(Un)official Hoosiers Thread

[frosty]

Well I gotta give @Siebert Outdoors credit, they sure make a heck of swim jig. First time I've ever tried one was tonight, I caught 2-1 1/2 to 2 pound bass, then promptly threw it over a tree branch and broke the **** thing off went right back to siebert and ordered a replacement and 2 more! 

 

[CroakHunter]

Hopefully headed up to Turtle Creek Resevoir Friday. I knkw there are some absolute giants in there. 1 over 10 lb was caught there last year. And i believe 600 over 24 inches. Im stoked! I will be fishing with my grandpa who knows the lake like the back of his hand and is retired from the power plant and has access to employee only areas.

[frosty]

Make sure to post some pictures and have a good time with your grandpa. 

[dsqui]

Went out yesterday managed quite a few bass with three bonus walleye water temp was up to 50º all bass were caught on Rocky Sandy bottoms on points

[The Bassman]

Made my first wade the other day. Lots of smallie action on small paddletails including one 18 incher. Water was 60 deg. so not bad on bare legs.  Life is good again!

[OddChase]

Took a wade through some headwaters this weekend and slayed the white bass on a small paddletail as well. Good time to be out in the water! 

[The Bassman]

It seems like every spring we get a spell of decent wading water followed by weeks of rain.  I try to seize it while I can.

[BrianMRetter]

Went to a stone quarry owned by a family friend today. Crystal clear water, 15' visibility. Fished around 6:00pm & caught 2 around 1.5lbs. 1 on a Basstrix paddle tail rigged on a 1/4oz swimbait hook & the other on a small Berkley Swim Shad (I think?). It was windy when we caught them. 20 minutes later the wind died so we had glass calm/ultra clear water & we couldn't get a bite. First fish I've ever caught on a swimbait of any kind, definitely boosted my confidence in them  

[IndianaFinesse]

Bass are starting to bed here, most of them aren't locked on yet but are staying very close by to swept out beds and come back within thirty seconds when spooked.  Water temperature is 67 degrees with two feet of visibility.  Got out yesterday for an hour and caught 9 bass sight fishing with half of a zinkerz. 

Crappie are also moving up onto the docks, the males anyways.  Last Saturday I caught a dozen crappie all over ten inches during the morning for a couple hours fishing docks with minnows, despite the water being stirred up by a tournament.  Females were still staging out on the first break into deeper water, but I left them alone since I was looking for a meal and would prefer to eat the males than the egg laden females.  

[KLoell]

The annual fishing trip with a group of friends is coming up beginning of April.  We camp and fish at the Green-Sullivan State Forest.  We always have a big fish fry at the end of the trip so the main focus is usually panfish.  There are plenty of strip pits everywhere in the area, with some of the more accessible/popular ones being Airline, Wampler, etc.. 

 

Was curious to see if any of you guys ever fish out that way and had any suggestions on which strip pits to possibly check out?

 

Thanks in advance! 

[The Bassman]

On 4/19/2017 at 9:41 PM, BrianMRetter said:

Went to a stone quarry owned by a family friend today. Crystal clear water, 15' visibility. Fished around 6:00pm & caught 2 around 1.5lbs. 1 on a Basstrix paddle tail rigged on a 1/4oz swimbait hook & the other on a small Berkley Swim Shad (I think?). It was windy when we caught them. 20 minutes later the wind died so we had glass calm/ultra clear water & we couldn't get a bite. First fish I've ever caught on a swimbait of any kind, definitely boosted my confidence in them  

 

Now that my friend is the good life! Step out the back door and get to work. Wish I had that when the spouse is getting difficult (or maybe it was me).

[OddChase]

On 4/19/2017 at 9:41 PM, BrianMRetter said:

 First fish I've ever caught on a swimbait of any kind, definitely boosted my confidence in them  

 

Swimbaiting is pretty addictive! I'll have to pick up some different ones soon but I've caught a lot of fish on the KVD Swim'n Shad - they have a strong coffee scent that I've never had before on a bait and the bass seem to love it. Also it's nearly impossible to rig wrong on a screw-lock hook. 

[hoosierbass07]

I have Friday off.  So I ran to the local motor vehicle bureau to get my little john boat registered so I can put numbers on it so I can go to Rockville Lake in Parke county and be legal while I use a trolling motor on it.  I only paid $50.00 for this john boat last year at a yard sale and it thing is super light and does not leak one bit.  

