Big Indiana Bass

Join a Bass Club in 2012 - Raccoon Bass Anglers

If you've thought about joining a bass club this coming year, and live in the Indy or west central Indiana area, you're in luck. I received a note from the guys with Raccoon Bass Anglers, and they'd like to add a few new members to their club this coming year. They currently have about a dozen members from all age groups and are looking for additional non-boaters and boaters as well.  They fish every three weeks on Sundays from March until November.  If you're interested, you can contact their club at raccoonbassanglers@gmail.com and get more information. They also have a Facebook page you can visit:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Raccoon-Bass-Anglers/207984885933624

On a side note, club member Bryce Clendenning took advantage of the relatively warm December we had and caught several nice bass in the 5 pound range and above from some local waters. The fish below were caught on what I referred to as "Cold Water Must Have #2" in a post from November 2007, the blade bait. You simply shouldn't go fishing without at least one rod having this bait tied on during the cold water periods of the year here in Indiana. Bryce tallied some impressive numbers this year himself, managing 1,573 bass, with 15 of those fish going over 5lbs.  His original goal was 1000 bass and 10 largemouth over 5lbs., so you can see it was a very good bassin' year for him.

 

Time for the Newton Lake Reports to Begin

While it may be in the 50's outside today, it is still the middle of December, and that means that it's time to start thinking about making the trip over to Newton Lake in Illinois. Bob Sturm and company did just that over the weekend and reported catching over 100 bass between the group. They also managed some nice crappie while there, so a very successful trip in general, and they didn't have to freeze their asses off doing it :)

Bored On a Sunday Afternoon

The rain has set in good for the next 3 days, so I grabbed a few pics out of the archives that I like, along with a couple recent shots, and played around more with the photo editing software. Here's what I came up with (so far)...

Giant 8lb. 9oz. Eagle Creek Largemouth

Ron Adams caught this giant 8lb 9oz. largemouth at Eagle Creek while fishing the Sunday morning tourney this weekend. Needless to say they got big bass for the event (and won).

Fall Big Bass Keep Coming

Hope he doesn't mind me sharing :) but just saw that Bill Wilhite caught a nice 21", 5-02 largemouth this past week out at Waveland on a crankbait. Haven't been out there in a while myself, but hoping to make it another time or two before things come to a close.

 

Tuesday Night Big Bass

Long time Geist regular Jeff Hackler sent in this pic of a 6.87 pound largemouth he caught in the final Tuesday night tourney of the year out at Geist yesterday.

Big Northern Indiana Bass

For all you guys in the northern part of the state, I received this e-mail earlier in the week representing your area well:

"My name Is Robert Peters from Crown Point, Indiana. I caught two 7 lbs, a 7.6 lbs, 8.04 lbs, 9.02 lbs, and 9.19 lbs largemouth bass in June 2011 in a private 30-acre lake near Lake County. Also caught a 15-lb. muskie, a 5-lb. smallmouth and 3 walleye over 6 lbs. in June 2011 on the same lake.  Photos of each attached."

 

With the right management, it's pretty amazing what kind of fish a lake or pond can produce. If you're interested in that subject area, one of my favorite sites to visit and see what's being done in the Midwest with specialized pond management for producing trophy fish of all kinds is the Nate Herman's blog, Diary of a Lake Nerd. With his brother Justin, Herman Brothers Pond Management currently manages more than 1500 acres of water in Central Illinois. If you like looking at pics of big fish, then you'll love that site.

Big Holiday W/E Waveland Sack

Just in case you need some incentive to fish the Waveland tourney posted yesterday, I received the following pic and details.

 

"These fish were from July 1st over at Waveland. Things started off slow with the rain and the cold front, but after the rain died down I ended up catching 12 fish off of one spot. These were 2 of my biggest, big bass being 5 and a quarter."

-Derick Grant

The Payoff for Persistence

Fished the home reservoir yesterday and traffic was as bad as I figured it would be. Fished right in the middle of the day (2:00-5:30) and by then all the Yahoo's were out. Still managed 18 bass despite the rocking, rolling and hull slapping, but the struggle was rewarded late in the trip with this 5-02 largemouth caught on a shaky head.

 

Don't Give Up on Geist!

Geist bite is  pretty decent off of the main lake channel.  With a bit of patience and fishing slow …  you might catch this!

- Bruce Humphrey

 

Southern Indiana Largemouth

Site regular John Luttrull just checked in a with a couple nice fish. The one in the pic weighed 6.2 pounds. It looks like a cell phone pic taken at night, so I've worked with it as best I could to clean it up. The other pic he sent was of a 4.6 pound bass. I'll load that one on the Big Indiana Bass Facebook Page. John usually does most of his big bass catching down around the Bluegrass F&W region of the state.

More Reader Pics

Kayak angler Justin Kivett, with one of 3 nice largemouth all caught on 06/14 with a Red Dirt white and gold blade spinnerbait from a lake in Indy. Justin said, "I was inspired to hit the water with my kayak after looking at the Shelly "Doc" Friedman pictures. Turned out to be a good idea."