Big Indiana Bass

Ode to Turtle Creek

I was at a lakes conference this past week, and one of the presentations was a look at what has been going on out at Turtle Creek Res. (map w/directions) over the years. This presentation was given by Hoosier Energy Environmental Team Leader Michalene Reilly.

The smoke stacks from the cooling towers are one of the most instantly recognizable features to Indiana bass fishermen. Back in the day, Turtle Creek was filled with a lot of milfoil and a lot of bass. People used to start lining up at the launch gate at 4:30 in the morning to get an early in and a quick start to the day. Traffic would be lined up down the little county road waiting to get in. It was the place where everyone went in the winter, where you could fish "rats" and buzzbaits in the middle of a snowstorm with steam and fog rising off the water so thick you couldn't see 100 yds. in front of you. And you'd be whacking fish! I've got some old pictures of trips I took there, when we had 50-60 fish days of 2-4 pound bass.

But those were the old days. The reservoir has actually changed quite a bit. Some interesting facts Michalene pointed out were that the reservoir has actually increased in size by 50 acres over the years due to a large problem with bank erosion. Additionally, the watershed above the reservoir is composed of approcx. 75% agriculture. This heavy sediment loading has resulted in the average depth of the lake dropping 0.5 foot, from 8.6 when created to 8.1 today. This has also resulted in an increase in turbidity. All the submerged vegetation is gone now, too. The bass started suffering from very poor recruitment over a decade ago, to the point where they actually started stocking bass fingerlings into the lake to try and get some small fish recruited into the population. Michalene mentioned over 150,000 have now been introduced into the lake. See this DNR news release.

Along with the decline of the bass population, a huge boom in the channel catfish population has resulted. This has also been acocmpanied by a big surge in the carp population. The catfish have gotten so prolific that the state has removed all harvest restrictions on the population. Ultimately all this has combined to make TC a big fish fishery for bass. Anglers now go there hoping to just get a bite or two, knowing that if you catch one it is going to be big.

You'll also have no trouble getting a spot at the boat launch as the decrease in fishing quality has resulted in a big decrease in boat traffic. The 10 hp limit is still in place and enforced. It seems when the watershed group was first formed, they got lots of assistance from the bass anglers. But the bass anglers were hoping to be able to get an exemption on the engine restriction for their assistance. When that never transpired, the help from the anglers went away.

Speaking with Michalene, it seems the only quick solution would be to drain and renovate the lake, but that is an impossibility due to the power generating needs which take priority. So the outlook is grim for ever seeing Turtle Creek return to its past bassin glory.

Turtle Creek Fishing and Hunting Brochure      

Coming to a College Near You

I'm slated to be the guest speaker for the upcoming Purdue Bass Club meeting being held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, April 02. We'll be talking about patterns and baits for a couple upcoming tourneys, one on a reservoir and another on a natural lake. A little compare and contrast, along with a Q&A session afterward. For the Purdue club guys reading this, feel free to browse the site and make notes of anything I've posted that you might want a more in-depth explanation of. Just about everything is fair game, except for maybe GPS coordinates ;)

See ya' there!

Wind From the East, Fish Bite Least

But at least they still bite! Finished up the majority of the project boat stuff today so thought I'd head out for a few hours before dark to run everything and get in some fishing if I could find areas out of the 13 mph east winds. On the fishing part, I had murky water with about 6-8" of visibility and water temps of 44-46 degrees. Managed to get 8 bites in 3 hours, including one piggie. Unfortunately, I got the piggie up to the top of the water near the boat to see him, but he ended up pulling off. Think it was a screwed up hookset on my part. Looked to be every bit of 4+ and certainly my largest this year.

