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MFF US Midwest => Indiana => Topic started by: FW88 on May 04, 2019, 10:16 PM

Title: Hurshtown
Post by: FW88 on May 04, 2019, 10:16 PM
Spent all day without a bite. I have never figured out that dang reservoir.  I'd starve if my life depended on catching fish.

However there are reports of walleye and smallmouth. Just been open 3 days.

Only place to fish with all the flooding. Just remember there is an entrance fee.  Better to buy the annual pass.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Daybreak on May 05, 2019, 06:33 AM
Spent all day without a bite. I have never figured out that dang reservoir.

Did you fish from the shore or were you in a boat?  I am thinking about fishing it to catch some of the white crappie.  Looking at the topo map of the lake, it definitely has some structure to check out.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: FW88 on May 05, 2019, 07:38 AM
From shore. But yes I often see boats trolling about 25 yards from shore picking at the white crappie. I didn't hear any reports yet tho.

When the biting is good just need a minnow at 8 feet deep from shore. I typically like the south side the best but sometimes it depends on the wind.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Daybreak on May 05, 2019, 08:05 AM
Thanks.  Sounds like you will be on them next time out.  Water will warm up a lot today with the light winds and abundant sunshine.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: satyr36 on May 06, 2019, 06:50 AM
are you able to put a boat in that has a gas motor on it? I know you cant "fire it up" but ive heard you cannot even put the boat in if it has an outboard motor on it (unsure if true)
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on May 06, 2019, 07:12 AM
Yes, you can have a gas motor on the boat
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on May 06, 2019, 09:02 AM
I was headed there yesterday with the boat but as described on another thread ran into some SNAFOOs. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't go?
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: FWCanoeFisher on May 06, 2019, 09:07 AM
are you able to put a boat in that has a gas motor on it? I know you cant "fire it up" but ive heard you cannot even put the boat in if it has an outboard motor on it (unsure if true)

You can have a gas motor on the back but you have to keep it tilled up out of the water as much as possible.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: FW88 on May 06, 2019, 10:40 AM
No you wont have an issue. I'd like to go out today but closed on mondays :(
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Daybreak on May 10, 2019, 11:37 AM
That's good to know.  I have pretty good trolling motors, but my tin boat sits pretty high up and can catch a lot of wind if it is bad.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on May 11, 2019, 09:32 AM
I fished Hurshtown yesterday.  Great weather,  nice chop on the lake and cloudy.  Trolled for walleye with raps for about 3 hrs... caught 5 short in the 15" range and took one 16.5 home. Hit several nice crappie and a nice smallie. Keep in mind there is a no launch restriction for wind exceeding 15mph. Seen some guys blown onto the bank last week.  That water blows white caps pretty fast so if your in a smaller boat beware. And have a good strong trolling motor, 40lb wont get it when the wind picks up. Walleye is 16" on that water. There are better ways to fish for walleye there and I'm trying some new techniques next trip out. Here are a couple fish from there yesterday.  You can get into crappie by trolling really easy.
(https://i.postimg.cc/NK4rv0jX/20190510-101353.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/NK4rv0jX)

(https://i.postimg.cc/QV1CrM6M/20190510-100639.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/QV1CrM6M)
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on May 11, 2019, 10:21 AM
Good to see you got a few.  A buddy of mine is out there today fishing it with Bricker.  I haven't made it out there yet this year but hopefully soon.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Daybreak on May 11, 2019, 12:45 PM
Good to see you got a few.  A buddy of mine is out there today fishing it with Bricker.  I haven't made it out there yet this year but hopefully soon.
Let us know how your buddy does.  I hate the thought of trolling motor only, but don't mind putting in some time to learn new water.  It's just hard to drive past all the good lakes in Noble, Whitley and Lagrange county to try Hurshtown.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on May 11, 2019, 03:23 PM
Good to see you got a few.  A buddy of mine is out there today fishing it with Bricker.  I haven't made it out there yet this year but hopefully soon.

