(Un)official Hoosiers Thread

[IndianaFinesse]

7 hours ago, dsqui said:

Made it out on clear Sat night fished til 2 am managed one short pike on top water ( I have still not found a good top water bite I don't understand) switched to a Ned as sun went down for a big goose egg on it back to top as the sun was in its final half hour still nothing fished top til about1030 At this point I went to a bladed swim jig most fish I've ever caught on one all were rock bass lol well and two bonus walleye typical day on clear gotta love to hate this lake but it keeps me coming back for more

Punctuation might make it easier to read and understand.

[dsqui]

Ya maybe 

[IndianaFinesse]

Fishing's been hit or miss lately.  Not so good on Monday or Tuesday, only about three bass an hour each day, but very good (compared to recent trips) on Wednesday and fairly good today.  Caught 28 in about five hours on Wednesday, with 11 keepers for a 14 pound limit.  Some on frogs underneath docks, some on shallow cranks on points, some on deep cranks, and the majority on a shaky head offshore.  Also caught two channel cats, one eight pounder on a crank and the other 5 pounder on a shaky head.  The 5 was a male guarding either tiny fry or eggs, I could see him guarding something on a concrete slab.  First cat i've ever seen on a bed or caught sight fishing.

 

Today I was out for about 4.5 hours, and caught 21 bass with 7 fish over 15 inches.  Best five weighed 12 pounds or so.  Almost all of them on shallow cranks burned on points, only a couple on shaky heads offshore.

[frosty]

Got out tonight for a couple hours. Boy it sure was hot! Noticed some big mamas up around the weeds swimming around, but they weren't interested in anything I offered. I did manage to catch my first spinnerbait fish, caught a couple on a drop shot, and had a few weak attempts on my jig. It was so hot the fish were sweating so I wasn't surprised it was slow.

[IndianaFinesse]

Finally landed my first decent flathead today.  Had a few break me off in the past, but nothing landed until today.  Pulled him out from a brush pile on a breakline (the one you showed me about 20 feet off of the shoreline where the deep water cuts close in, next to a large grey dock with two boats underneath it's shingled roof.  Thanks @Team9nine!) with a shaky head, tied onto an eight pound leader.  Couldn't have been while I was fishing with straight braid of course, it had to be the second trip out after experimenting with using a mono leader.

 

 At first it didn't want to leave the brush pile and stayed down there rapping my line around all kinds of branches, but somehow it untangled itself (miraculously without fraying my line like yarn) and decided to go out into the much safer open water.  Followed it with the trolling motor on high, the thing was convinced it was going to spool my little 1500 size reel.

 

 After a few minutes of that, it pretty much stayed directly beneath this boat and didn't really go anywhere, didn't come up but didn't try to go away either.  Eventually it got tired and came up to the surface, which presented another dilemma.  It couldn't fit in our net.  Luckily I was fishing with two other people today, so one of them used the net and scooped its head into that, and the other grabbed the tail half of the fish and lifted it into the boat.  It thrashed the net, tore two large holes the rubber mesh, and bent the metal frame up pretty bad.

 

 By that point I had my own personal cheering squad, four pleasure boaters had stopped nearby to watch the fight, and the two houses nearby both had everybody outside watching.  

 

My scale only goes to 25 pounds, so unfortunately we couldn't get a weight on it, but we guessed it to be in the 45 pound area.  It measured 44.5 inches.  Felt awesome to finally land one of them after having three or four break me off.

[OddChase]

On 7/22/2017 at 10:40 PM, IndianaFinesse said:

It thrashed the net, tore two large holes the rubber mesh, and bent the metal frame up pretty bad.

 

At least your story was worth the net in my opinion! Congrats on your catch - trophy for sure. Now you just need to get a bigger reel and compete for that state record spot at 79 lbs. 

[IndianaFinesse]

10 hours ago, OddChase said:

At least your story was worth the net in my opinion! Congrats on your catch - trophy for sure. Now you just need to get a bigger reel and compete for that state record spot at 79 lbs. 

Definitely worth the net, we bought it for like 5$.  Not huge for a flathead by any means, just excited to finally land a decent one on lite tackle.  I'm not entirely sure i even want an 80 pound cat on the line, at least not on that set-up lol.  

 

On a side note, we tore the crappies up today on another lake. 160 fish, 137 of which came in a two hour period once we found an ideal structure situation.  Nonstop crappie action, an average of one every 55 seconds or so.  I could not have imagined a structure more ideal than it was, a hump rose out of 22 feet and topped out at four, and on one edge of the hump there is a huge 50'×50' brush pile.

[frosty]

1 hour ago, IndianaFinesse said:

On a side note, we tore the crappies up today on another lake. 160 fish, 137 of which came in a two hour period once we found an ideal structure situation.  Nonstop crappie action, an average of one every 55 seconds or so.  I could not have imagined a structure more ideal than it was, a hump rose out of 22 feet and topped out at four, and on one edge of the hump there is a huge 50'×50' brush pile.

Days like that spoil you  

[OddChase]

Headed to Raccoon Lake in a few weeks, anyone have suggestions on lures/locations to hit? I'd like to catch some bass for fun and crappie for dinner - staying a few nights at the campgrounds. 

[The Bassman]

Was just settling into a lively evening of frogging in a local retention pond.  Caught three 2.5-3 lbrs. in just twenty minutes when I thought I hooked a season PB.  After a lot of effort to keep his head from getting too deep in the slop I was greeted with about a 15 lb. snapping turtle! Really had no choice but to break him off and came back with a perfectly good Lunkerhunt popping frog minus the hook.  Hope the turtle can shake it.