I knew it wasn't going to be my night when the first fish got off. Pitched up next to a dock and a fish grabbed my jig and headed off toward open water...until I set the hook. He then immediately did a 180 and ran me straight under the dock. I had him on for a bit while we see-sawed my line around the dock pole. Eventually thought I had him wedged up against the pole while I tried to change boat position and rod angle on him, but he had actually pulled off. Was exciting though. Hey, you guys still get a bass picture to look at though :)

Also got word from the Early Bird tourney out on Geist that it took 16.5 pounds to win. That's a pretty decent sack of fish given the conditions, which I was told included muddy water and 40-45 degree water. Jerkbaits and Rat-L-Traps were the supposed winning baits. My friends finished 7th, 1 spot out of the money with 4 fish at 9.2 pounds, mostly on cranks. It took just under 9.5 pounds to cash today.

On the project boat, I have a few more pics from out on the water today. I replaced the MK40 Endura with the MK50 Endura which had the 42" shaft. I definitely needed the extra 6" and the additonal 10# of thrust is always welcome. Worked like a charm today. I decided to hardwire straight to the battery, so I removed the plug setup I had, which I didn't really like, and used a good butt connector on each wire topped with a water-proof, heat-shrink cover.

Ended up moving both Lowrance/Eagle units over to the jon boat from off the Triton, so I now have the Eagle 320 up front with the X-15 w/GPS on back. Did the wiring on the X-15 today and only need to add the transducer to the back of the boat, which I plan to do tomorrow. Both units are direct wired to the main battery to avoid any interference from accessories. I also added a recirc pump setup to the livewell today. It sits back in one of the corners. I ran the wire out the top corner near the lid and siliconed the hole well. I then hooked it up to the last lighted rocker switch on my Cabela's dash panel. 

I drilled 1/4" holes and mounted the 3-bank onboard charger to the back wall using stainless steel bolts. The unit now sits on a 4x4 block to relieve all the weight off the bolts, so they just really keep the unit attached tight to the boat. The original mounting by the first owner was using thin screws to hold it on and the weight, combined with some jarring, snapped one of the screws and the unit fell off. Shouldn't have that problem any more. Also added the 3rd battery to the boat for some additional front weight and balance. It will also serve as a great backup to either the TM battery or the main starting battery that also powers all the electronics should either ever die.

As mentioned a few posts back, I replaced the '96 10hp Yamaha rope start with an '07 Merc 10hp electric start. You can see it in the following picture. It really is sweet and makes running the boat fun again. I had to play with trim settings to get the right engine angle. I was getting a lot of spray that was just catching and slightly coming over the back deck when running wide open on the original setting. Now I just get a smooth stream of water out the back when running, which should also make position of the X-15's transducer much less critical. Top speed with GPS today was right around 16.5 mph. Easily ran 15+ all day whether into or against the wind, so I can live with that. Now I just need to see what it does with a partner and extra gear onboard.

Lastly, I ended up moving the winch stand on the trailer. Had to both lower the stand and then move the whole unit forward several inches. It now snugs up nice and tight like a bass baot does, and loads onto the trailer much better. I'm still going to purchase a set of guide rails at some point though to help keep the boat lined up right when loading. A good cross-wind does a number on this thing when trying to load. Also need to add a spare tire carrier.

How To Make A Classic, Part II

OK, back to the Classic discussion. If you've followed the instructions, you now have a set of notes that contains the following: Average place of finish needed per tourney, average weights weighed in (per month/per lake) for that given position. So what next?

Now you can go forward and prepare yourself for every tournament you'll enter in that circuit knowing the weight you'll need to target and practice for in any given month, for every lake on the circuit. Chances are these are smaller weights than you might have thought. This is what gets most people in trouble. They think they have to compete against all these big sticks and find a tourney winning sack of fish, but that isn't the case. They swing for the fences, when in reality, they probably only need 1 or 2 fish in most cases in each tournament. So this completely allows you to keep everything in perspective all year long and assess exactly where you stand, and what needs to be done in every tourney. Lets look at a few more things in depth to wrap this up.

