would like to share some things in areas of grass, minnows, shad, bass population, fish population, lake temperatures etc. I would love to give some factual information and some opinions about the lake. My dad was definitely in the scene when decisions were made about the lake. Sometimes he was included in or around those meetings (good and bad).

Crappie
If you recall back in the 90’s Monroe did a “Crappie Thon”. They pulled an X amount of fish from the lake and tagged them. If you caught a certain fish with a colored tag you could report the fish to an “authorized member” and collect your money etc. This brought in a ton of revenue to the city, lake, and lined pockets of local supporters involved in the fishing scene. This same idea was meant to happen at Turtle Creek Reservoir. In relation to Illinois/Indiana they wanted to turn Merom and the local community into “Paynetown/Bloomington, Indiana”.

What they got was Sullivan at its best and very few high paying jobs minus the CO-OP (en-route to Merom). After this idea bombed they decided to turn the lake into a bluegill, catfish, and bass heaven.

You could go on any given day during the mid 80’s until mid 90’s and catch 15-20 1.5-2lbs fish. I have a 2.7lb/17.5 inch crappie on my wall that was caught in 1984 when I was young. It was absolutely amazing crappie fishing; I was just too hyper to realize it. I wanted to catch every bluegill in the lake at the time.

Population of these guys is still amazing, now the problem today is the size. Dad just caught 185 gills this past Saturday (1 Aug 2009). Now granted they are not the paper plate ½ inch thick bluegill we remember. Big dark and thick…Man those days are way over. You’re lucky to catch ten hand size bluegills. Guys they are still there and by the truckloads

***Recommendation: Tear drop jig (#3/4) tipped with a bee moth or night crawler, cricket distant third) GRADE: B

Catfish-[
This is where some of it begins. I would say sometime in the 90’s they decided to turn the lake also into a trophy catfish lake (I don’t know who was running the show then). It was already a top bluegill/red ear lake in the state. The bass was on the verge of something big (I think in 1998 is when the 20 inch limit came out (not completely sure on date). In 2001 the lake would rank #24 in the Nation for bass

At the time the channels and the flat heads were really turning on in the creeks…The Blue’s were huge and you could routinely go to Merom and catch 20-50 cats a night and always catch one over 15-20 lbs. Ten channels per person limit was no problem for the avid fisherman. Hell on a good night you would catch four or five yellow bellies, some were huge around 5-7 pounds, just stupid

Somewhere someone did a survey/study and the information provided suggested that the catfish were not populating like they should. So they decided to stock the lake yearly for an “x” amount of years. They blamed some of this on the weeds and how hot the lake constantly was

Honestly, I have no proof of stocking last year, but two weeks ago dad and I went to Merom to catch some gills and cats for a future cookout. Along the way I decided to stock a local pond back in Southern Indiana. I caught around fifty (50)----6-12’ inch channels. I’m tracking on spawning etc, but these little channels are quite annoying. Now keep in mind two years ago they took away the channel cat limit. You can take as many channels as you desire from turtle creek. We were yelled at about 4 months ago by a guard for throwing some small squeakers back. That’s how bad it is!!! They are telling the employees to catch fish out of the lake and take them home (you figure that one out

This is how bad it was. I was bass fishing early in the morning, but gave it up because of the channels. I was catching channels routinely on top water bait (spook)

Got off on a tangent there, on the flip side, man there are some serious catfish in merom. Everyone knows it was an extremely abnormal lake, but normal if your used to fishing hot water power plant lakes. You catch catfish in the middle of the day when it’s 90 degrees. But now you catch a 30 or 40 pounder about every other trip. ***Dad landed a 57 pounder back in March

Last two trips to Merom- 160 catfish (around 25 qts of fillets). Catfish GRADE: A

Next, I would like to contribute some of the shad etc to all the minnows (including myself) poured into Turtle Creek. I think it was something every fisherman did, at the time. Hell I will admit I was uneducated on what I was doing. But because every guy in the state of Indiana loved catching crappie I’m pretty sure WE are to blame here. That’s a very opinionated statement, but I’m pretty confident it’s somewhat true.

Let’s not forget the desperate tries by DNR to eliminate some of the CARP population (very, very, very out of control at this point). My best friend called yesterday and shot another 20 carp, DNR doesn’t even exist anymore!!! You just check in at the shack

How is the redear fishing? Are there big crackers in this lake? I read a creel survey that showed the numbers of redear caught have basically fell off the map compared to what they were. Apparently it did have big redear in it at one time??

I'm a redear fisherman, would it be worth the drive up from the Jeffersonville area???