[LxVE Bassin]

Any clubs in the Indianapolis area take non boaters. I am non boater but I want to fish some tourneys. Please pass along any information that you can.

[OddChase]

10 hours ago, LxVE Bassin said:

Any clubs in the Indianapolis area take non boaters. I am non boater but I want to fish some tourneys. Please pass along any information that you can.

Buddy of mine went to the Tuesday night Geist tournament, paid the $20 entry and was able to find a boater to fish with. Not sure how often it is but its possible. BFL has a co-angler program I believe but B.A.S.S. (at least in Eastern Indiana) requires boaters and coanglers to register together for partner tournaments. 

[Team9nine]

10 hours ago, LxVE Bassin said:

Any clubs in the Indianapolis area take non boaters. I am non boater but I want to fish some tourneys. Please pass along any information that you can.

 

Check out the P.O. Pluggers bass club. They're usually accepting non-boaters and fish mostly local water in their tourneys. Google search them for their web page. Indpls based and been around a long time. Good bunch of guys.

[Alan Reed]

On 7/30/2017 at 10:40 PM, LxVE Bassin said:

Any clubs in the Indianapolis area take non boaters. I am non boater but I want to fish some tourneys. Please pass along any information that you can.

Interested in Kayak fishing? Check out Indiana Kayak Anglers and Southern Indiana Kayak Anglers Klub. This month IKA will be fishing the White river in North East Indianapolis.

[Midwest Fisherman]

I have a couple Kayaks listed for sale if anyone is in the market, check them out. 

[dsqui]

3 hours ago, Midwest Fisherman said:

I have a couple Kayaks listed for sale if anyone is in the market, check them out. 

Check them out where 

[Midwest Fisherman]

Sorry, the flea market topic. Didn't know if I could put it here but I will if I can. 

[IndianaFinesse]

Had a great day for size yesterday afternoon, only caught 16 in 3.5 hours but most of them were keepers.  Best five weighed 15 3/4 pounds, topped by a 5.6 pound kicker.  First big bass I've caught (in Indiana) in a while.  She grabbed it on the fall and just sat there, i thought i had hooked a stick.  It took a 2-3 seconds of me reeling it in for the bass to start moving, guess she was confused or something.  

 

Everything hit an 1/8 ounce shaky head/full size trick worm combo, in old school black grape.  I haven't found that bass care squat about the color of my worms, so I have a bit of fun with them and throw all kinds of colors.  Usually something obnoxious like pink (I get a lot of comments about that one) chartreuse, white, etc. but today I went with the black grape, if any of you read much for older articles and stuff the colors black grape, blue, and yellow were the green pumpkin and black/blue of the day.  

 

Mostly fishing windblown points in 3-8 feet of water, the wind kept me on the shorelines.

[CroakHunter]

Enjoyable weekend. Caught a few on a neko rig Saturday morning, then took my step daughter out Saturday after noon. Ended up with 4 channel cats, 2 bluegill, and I stuck 2 on a jig. Hoping to get out to one of my big fish factories this Saturday. 

[Alan Reed]

On the hunt for some big smallies on the White River on the Northeast side on Indy today. 

 

Been catching some good fish down in the Columbus area over the past week.

[IndianaFinesse]

7 hours ago, Alan Reed said:

On the hunt for some big smallies on the White River on the Northeast side on Indy today. 

 

Been catching some good fish down in the Columbus area over the past week.

Man, that looks like some prime frogging water!  I'm envious, they've been spraying weeds around here so much that I haven't seen any surface vegetation (even algae) since I was up in Michigan.  And I love a good frog bite on mats or pads...

[BigBassLoveSenkos]

44 minutes ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Man, that looks like some prime frogging water!  I'm envious, they've been spraying weeds around here so much that I haven't seen any surface vegetation (even algae) since I was up in Michigan.  And I love a good frog bite on mats or pads...

next time your froggin, try burning a Gambler EZ swimmer on a 4/0 or 5/0 twistlock Qwner Beast hook across the pads.  so much fun and fewer missed hooksets 

[IndianaFinesse]

4 hours ago, BigBassLoveSenkos said:

next time your froggin, try burning a Gambler EZ swimmer on a 4/0 or 5/0 twistlock Qwner Beast hook across the pads.  so much fun and fewer missed hooksets 

Thanks for the tip, I haven't tried the big EZ yet.  If I'm on a good frogging bite I always carry three rods rigged up, one with a hollow belly (usually a junior pad crasher), one with a horny toad on a 4/0 ewg hook, and if I'm not worried about cost I will also have a 3.8 keitech fat impact on a 3/0 or 4/0 hook.  Cool thing about using the swim bait as a toad is that it can be used subsurface if a bass misses it or rolls on it, and it will often come back.  The toad and swim bait get the more open expanses of weeds/junk that don't have much for specific targets, especially when I'm still in search mode.  Caught one that weighed just over six even on the horny toad a few weeks back, up in Michigan.

[Alan Reed]

18 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

Man, that looks like some prime frogging water!  I'm envious, they've been spraying weeds around here so much that I haven't seen any surface vegetation (even algae) since I was up in Michigan.  And I love a good frog bite on mats or pads...

It is really good frogging. Caught this one on a horny toad. 

White river was good to me yesterday. Caught several good ones.  Hopefully the rain will stay away this week for a good tournament on Saturday.

[CroakHunter]

Anybody ever fished Bluegrass FWA just north of Evansville? Scoped it out today and boy what a beautiful set of pits they have. There are musky there and also lots of big largemouth.