Rule #1: Don't blank - OK, that isn't a complete reality in Indiana no matter who you are. Don't believe me, go looking through the tourney results for any stick you want. On average, out of 200 guys fishing a circuit, most all will blank in at least 1 tourney at some point in the year. That's just the nature of Indiana fishing. The ones that don't blank will be the same ones competing for Angler-of-the-Year titles at the last tournament. Many will blank twice and still make the Classic. That's about it though. If you blank 3 times in any given circuit, odds are strong you won't make their year end cut.

So that leads back to Rule #1; Practice first to catch 1 keeper. I don't care how big it is, every fish is points, and points rule the ultimate outcome as to who goes to the Classic and who doesn't. Forget winning the tourney. Forget impressing your friends. Just try and figure out how to catch a keeper on any given lake. You want a spot or a pattern or an area that you can run to first thing and have a good chance at putting one keeper in the boat. Down-size baits, fish a release area, do whatever you can to get that first keeper in the well. From there you can move to Step #2.

Step #2 - Practice for your target weight for that tourney. You already have the numbers calculated. On some waters, this will be the same as Rule #1, because your calculations show that any keeper caught will get you the points you need. In others, you might need 3 or 5 pounds or more. Regardless, it is probably a fraction of what the winning weight will be, so don't waste time trying to find that mother load. Try and figure something out that will allow you to catch whatever your target weight is for that tourney. Take advantage of a morning bite if you can. Slow down and beat a good area to death where you know there are fish. Or just cover a lot of water trying to find some type pattern or high percentage tactic you can rely on. Realize you're probably only fishing for 1-3 keepers in most all scenarios. That's just 1 bite every 3-4 hours. It's easy to keep your head in the game when you have realistic expectations.

Step #3 - Swing for the fences, 1 fish at a time. This is the great part about this methodology. If you've done your work, both on paper and in practice, now you just have to execute. Get that first keeper in the boat as soon as you can on tourney day - remember Rule #1. If he happens to be enough to match your target weight, you can now swing for the fences and do whatever you need to do to try and win the tourney. If not, keep fishing smart based on your practice until you get another fish in the boat. Keep fishing hard until you meet your target weight. Once that is done, you have accomplished your goal for that day. You will now most likely get the minimum points you need and can fish without pressure the rest of the day. You can keep fishing smart or swing for the fences and it doesn't matter.

Don't make Indiana fishing any harder than it already is. The system works well if you'll use it. The last year (2003) that I fished the IBF circuit I ran this system the entire year and it was incredible how accurate everything was. I predicted the points cut for the Classic back in March based on my calculations and it turned out to be within 2 points of the actual cut come October. Practices were easy knowing I was only looking for enough bites to meet a small target weight instead of a big winning sack. That also translated to a very relaxed tourney atmosphere for me. In the tourneys where the fish came early and my targets were met quickly, all the pressure was off and I could just "go fishing" the rest of the day...and it payed off with 2nd and 6th place finishes in two of the events.

So be realistic, have some targets and goals set for each tourney, and practice accordingly. Don't let all the dock talk go to your head. When you hear someone say they whacked them in practice and they're on a winning sack of fish if they'll hold up, just smile and nod in agreement and stick to your plan. This is Indiana...His fish won't hold up ;)

Jon Boat Customizing

I'm getting a lot of search hits by people looking for information on customizing their boats, so I wanted to take a minute and list the sites that I frequented and studied before tackling my own boat project. Lots of good ideas and information can be found from the following sites:

• Jon Boat Conversion Project
• Jon Boat Mods
• Triton Mike's Boat Project
• Keith Davis' Crappie Boat Mod Home Page

There was one other really good site that is not functional at the moment. The Bassing Fools Jon Boat Mods site was a big help also. Not sure if this link is permanently down or just temporarily unavailable, but I'll keep the web link in place for a while just in case.

