Chasing "chunks" in the Hoosier state!

Jed Pearson, Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife

Bluegills, Lepomis macrochirus, are the most abundant and most important fish in northern Indiana natural lakes. Based on standardized data compiled by the Division of Fish and Wildlife at 197 lakes since the 1980s, bluegills averaged 45% of the number and 15% of the weight of fish collected in 387 fish population surveys. Electrofishing catch rates in June from 219 surveys at 125 lakes averaged 86/15-minutes of sampling…

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If you're a bluegill, that is. I love coming across little bitty  "one-liners" either in articles or research papers that either stand out as being profound, or explain via scientific documentation something generally perceived or accepted in the (bass) fishing world. Kind of like one of those "A-HA" moments. I don't find many of them, but I've come across a pair of studies…

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In Indiana, as well as most of the country, panfish are the most sought after fish by the majority of anglers. Of this large family of fish, bluegills and crappie make up the majority of the anglers focus. Harvested numbers of these two fish typically exceeds 100,000 fish in any given year on a large reservoir or lake. And of these fish, a large percentage are caught on live bait.



There are many ways of fishing live bait, but for panfish some form of bobber fishing is the standard… Continue