 

  I get there and there was only one or two other people doing business.  The girl behind the counter who is doing nothing says "Take a number!"  I look at her in bewilderment.  I'm basically the only person standing there and I have to take a number?  Whatever, I take one.  Then tell her I want to register my little john boat.  Nope!  I need a bill of sale and inspection from an officer.  So, I only paid $50 for this thing from a nice lady and her husband last year.  There was no bill of sale or title.  It's a little old john boat that suits me fine.  So here I go trying to be legal and trying to give the state of Indiana money but nope - I have to go jump thru hoops to get this thing registered.  So what am I suppose to do?  Go back to the house that I bought it from and have them sign the bill of sale?  seems stupid but I guess I'll have to do that.  Ridiculous.  

[Scott F]

What if someone stole your boat and got it registered without proof you sold it to them? Should the state make it easy for thieves that have no paperwork? 

[hoosierbass07]

Point taken.  Still, I only paid $50 for this and here I am wanting to be legal AND give money to the state to register the thing and now I have to do this extra work to register it.  There were numbers on the boat and I gave it to the lady and she ran them and nothing came up.  

[frosty]

Odd that nothing came up but I know until July of last year you didn't have to register a boat that was valued under $1000, but still seems weird because it would have to have been registered to have numbers?

 

maybe I'm wrong, I don't think they had to be titled. Still had to register them. 

[Team9nine]

July 1 of 2016 was when the rules changed. It used to be a boat valued at less than $3,000 when new didn't have to be titled. I used that exemption on my 1648 jon that I modified into a bass style boat. The new law doesn't state a minimum now to my knowledge, meaning all boats must be titled (except non-motorized), and the seller now must provide a bill of sale to the owner. Guessing that is why you are having trouble.

 

-T9

[frosty]

There is no minimum, just the motorized stipulation. I just registered my bass raider a couple months ago and was disappointed to learn about the law change. 

[Team9nine]

Maybe that's why kayaks are becoming so popular with bass anglers now - non-motorized and don't have to be titled 

[frosty]

Probably, and I thought about going that direction, but my swimming ability is likened to a rock, and I wanted something I could take my wife and son out on. The bass raider only cost me $45 to title it, and then it's $16 a year, pretty reasonable and even better there's no trailer plates!

[IndianaFinesse]

Long story short, our starter went out at the ramp while attempting to launch the boat to prefish brookville.  Bottom of the starter completely blew off.  Couldn't find any matching starters in Indiana, so we are having one shipped overnight from Michigan.  So we obviously could not prefish, but we did get the water temperature in roughly the center of the lake which is 60.5 degrees.  Still planning on fishing the tournament this Sunday, but without prefishing we will be fishing an entirely new type of lake (for me) and for smallies which I have little experience with.  How do you guys go about fishing a tournament on a lake that you have never fished before?  Cover water quickly like in prefishing or slower?  Any specific areas to hit would also be a bonus via pm, there is going to be 84 boats again in the tournament so our first spot or two will likely be the only chance we get at fish.

 

 

[dsqui]

 Not knowing the lake old still approach it like any other bass in general are creatures of habit old say study a lake mapand hit the local shops for ideas on where to start then try to duplicate them on the contour map

[BrianMRetter]

Anyone ever fished Sugar Creek river for smallits? Ive heard from Crawfordsville to Turkey Run States Park is one of the best stretches of river in the state for them. Was wondering what the best time of year would be for that or of anyone has tried.

[The Bassman]

It's great right now.  Just be prepared for nonstop canoe traffic from local liveries especially as the weather warms up.  Doesn't seem to bother the bass, though.

[OddChase]

17 minutes ago, BrianMRetter said:

Anyone ever fished Sugar Creek river for smallits? Ive heard from Crawfordsville to Turkey Run States Park is one of the best stretches of river in the state for them. Was wondering what the best time of year would be for that or of anyone has tried.

My father, brother and I took a kayak trip down Sugar Creek last summer and it was fantastic! Beautiful area and plenty of fishing holes. We drifted from point 5 to point 7 on this map and caught more smallies than we could keep track of. There are also gar in the river as well. Be warned though - there are some spots in the river that are only about 6 inches of water and we frequently had to get out and pull our kayaks into deeper water. Not sure about the hardiness of kayak hulls, just something to keep in mind. 

 

Floating down the river and fishing takes a lot longer than I had imagined. The stretch of river we fished was measured at 10 miles and a leisure 'yaker would take 4 hours to complete the trip, whereas we took about 6 and a half. Bring the sunscreen and have fun!