How To Make A Classic, Part I

The bass fishing tourney circuits are just starting to fire up here in Indiana, even if spring hasn't. Cabin fever tends to take hold and guys are just chomping at the bit to get out on the water and start fishing. Most circuits have a year end classic or regional to try and qualify for, yet that is a long ways off and out of many peoples mind at the moment. However, if you want to qualify for a year-end Classic, you need to be doing your homework right now. With a simple game plan applied to your tourneys all year long,  you can increase your odds tremendously of being one of those anglers fishing for "all the marbles" come October.

What is the secret? It starts with reviewing the historical qualification data from the previous 3 years for a given circuit. The large majority of the anglers fishing these circuits are the same from year to year. Additionally, the scheduled waters tend to be the same also. As such, the points cut-off to qualify for the Classic tends to be very consistent from year to year. So find the standings online for whatever circuit you're fishing and figure out the average number of accumulated points needed to qualify for their Classic for a given year. For example, if the past 3 years had points cuts of 205, 211 and 214, then the average points cut would be 210.

Now divide this average qualifying number by the number of individual tourneys that make up the circuit. In this example, if the circuit held 5 qualifying tournaments then the average points needed per tournament would be 42. If this circuit awarded 100 points for the winner, 99 for second, and so forth in each qualifying tourney, this means you would need to finish each tournament in 59th place or higher in order to receive those 42 points and qualify for their Classic.

Now, go back through the archived results and try and see what type weight it took for each tourney in a given month to place 59th (still from our example. Use whatever actual place your numbers determined for the circuit you're fishing). If possible, use only results from the same lake that matches where a particular tourney is going to be. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes not. Again, if a May tourney was going to be held on Patoka Res., try first to find all May tourney results from Patoka in previous years for this particular circuit. If you can't garner that specific information, then use any Patoka tourney data from that circuit regardless of month. What you want to find is the average weight it took to finish in 59th place in all these tourneys.

Do this for all the tourneys on the circuit. Some places this might be a decent weight, while on other tougher bodies of water you might find that 59 people didn't even come to the scales in the first place. In those instances, you just use the weight of the last place person and take note of that fact. This in a nutshell is the system.

Now you have the system in a nut shell. But you ask, "So What?" In Part II, I'll go into detail on why this process is so important to the overall plan and what you do with this information.          

Love It When a Plan Comes Together

Everything went like clockwork today. Showed up at The Boat Place at 1 PM as scheduled to get the new Merc and they were waiting for me. Had the little engine all pulled and waiting. Everything had been oiled, ran and ready. Backed in, unbolted and removed the Yamaha and then rigged the Merc. New fuel lines and tanks. No hidden charges. Gave me exactly what they said they would for the Yamaha. Handed over all the booklets for the new engine and had me out the door in less than an hour! BIG THANKS to "The Boat Place" for taking care of me.

So rolling home at 2 PM with sunny skies and 52 degree air temps and a big urge to test the new engine out. Hit the gas station to fill up the 3 gallon remote...all of $7.50 worth of gas - no oil to add. Sweet. Grabbed a couple rods and despite the 2.5" of rain we received the day before and the anticipated cold, muddy water, off to launch I went. Backed in, hit the button and the engine fired immediately. Man that was nice - no more rope pulling! Don't have the electronics rigged on the boat yet so can't give you a water temp, but if I had to guess I'd say no more than mid 40's at best. Visibility was about 3-4" in the upper half of the lake clearing to 12-14" on the lower end. Fishable.

After running around a bit with the new engine just getting a feel for it, headed over to some typically good spring banks - sunny, wind protected riprap stretches near the mouth of creeks. Started pitching an 1/8-oz. jig and was quickly rewarded with a bite in the first 5 minutes despite the mud. Things were looking up. Played around for a few more hours just moving from stretch to stretch and managed to garner 10 bites with 8 to the boat. Nothing huge, size ranging mostly from 13-17" but a nice way to break in the boat for the year.

