Float Tubing for Early Season Bass

Anytime you can fish open water in the first few days of March…it’s a win for sure! This year, here in southern Indiana, we have had one of our most mild winters and all factors point to it staying that way. On Friday, March 3^rd, me and my buddy Frank Terkhorn traveled about an hour south and west to Greene-Sullivan State Forest in search of open water and some early season bass.

If you haven’t yet experienced the Greene-Sullivan State Forest then as they say, “You don’t know what you are missing”. Literally hundreds of lakes from a half acre to over 200 acres dot the landscape and can quickly take you to fly fishing bliss.
On this day Frank and I chose Turtle Lake as our beginning. Turtle is located in the Dugger Unit of GSSF and in fact is in the west portion of the unit. It is a small lake that can be circumvented in a float tube in under an hour and at the right time…has a very nice population of bass and some of the largest carp that I run into each year. The highlight of Turtle was a bald eagle that decided to show up and cruise just above me for a few minutes. What a majestic and proud looking bird. From my vantage point below I could see the curved portion of its beak and could see it heads swiveling from side to side as it scanned the waters below for a meal.

Our second lake, just a half mile or so further west, was Black Cat. Black Cat is larger and is quite deep…in some spots it quickly goes down to 130 foot of depth. As the sun started to rise and warm the waters along the edge I started to find small pockets of bass willing to eat my baitfish pattern and at one point caught 4 bass in 5 casts. Frank and I split Black Cat up into two smaller portions; I went the north half and Frank the southern half…all before meeting back up and sharing stories.
We ended our day with a short jaunt north to Hillenbrand FWA which is located between Jasonville and Linton along highway 59. This is in my opinion a portion and series of lakes that are underutilized. We chose a smaller lake located in the western portion of the FWA and once again, Frank being a ‘lefty’ went one direction and I a ‘righty’ went the other. While the fishing wasn’t stellar I had to remind myself that it was the first few days in March and I was fly fishing open water…hard to get that fly line through a hole in the ice?

If ever in southern Indiana, don’t pass up an opportunity to fish one of the hundreds of lakes just waiting for a fly-guy to dowse his line! You can gather all the info you need by emailing the folks at the GSSF Office in Dugger, Indiana at: GreeneSF@dnr.IN.gov or by calling 812-648-2810…tell them that fly fishing with Jeff sent you.