Thread: Thoughts on this year's fishing

I'm basically a bluegill/ear fisherman, but do chase the specks in the spring in some local gravel pits. This year has been very abnormal weather wise and the tremendous amounts of rain have made it a very challenging year on the water.

My favorite lakes have always been high and muddy, leading to mediocre fishing. We've had some success at Hardy and Elk Creek, with Hardy being the most productive. The Hoosier Forest lakes weren't their productive selfs, at least for my wife and I. My annual trip to Dogwood was a disappointment, not numbers wise but definitely size wise. How has everyone else's year been on the water?

Originally Posted by redearhoosier

I'm basically a bluegill/ear fisherman, but do chase the specks in the spring in some local gravel pits. This year has been very abnormal weather wise and the tremendous amounts of rain have made it a very challenging year on the water.

My favorite lakes have always been high and muddy, leading to mediocre fishing. We've had some success at Hardy and Elk Creek, with Hardy being the most productive. The Hoosier Forest lakes weren't their productive selfs, at least for my wife and I. My annual trip to Dogwood was a disappointment, not numbers wise but definitely size wise. How has everyone else's year been on the water?

Raccoon hasn't been the same since the floods early on. We are still hoping to get in some fall fishing there but it doesn't look promising. I have never caught so many stupid catfish there in all my life as what we have this year.

Waveland was good to us in the spring once we got there but ended up wasting 3 days at coon before we realized it.

I primarly fish Hardy almost every weekend. Now and then will venture off to other locations. All in all, this year has been one of the worst years I have ever had. The weather has been terrible with rain, and wind. I can say I had only one or two stellar days for big crappie since March. Bluegill fishing was great this year, producing large catches of big fish (redear and bluegill) but bite and spawn was very short, maybe two or three weeks. Catfish bit real well in the river, but that bite was very short lived as well. I could not wait for fall to get here, to get back at the crappie, and have been very disappointed thus far. If we were rating 1 to 10, I would give this year an overall 4. But I guess I could have a lot more to complain about! I still enjoyed my time on the water with family and friends, and it keeps me sane, catching fish or not. Spring is right around the corner........right?

In spite of the rather strange weather we had this last summer,...July was unusually cool as most of you well know,...my best fishing occurred on the Barbee lake chain up in North Webster mostly catching 'gills and redear.
I had a fairly decent day on Round Lake north of Columbia City here a while
back. Salamonie and Mississinewa were not as kind to me this year,though,
but I caught just a few very small crappie at the spillway at Mississinewa
the last time out. Hoping to go out one more time before I have to winterize the boat,...this week is looking somewhat promising,but who knows what this crazy Indiana weather will bring.

Lake Freeman and Shafer has been really bad this year. Flooding causing the dam gates to be open for a couple months then more rain and just plain screwed up year of weather just killed the fishing. I hope next year is better.
Bill

in general ****y

Except for the crappie and bluegill spawn this Spring, it wasn't a very good season for me as far as the catching went. Only a few here and there. However, I did get my first fishing boat this spring, so it was still a great summer learning about my boat, trying some different types of fishing and exploring the lakes in the area.

I went out yesterday afternoon and got skunked. Hopefully there will be a couple of more chances for some fall fishing yet.