Good for him, Bricker is on his game there... he was there the other day. He said he was catching a lot of shorts also but I'm sure he grinder out his limit after I left. I almost went this morning. ..maybe tomorrow in the rain.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mPWv58Sk/20190511-160607.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/mPWv58Sk)
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on May 12, 2019, 02:46 PM
Yeah, he spends a lot of time there.  They caught quite a few, mostly shorts but kept a good mess.  Should be much better once we get this next warm front.  They will feel better if we ever see 60 degree water!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on May 12, 2019, 03:14 PM
I may head over there for some female white crappies next week. I have a second pond I can put them in with the black crappie males to produce hybrids. I was just going to settle for all black crappies in onother pond but looks like I still have a little time. I only need four or five females

I would prefer producing hybrids over regular crappies. Much easier to control in a pond vs. non hybrids. And supposed to grow faster the first couple of years.

I put 200 hybrids I feed trained over the winter into my grow out pond a few days ago. Went from 3 to 4 inches to almost 7 inches in a few months. Hopefully the feed trained largemouth in the pond won't eat too many.


The fish originally came from a hatchery in Arkansas last November. A friend brought them up.

So trolling with small crank baits and perhaps a mepps spinner should pick up a few crappies?

A hybrid close to 7 inches

(https://i.imgur.com/Sq1ejB3m.jpg)

Sorting out the runts:

(https://i.imgur.com/qbNybAlm.jpg)
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on May 12, 2019, 03:28 PM
Yes taxid,  I see VT hem stacked along north Shore 20 to 30 yards off the bank... suspended 12 to 15 in 20 fow. Shouldn't have any trouble once you mark the school.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on May 12, 2019, 03:33 PM
"VT hem?"

Them?

Thanks for the info!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on May 13, 2019, 04:31 AM
"VT hem?"

Them?

Thanks for the info!

Yes...them... :D
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on May 13, 2019, 04:44 AM
Hey taxid... are you ready to take in a steelhead for a reproduction mount?
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on May 13, 2019, 11:52 AM
Hey taxid... are you ready to take in a steelhead for a reproduction mount?

If it's a reproduction I don't need the fish.  I think you mean just to order the blank of the appropriate size and paint it?

I can order a blank as long as I get the deposit to order the blank.

Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on May 14, 2019, 12:12 PM
Trolling flicker shad works good out there
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on May 14, 2019, 12:17 PM
Good to know thanks!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on May 14, 2019, 05:47 PM
Ditto on flicker... taxi yes I understand.  I called you 5 or 6 weeks ago and you wanted to get caught up before you took it on. Just wanted to see if you were ready for me.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on May 14, 2019, 08:39 PM
Ditto on flicker... taxi yes I understand.  I called you 5 or 6 weeks ago and you wanted to get caught up before you took it on. Just wanted to see if you were ready for me.

Yes I am taking in fish again. Only about a dozen left hanging from the rafters but more in the freezer. That's better than 70 hanging from the rafters a year ago at this time!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: FW88 on Jun 04, 2019, 09:01 AM
Caught some small mouth on top water and small cranks.

Saw a boat pick away about 30-40 crappie. I wish I brought minnows.

No walleye. I've caught some 24-25 inch out of there but nothing this year. Most are usually 12-14 inches.

This was Saturday. Wish I had a boat tho lol!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on Jun 04, 2019, 10:06 PM
Don't know anything about that.  He takes a couple vets fishing every year.  My friend served and that is how he went along.  Owns one or two of his microliners also.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: bigr on Jul 03, 2019, 08:48 AM
IMO the somewhat new regulation of 16 inches isn't working at all. I catch a lot of eyes every year and I have not seen any change in overall size or even number of fish. I'm still willing to give it another couple of years to see what happens but I sure do like those 12 to 14 in perch/walleye fillets. A put and take resource should allow for take portion much easier than it is now. Next step in my opinion should be the put portion of the resource. Increase. Walleye reach 14 inches very fast then seem to disappear in any body of water. For me number of fish aren't down just the number of keepers by a lot. 
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: FWCanoeFisher on Jul 03, 2019, 09:48 AM
How many people are keeping walleye, regardless of what size they are?  It makes perfect sense that the average size should increase with an increased size limit.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: taxid on Jul 03, 2019, 10:03 AM
I want to hit Hurshtown sometime to bring back some whites to hold in a pond for broodfish to produce hybrids next year. May wait until the fall when the water cools down though.

