Greene-Sullivan Trout Fishing

I am sure it is quite obvious that I like fly fishing; honestly it doesn’t matter to me what I am after…from catfish to bluegills, bass to crappie, or even the elusive trout, right up the food chain of my personal fish list to the top…smallmouth bass. Fly fishing from one of my tubes, especially my Creek Company float tube is certainly at the top of the list! This past week (April 1^st) was and always is, trout season here in Indiana…now it probably doesn’t rank very highly in the scheme of outdoor events; certainly it isn’t deer or turkey season, but for me it is a part of the year that I get pumped up for.

You can say what you want…but when a 68 year old guy also gets excited, can’t sleep, well he’s either crazy or he also loves fly fishing; such was the case with my buddy Frank Terkhorn as we pulled out  at around 6am on April 1^st on our way to Island Pit in Minnehaha (more later). Little did we know that just a few miles south of Spencer our plans of fishing would turn dramatically; one of my anchor points atop my Suburban pulled loose and before I could do anything both of our Creek Company Voyager tubes flew off the top of the car and landed smack dab in the middle of US 231. I won’t go into great details but suffice it to say that there was a few moments of panic; when we got to the lake we had to have a minute or two of the 6 Million Dollar Man TV show from the 70’s as we rebuilt, took parts from both boats and finally put life into one of the big tubes…which Frank used and I, as I always do, had my smaller tube with me and fished from it. All in all…no one hurt and nothing too major that we couldn’t fix; my system for hauling our tubes has been completely redone and barring something totally unexpected…we won’t have any more of these “crazy” moments.

As we pulled into the back portion of Island Pit I commented to Frank that it seems odd that there weren’t a passel of folks already here in hot pursuit of trout; but we readied our gear and pushed off into the morning twilight. Frank went rowing across the lake and I used my kick fins to ‘back pedal’ across the open water to the other side of the cove; geese and ducks were rattling and honking everywhere as I stripped out line from my Cabela’s TQR 5 weight rod and made a cast to the edge…waited a minute and slowly retrieved my crème colored, size 6, trout candy. Several casts and a few minutes had passed and I was slowly watching the lake come alive with color when I felt a tug, I strip set with my left hand and noticed the familiar flash of a rainbow trout on the other end. A few seconds later and I netted a nice 15 inch rainbow that had beautiful color; it seemed odd that they had released fish this large but I thought maybe the hatchery had a great run of fish.

A few minutes later and I watched as a truck parked nearby on the road; three folks got out and made their way down to the water’s edge, readied their equipment and threw out a line. This made me feel better knowing that there were indeed others here for trout. Fast forward an hour and I hadn’t caught anymore trout…I had caught several bass but not catching trout once again had me scratching my head. As I crossed paths with Frank I told him that something didn’t seem right so we loaded up our boats and made our way to the check-in station on the other side, there was a phone number on the door that we quickly called and found out a very useful piece of information…they hadn’t stocked Island Pit because Peabody Coal had taken back part of the lake (something I don’t clearly understand yet). The lady told me that they had stocked Airline Pit in Greene-Sullivan State Forest and Midland Lake in Hillenbrand FWA. Finally we knew what was going on; Midland is one of my favorite lakes and in 20 minutes we were once again unloading our tubes.

The wind had picked up and had to be blowing at 25mph! If you haven’t been in a float tube in ‘white-cap’ water…let’s just say it is interesting and takes some real leg strength to move or even stay stationary. I quickly figured out that if I casted up-wind and then allowed the fly to slowly sink with an occasional soft strip of about 5 inches…well the next couple hours, while they were physically demanding…paid off with big dividends as I caught a nice bunch of frisky trout and about as many 12 to 14 inch bass as a guy can catch; it was one of those awesome mornings I won’t soon forget.

Watch this video for an up close and personal look at trout fishing in the Greene-Sullivan State Forest.

Saturday of the same week found me up early and while the rains we sustained mid-week wouldn’t allow me to fish at Midland, I moved the few miles over to Airline Pit. If you haven’t fished Airline then place it on your to-do list as it is a spectacularly scenic and clear lake. The same protocol once again worked like a charm; I was fishing from my small tube, crème colored trout candy and allowing it to slowly sink with soft strips or twitches. In a couple hours of ‘touring’ the lake I landed several more nice trout along with a bunch of 9 inch bluegill and a few nice bass.

I finished up the week with a fabulous Sunday afternoon that found me and Vickie once again fishing and experiencing Airline Pit; Vickie spent the afternoon in her kayak, reading and just enjoying the early spring sunshine while I made a lap around the narrow section of the lake, with its beauty, its trout…it all made for a fantastic time together Enjoying the Great Outdoors.