Spring Fishing Is In Full Fury

If you haven’t made it out yet to your favorite fishing hole….GET GOING!!! The fishing this spring, though it has been wet, has been excellent and may be peaking out right now. So are the bugs and no matter what you have been doing you have had to tolerate the biting gnats that are so rudely biting and bothering. So…here is a tip I picked up a while back…and if it is not new, great, just pass it along to others. Try one part vanilla to seven parts water in a spray bottle. Go ahead, I know it sounds nuts, but it works and while our no see-ums will still buzz you they won’t bite and leave those nasty welts on your ears, neck, etc… The best part for me is that I love vanilla and if I’m not hungry then all is good…the later I fish the more I want a sugar cookie?

This past Wednesday found me and a local businessman, Frank, visiting one of our local, private lakes in search of…well anything that would take our flies; and take they did. We both entered the water together in our float tubes and Frank went east and I went west and hadn’t even yet stripped out my line when I looked over and there between me and the shore was something from a Cabela’s aquarium. There was at least 6 big bass cruising by me and I hurriedly stripped out 20 feet of line from my 2 weight and made a cast ahead of the group, made two quick strips and waited when the end of my fly line moved and I strip set the take. I had hooked one of the group and had a good fight on my hand as I landed the first of many bass this night…it was a 16 inch model, a female with a big tummy. I took her off and let her go to my right and made yet another cast and on the second strip another bruiser took my green streamer. This fish immediately jumped out of the water and I could see it was even bigger than the first and about a minute later I had my second bass; it was 18 inches and weighed a good 4 ½ to 5 pounds and was bursting with eggs.

The lake we were fishing was big…but not so big that Frank and I couldn’t watch each other and I could see that Frank was also catching fish and at one point we met on our circle of the lake. Frank was using a smaller streamer and was catching crappie like they were going out of style. We both sat motionless casting into one area and allowing our flies to sink and then setting the hook on fish after fish. I did catch a few crappie but because my streamer was larger I caught mostly bass…and big ones, on the night I landed about 15 bass and the smallest was 14 inches. Frank on the other hand kept and came up with a nice stringer of crappie and bluegills.

I had two highlights during our night together; first was catching two 23 inch catfish on my 2 weight fly rod…if you haven’t tried that then believe me they were both a tussle. The second highlight came as Frank and I were in our crappie thon…I made a long cast parallel to the shore and a large bass came out and snarfed my streamer. I did a noble job trying to land him on 4x tippet and a 2 weight rod but in the end the bruin won and broke me off with a rod bending run to the depths. As all fishermen will admit the ones that get away are always bigger…but this was a very big bass that would have easily matched my big bass from 3 weeks ago; well as they say Sacre Bleu!!!!

This past weekend found me and Vickie camping at Shakamak. I managed to get to Midland Lake in time to catch about a dozen bass before the sun went down and left me to the mercy of the millions of black gnats; the sheer number were maddening and I pulled out before my nose became completely clogged up. I was up early and made my way to Black Cat in the West Dugger Unit of the Greene-Sullivan State Forest. I had a few tips lately that the Muskies were active and I tied on a monster of a fly to my 8 weight rod and used a single 6 foot piece of 20 pound tippet in hopes of catching another of these toothy beasts…but as luck would have it I only caught bass and 3 were over 15 inches. I made one loop of the 20 acre lake and returned to the truck by 9:30am and made my way across Highway 54 to Island Pit in Minnehaha. I changed up to my 2 and 3 weight rods and smaller streamers. The next two hours were incredible as the wind was up a little (keeping the bugs down) and the bass were in a feeding frenzy.

I was making cast parallel to the shore with a floating 2 weight line and a weighted, green Civil War Streamer tied with some flashy green chenille that was just the ticket. By making shorts strips and allowing the fly to sink and then jump up…followed by another fall; this yo-yoing of the fly was apparently too much as I landed over 20 bass and most were in the 13 to 16 inch range. The floating fly line acts like a bobber and keeps the weighted fly in the zone for a long period of time. At one spot where the wind was pushing bait fish into the shore I sat for over 10 minutes casting, stripping and catching bass and as they say, “It don’t get any better than that”!

If you have been out then you know how good the fishing is…if not then don’t wait for an invitation as Indiana is full of lakes just calling your name.  If you are looking for a location head your vehicle west and give the Greene-Sullivan State Forest a try and you too….will find yourself Enjoying the Great Outdoors.