I do have some black crappies fry in one of my ponds I put black crappie broodfish in caught in Eagle Lake here in Noble County Strange thing is they can't be more than two weeks old judging by there size. I didn't think crappies spawned that late!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: bigr on Jul 03, 2019, 11:26 AM
How many people are keeping walleye, regardless of what size they are?  It makes perfect sense that the average size should increase with an increased size limit.
I think most people that catch a legal size eye do keep them. Problem is from what I see you don't catch  near as many legal size now. Nor do you catch anymore of the smaller fish. Yes I agree it should make for nearly as many 16 inch fish as 14 but im not seeing that at all after what I think has been three or four years now.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: 1james11 on Jul 03, 2019, 03:08 PM
The size of the walleyes can't increase when people keep 13-14 inchers consistently.. I've had numerous people I've had to say something to, most of which didn't even know the size had gone up. I spend a lot of time on the lakes in the ne part of the state, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen a officer.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spooled85 on Jul 03, 2019, 03:37 PM
I was at Mississinewa d**n , and there was guys keeping them 10 to 12 Inchers left and rite ! Till I called a CO and two of them was down there quick ! They wrote numerous tickets and the CO told me that same weekend there was some guys arrested for keeping illegal sized fish
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on Jul 03, 2019, 03:55 PM
That's ridiculous keeping walleye that size!
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: FWCanoeFisher on Jul 08, 2019, 07:21 AM

they could have been ignorant and thought they were saugers /saugeyes?  no limit on those still.  you'd get the same meat off 10-12" eyes as you would a perch that size.

I hadn't realized that there was no size limit on sauger/saugeye!  I would have assumed that it was the same as walleye.  Learn something new everyday.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spooled85 on Jul 08, 2019, 07:52 AM