So now a little more work to do to finalize the boat rigging. Add the electronics, mount the trolling brackets, finish the battery rigging, add a set of trailer guides and a spare tire carrier. That should about do it. May upgrade the trolling motor to a 42" shaft length while MinnKota is running their Endura rebates. Can upgrade to a 50# thrust with a 42" shaft after rebate for the same price as the 40#/36" I'm running now. Think I'll probably bite the bullet and do that some time in the next month or two.   

Bass Fishing in Iraq

Was on my way into work today when I heard a story on NPR about bass angling in Iraq. I tracked down the audio link on their site for those that want to take a listen.

U.S. Troops in Baghdad Make Fishing A Tradition

Manual Labor Ain't My Thing

With the Triton gone, I now face the realization that the project boat will be my main source of a fishing platform for quite a while. With that in mind, I quickly realized this weekend after heading over to a lake to try and get the boat started and running after a long winter that engines with manual rope start just aren't my cup of tea. The thought of having to yank that rope every trip, after every stop, warm weather or cold, isn't my idea of fun. After all, part of why we fish is to have some fun and relaxation, yes? The sore muscles the day after from all that pull starting did a lot to convince me I wasn't going to be happy either. So I looked at the budget, then made a few phone calls. Somewhat surprisingly, it appears that many dealerships are eliminating their line of small accessory motors. I'm guessing this is all market driven, but it's looking like it will be getting more difficult in the future to just purchase a portable engine if you ever need one (<25 hp). Happily, I think I found the solution to my problem though.

A call over to "The Boat Place" and a few minutes of conversation with their sales lady (Jackie) and things were looking really good. A brand new Mercury 9.9 hp 4-stroke, short shaft with electronic start and tiller handle was confirmed "in stock" and we were on our way. A straight-forward cost and acceptance of my '96 Yamaha on trade at a fair price just sealed the deal. Willing to complete the deal on very short notice was a bonus also. So I head down the road Thursday afternoon to get my motors swapped out and the new engine rigged, and then out the door and over to the lake to test my new electronic ignition power plant...and maybe catch a few fish in the process. I'll post further Thursday afternoon once everything is complete, but if all goes as smooth in person as it has over the phone, I'll be singing the praises of this dealership; Great people to work with on your next boat purchase or service call.

Night of the Living Dinks

After heading 50 miles over to the east side of town to meet the gentleman from WV (boat sale), I decided to drop back in on the gravel pit on the way home. One week later and the water had warmed up to 47 degrees. Started with blades but nothing going on them...They must have moved shallow. So up on the flats we go and toss around with still no luck. Move shallow around some wood adjacent to deep water and start poppng fish. At first half a dozen crappies, but then we start popping bass. Bad news though is that they are all stockers. We keep shallow in mind and proceed to some pockets and corners with shallower water (<8') and continue banging the stockers. A few are coming on shallow running cranks, but the bait of the moment is a jerkbait. Couldn't buy a bite on one just last weekend on this same lake. Does a 5 degree increase in temps make that much difference? Apparently so as the fish have moved not only shallower but more aggressive. Later in the afternoon we run into a small group of quality hybrids. What a blast on jerkbaits. The first couple feel like quality largemouths until we get them close and realize what they are. On we go, at times getting doubles, but everything is a stocker today. Apparently the big fish didn't move up with the little guys. We drag plastics on the bottom thinking they're hugging a little deeper and draw blanks. That's the way it goes sometimes. End up with over 30 bass today with the best going 16", but most all others <14". Good numbers day but the quality fish have to show up sometime. 

We Interrupt This Broadcast...

While I spend probably 90% or more of my fishing time chasing bass, I have to admit to being a fish geek of sorts. As such, I love studying and researching all fish. So today I'm going to throw in an "off topic" post.

With ice-out now about complete in the southern half of our state, and not too far off for our northern friends, some of the first fish to spawn in Indiana are walleye and yellow perch. These fish are both in the same family of fishes, along with their cousins the sauger and the saugeye, both prevalent in Indiana waters. As most bass fishermen know, timing can play an important role in catching, and when fish move shallow to spawn or congregate for the said activity, the likelihood of fishing success increases.

