Indiana concentrates its quality: Monroe and Patoka in the forested south (hybrids, bass and famous bluegill), Lake Michigan's corner in the northwest with genuine trout-and-salmon water, and a hundred natural kettle lakes in the north where muskie and panfish culture runs deep.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Indiana's big water: quiet coves, hybrid stripers and Hoosier National Forest shorelines.
Southern Indiana's timbered gem: big bluegill are the local crown.
Indiana’s clear-water anomaly: Brookville hides walleye, smallmouth and true striped bass in Whitewater Valley hill country.
Indiana’s largest natural lake: Wawasee’s clear water and deep holes hold walleye, bass and bluegill.
Indiana’s smallmouth float: the Tippecanoe winds 180 miles of gravel and current through farm country to the Wabash.
Indianapolis’ backyard lake: Geist holds bass, crappie and hybrid stripers among the docks.
Northeast Indiana timber water: Salamonie holds crappie, bass and catfish behind a flood-control dam.
Indiana’s walleye and crappie reservoir: Mississinewa fishes clear water over rock and timber.
Indiana’s first flood-control lake: Cagles Mill holds crappie, bass and catfish beside Cataract Falls.
Indianapolis’ river: the White runs smallmouth, catfish and a recovering fishery through central Indiana.
Indiana’s canoe creek: Sugar Creek runs smallmouth past the cliffs of Turkey Run and Shades.
Southern Indiana’s karst stream: the Blue River runs smallmouth through cave country.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Monroe | Reservoir | Monroe | USGS | Mar |
| Patoka Lake | Reservoir | Orange | USGS | Mar |
| Brookville Lake | Reservoir | Franklin | USGS | Mar |
| Lake Wawasee | Lake | Kosciusko | modeled | Apr |
| Tippecanoe River | River | Pulaski | USGS | May |
| Geist Reservoir | Reservoir | Hamilton | modeled | Mar |
| Salamonie Lake | Reservoir | Huntington | USGS | Mar |
| Mississinewa Lake | Reservoir | Miami | USGS | Mar |
| Cagles Mill Lake | Reservoir | Owen | modeled | Mar |
| White River | River | Marion | USGS | May |
| Sugar Creek | River | Montgomery | USGS | May |
| Blue River | River | Harrison | modeled | May |
Southern Indiana is reservoir country: Monroe's big-water hybrids and Patoka's timbered bass water inside national forest. The north holds glacial kettle lakes (Webster's muskies, Wawasee's depth) with an old-school resort fishing culture. And the northwest corner touches Lake Michigan: skamania steelhead run Trail Creek and the St. Joseph in the heat of summer, a fishery most of the country never hears about.
May: bluegill beds (a Hoosier institution) and crappie brush. Summer: skamania in the tributaries: the only true summer steelhead east of the Rockies: plus night bass on the reservoirs. Fall: muskies on the natural lakes and hybrid schools at Monroe. Winter: ice season on the kettles, sauger below the Ohio River dams.
A summer-run steelhead strain stocked in Lake Michigan tributaries: they enter Indiana creeks in June-August heat, jump like tarpon and break hearts. Trail Creek in Michigan City is the epicenter.