Oliver Lake report and good news on trout water there this year

[taxid]

Buck Toenges that has as place on the lake told me the following:

Caught 2 18” rainbows and 1 16” rainbow.  Caught 1 20” brown.  All in Olin.  Except for the 16” rainbow, all caught near bottom.  I am under the belief that the guys kayaking in fall catch more holdovers.  I have some videos of trout striking the spoon using my water wolf camera if you are interested.

When I asked him if they still has the profile of stream fish due to a diet mostly of zooplankton and invertebrates he said the following:

The 18” rainbows were very heavy solid fish not skinny at all. The 18” rainbows were caught 40’ down.  There was clutter like what you see as thermocline down in 50-60 fow.  The marks were 50’ down in 55-60 fow.  I trolled about 5’ up from the marks. One video I have trolling 45’ down is very dark.  You see the rainbow coming up to get the spoon.  I was very surprised to see how dark it was.  This was in Olin.  45’ down is just about as dark in Oliver.  The camera was looking level and horizontal.  I don’t know if it was as dark to a fish that was perhaps looking up. The 20” brown was a thick fish also. I caught that one by the Martin lake enterance from Olin.  It was caught like 25’ down in 30 fow.  I also caught some stockers in the same location and depth downrigging. I think these trout lodge fish are very bottom oriented fish.  In early July I was catching stocker rainbows in Olin on the bottom 30-40’ down using lindsey rigs.
 
They are up in early morning and late afternoon/evening   One video I have using a plastic swim bait trolling 20’ down deep  over water in evening in Olin showed a lot of stockers.
Buck

I will post water temps and oxygen profiles in my next post recently done by Larry Koza INDNR District II biologist. Being called to lunch and if I'm late the world will end as we know it!



 

[taxid]

From Larry Koza District II biologist regarding water quality testing recently: (Courtesy Buck Toenges correspondence)



We have checked temp/do and water clarity three times so far, including today. The temp/do profile looks much better than last year, which I expected because we have had, in my opinion, a much milder summer. Today we had:
 
Oliver
20’          68.1        6.24
22’          62.1        6.33
24’          56.6        6.17       
26’          52.3        5.31
28’          50.1        5.02       
30’          48.6        4.44
32’          47.0        4.27       
34’          45.9        4.31
36’          45.4        4.25
 
Olin
16’          68.9        11.04
18’          62.0        11.06
20’          57.2        9.86
22’          52.4        7.88       
24’          49.3        6.48       
26’          46.9        5.10
28’          45.6        3.64       
30’          44.8        4.08
 
This was pretty similar to what we saw in previous samples this summer. We will not be going back anymore this year since it appears the trout layer is looks pretty healthy this year.
 

 

[taxid]

I may actually buy a trout stamp this year and head up with my kayak. OTOH Michigan still has higher quality opportunities. Need to head up the Jordan Fish Hatchery in Elmira Michigan at some point for an article I am doing for an aquaculture newsletter where I want to compare the culture of cisco with trout. They are rearing cisco up there on the side to bolster dwindling numbers in the inland lakes of southern Michigan. Same problem Indiana has.

[taxid]

Oliver also got 2000 browns in May. I still say people are keeping them under 18 inches in defiance of the regs. When I had people telling me so I called someone at the Conservation LEO. Got a female and she promised someone would get back to me. I never got a response. But then I never do anyway when I call in. The only way they get back to me is by email. So keep that in mind if you want to report something.

 

[zwiggles]

Is the size limit the same for browns and rainbows? For those of us who know it’s almost laughable, but I have talked to a lot of people who think the rainbows I catch are in fact browns.

[taxid]

18 inch limit on the browns. It's posted at the boat ramp. At least it was last time I put it inside the kiosk.

Minimum size for rainbows is 7 inches but it's unlikely you will catch them that small. I think they are a few inches bigger when planted.

Don't go by the regs illustration for the way to tell them apart. Regs so no spots on the tail of a brown trout. Thats bull****. I pointed this out but was blown off. Had NH biologist tell me apparently Indiana doesn't know much about trout. 

[taxid]

your not going to buy a stamp for a couple 18-20ers. plenty of better stuff to eat on this planet. lol  those bigger ones do taste a lot better than the stockers though.

Probably right, but I don't catch the trout to eat anyway. Pretty much catch and release. I'm a trophy angler 'cause I know a good taxidermist that does both skin mounts and replicas.  . If the odds are low I won't catch a trout in the 25 inch range I'll go up to Michigan or the St. Joe. Used to be a time where if you put in your time you might get a 7 or 8 pound brown on the chain. I believe with only seasonal minnows, invertebrates and zooplankton that's pretty much over with these days.

A biologist in Michigan told me once that with no coldwater forage you're lucky to get 2 or 3 years out of a holdover and over 4 lbs. A few exceptions with old brown trout that get big enough to forage on newly stocked rainbows