they could have been ignorant and thought they were saugers /saugeyes?  no limit on those still.  you'd get the same meat off 10-12" eyes as you would a perch that size.
could have been the case but they was even told they was too small and they couldn't keep them before the call was made . But they still didn't care
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spooled85 on Jul 08, 2019, 12:42 PM
Ya I always chat with the CO's and they remember that . The spots I fish Its usually the same couple guys checking so usually once I get checked in the start of season they don't ask again. And they remember my boat lol I had one officer tell me there isn't too many boats like mine running around so that helps too
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: bigr on Jul 15, 2019, 11:36 AM
People keeping under sized fish isn't the issue. That has always been going on even when the size was 14 inches. For every one that still breaks the law there are i'm sure many more that have been throwing under size fish back. I still stand by the fact the new regs aren't working as hoped.  Yes I do agree we need a lot more enforcement and a lot more of a lot of things that cost money our state is not able or willing to spend. I think our co's are doing a great job for the area they have to cover and the priorities decisions they have to make. I'm no biologist but I think our walleye for the most part start life out fast growing quickly to the 12 in size then dramatically slow and don't live long lives, maybe 5 to 6 years on avg. Most eyes never reach the 16 in mark before death of natural causes.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on Jul 15, 2019, 12:55 PM
If the average life span of a walleye is around 15-20 years why would you think ours in Indiana are only making it 5-6 years?
I have no idea if the size limit is helping but it surely isn't hurting anything other than number of legal fish being caught.  Which seems like at some point should turn the corner if the fish in the body of water are reproducing.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: bigr on Jul 15, 2019, 01:40 PM
If the average life span of a walleye is around 15-20 years why would you think ours in Indiana are only making it 5-6 years?
I have no idea if the size limit is helping but it surely isn't hurting anything other than number of legal fish being caught.  Which seems like at some point should turn the corner if the fish in the body of water are reproducing.
I'm not sure if the avg life span of a Indiana walleye is 15 to 20 yrs or even what the avg growth in inches is for a Indiana walleye. What I see from the years since the regulation change is not yielding any higher number or legal size fish or even larger fish at all. As I've said before the only difference I have seen is fewer harvestable size fish. I don't think there is much natural reproduction in any of Indiana waters. The state really needs to continue stocking programs that seems to keep populations the same. I think for the most part our walleye fishery is a Put and take resource. At some point unless something changes we should go back to a size limit that allows for more take. I miss those 14 in walleye fillets. Once you get up to the 20 inch fish they just aren't as good to eat anyway. I hope things do change and a limit of 16 plus inch fish can be had as easily as the 14 plus inch fish used to be.     
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spooled85 on Jul 15, 2019, 09:34 PM
Fish hogger is correct on the walley hatches. Dnr had a post sometime in the last 5 months yhat they did a shock on bass lake and they found many small walley . That was in the range of around 4 inches . And said that the numbers that the my pulled up had to be hatchlings . Because there was no reported recent stocking of walleye and if someone had privately stocked it they would have had to spend thousands of dollars to do so
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: bigr on Jul 16, 2019, 05:56 AM
I agree there is some natural reproduction in most our bodies of water that have eyes. I don't think its enough to maintain the resource over time. Stockings are required to improve the numbers. Yes you'll always have a few big fish but I'm talking about the avg harvestable size fish. I'm mostly a river guy so let me tell you what I have seen over 40 yrs of walleye fishing. Back in the early 70's the state stocked the three upper resi's with walleyes. They did that for maybe ten yrs until they decided there was no reproduction happening and the fishery was basically a put and take project and handed the restocking over to the property managers of the sally and missy to raise and continue the stocking in the resi's. The fish never really showed up in any kind of numbers in the resi's but did do very well in the river because they made threw the discharge. For many yrs the walleye fishing has been very good in the river even though no real state or local stockings are going on. It's all natural reproduction now but at the same time the fishing is slowly going down hill. Still very good when conditions are right but noticeable less than a few yrs ago when stocking continued. The whole state benefits from the stockings not just the lake since the Wabash basically feeds all areas of the state. Right now I'm seeing the least amount of harvestable size fish as well as much fewer fish over all. I believe there two factors, natural reproduction can't keep up on it's own and size regulation that prevents as much harvest.       
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: RoeBoat on Jul 17, 2019, 09:10 AM
As far as the rivers go, I believe there are more walleye/saugeye present today than 35-40 years ago.  We fished them when I was younger and caught fish but not the limits of fish that have come in the last couple decades.  40 years ago I didn't hear much about walleye being caught on the St Marys where I grew up.   In 2003 while I owned a sporting goods store a gentleman brought in a 28" out of the same water.  There are several areas now that limits are caught each spring in the same areas.  Obviously these fish are reproducing and they also benefited from stockings on the reservoirs in the systems.
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: bigr on Jul 17, 2019, 10:20 AM
I have no monetary gain from any of my reports just want to help people have as much fun as I have had over the yrs. The fishing has always been good for eyes and many other species as far back as I can remember. Problem was back in the early 70's when stockings really started showing up I didn't now how to fish for walleye since it was a somewhat new target for me and I was young. After a lot of years I've got better just by putting in the time. I think fishing for eyes peaked about 8 to 10 years ago and has steadily lessened since the big stockings stopped. The properties did the resi stocking until the last couple years. The  numbers are down not from my post that as far as I can tell hasn't increase the amount of pressure. I feel sure the river can't be over fished because of the quickly changing conditions that prevents fishing. The river is 530 miles long and almost every body of water drains in to it so some what i'll call natural seed reproduction is always happening. I do wish I could post pictures and have tried more than once to be able to get set up but it's not going to happen. If anyone wants to meet me or get a look at me be watching the Ft Wayne TV stations next week for info about the Wabash River Defenders cleanup event or go on line for info about  next Saturdays the 27th event. I also can be heard on a couple three local radio station from Friday to the 26th. We're always hoping for more volunteers. Pm welcomed. If you don't want to eat wild fish from a certain body of water that's more than alright with me but please don't think any less of me. I'm more concerned with what I'm getting from businesses than what I catch from the waters I fish regardless of advisories. And yes I know what they are. The waters that the river defenders have been testing  for a few years now are showing that the quality is improving from past testing done years ago. I believe that way more wild  fish were being consumed years ago from much worse water than we have now.         
Title: Re: Hurshtown
Post by: Spencerville on Jul 25, 2019, 07:39 PM
what does he charge Roe?  I heard he was guiding people up there.

I've only seen him by himself in his boat and his brother is there alot by himself in his boat also... rumors of him keeping small fish are false as well. I've seen him repeatedly throw back as many fish as I do.The way I see it if I didn't see it it didn't happen...