Walleye typically spawn at a temperature range of about 40-45 degrees F. Yellow perch are slightly behind that in the 49-54 degree range. In both cases though, it is usually the males that make the first move shallow (in lakes) or to upriver impeding structures like dams (in rivers). The females then tend to follow behind shortly, usually 1-2 weeks later. With many of our river water temps now approaching the low 40's, along with increased flow through dams due to rain and snow melt/runoff, and favorable lengths of daylight/darkness, this biological process is getting really close to firing up. Reports I've been receiving are that the male walleyes in the rivers have already reached the dams and are showing signs of milting. The catch is composed of about 90% males at the moment, but a few larger females are starting to show up. If you live close to a tailwater fishery, these next 2-3 weeks are the ideal time to take advantage of the walleye bite. Best tactics include various jigs or jig and minnow combinations as well as simple outfits such as split-rigged minnows worked along bottom. At night, minnowbaits fished slowly but steadily will draw action.

The IDNR will be starting their broodstock program over on Brookville Res. the last week of March and the first week of April. Reservoir eyes tend to run just a slight bit behind their river brethren due to a little bit slower warmup in the water. If you've never heard or seen of the walleye propogation program you should really check it out. Here is a link to a good description from an old Bayou Bill column. I have also included a few pics from last years efforts along with this post.

On the yellow perch side, ice anglers to the north are reporting male perch have already moved into 5-6 foot of water and are biting aggressively. Perch lay their eggs in shallow water usually around objects such as dead weed stems or woody cover near the mouth of cuts and coves. These eggs, unlike the walleyes, are gelatinous and ribbon-like and cling to the cover in the water where they will stay until hatching. Most of our natural lakes have a good population of perch, but surprisingly they show up in most of our reservoirs, too. Their populations are usually just a secondary occurrence in these larger standing waters, but a couple have pretty significant populations. The best one that comes to mind is Summit Reservoir in east central Indiana, but I know Monroe has historically had a somewhat stable populaiton of them also. That said, I have incidentally caught them in Geist, Lemon and Glenn Flint Reservoirs before, so no telling for certain where they might show up. Fishing shallow and close to spawning cover with things like small minnows and jigs, along with spinners will usually get some perch action.

One final note, the DNR, Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Fisheries Research will begin a walleye tracking project in early April at Monroe Reservoir. Small radio transmitters will be surgically implanted in thirty-four walleyes in the first week in April. These walleye will be tracked biweekly for 12 months to record their whereabouts in the lake and to enable anglers to better locate walleye at this important fishing lake. Results will be regularly published to the DNR website.This is going to be a really cool research project, so I'll probably post a time or two again on the subject as results start coming in later this year. We now resume our regularly scheduled (bass) programming.

NASCAR, Indiana and Largemouth Bass

While I'm not a huge NASCAR fan, I do follow the sport a bit, listening to or watching several of the races as the schedule allows. Being here in Indiana, if you do track NASCAR stuff you'll know that there are 3 drivers that Indiana frequently calls "natives", those being Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. As home to the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing", the Indianapolis 500, as well as the Brickyard (Allstate) 400, we have 2 of the largest races in the world at our back door, along with several other major motor sports events.

There is an established link between bass fishing and NASCAR. Bass Pro Shops and Johnny Morris are pretty heavily involved in the sport. There is also the 'Hot Rods and Reels' charity bass fishing event held down at Daytona, Florida. So when I came across this article yesterday while making the plastics ingestion post, I had to follow up with this one, because of both its uniqueness as well as its Indiana connection: "Tony Stewart's Lake Project". I actually drive by 2 different Tony Stewart Racing facilities on my way to work each day. I'm thinking that I need to start dropping in and leaving messages for Tony to take me fishing some time this year.