Hoosier Muskie Quest

NumenOn the Water

Date:  4-5-15

Body of Water: Barbee Chain of Lakes, Indiana

Boat: Numenon

With: Alone

Target: Muskellunge

Time: 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM

Conditions: Good enough;43 F water here in GR (per Reeds Lake on 4-4-15), and 47-48 F in Kuhn Lake, Indiana; touching 50 F at the back end of canals.  45 F weather warming to 63 or so and bright and clear; but windy (>>20 mph, sustained) from the SW.

I prepped the boat on Saturday.  I pulled her out of the garage so I had some room to move around, and it was warm enough for comfort (although it did snow a little bit.)  Of course, it was windy, and so Lake Michigan remained out-of-bounds; and Michigan's inland gamefish seasons are closed.  

But Indiana's muskie season never closes, and it's not too far away.  Everything was installed and apparently working by early afternoon; all non-muskie tackle had been removed; Indiana license procured; tire pressures checked and adjusted; and I even dropped Numenon into Reeds Lake to make sure she'd start and run smoothly.  Of course, she did.

Ready to start the season!

I left home on Sunday morning a little before 7 and arrived at the Kuhn Lake Access off Indiana Route 13 at about 9:30 AM.  Things were looking good; but it was noticeably windy.  Little Kuhn Lake (<100 acres) was developing some whitecaps, already.

I fished for about 4 hours, at which time I was definitely losing boat control in the wind; my batteries were already drained.  I used mostly twitch baits and bucktails while holding the boat in 6 - 10 feet of water, but I also explored some with Medussa and Bondy Baits out deeper.  My effectiveness was limited by unfamiliarity with the lake and boat control challenges, but it was good to be out casting again!  Unfortunately, my strategy simply became to keep a clean bait in shallow water; and that was hard enough, today!

Early Spring Muskie Chase

I never made it beyond Kuhn Lake because of the wind, but Kuhn was interesting enough to fish, with some undeveloped shorelines, lots of flats and breaks, offshore structure and a lot of marks in the deeper water.  Some coontail was just starting to green up,and there was  some old cabbage in the shallows.  Visibility was about 4+ feet; the only things she lacked this day were some shelter from the wind and any sign of a muskellunge.

I only saw one other boat all day; a local basser had caught a few on rattle baits and Heddon Sonars.  He explained that the No Wake Posting at the launch applied to all waters of the chain except Big Barbee.

Each leg of the trip was about 130 miles and about 2 hours and 40 minutes (door-to-door) at an easy, relaxed pace.  I was home before 4:30 PM; Ollie didn't even know I'd had quite the adventure.

Just off Indiana Route 13; access to the Barbee Chain of Lakes

What do I have to say about this?
I'm not sure I'll have much inclination to go down there when Michigan's season is open and our waters are fishable, but I can certainly see using this option to extend my season at either end.  I could have run across a muskie on this day; I just didn't.  I was, however, about 130 miles closer to a legal muskie that I would have been, otherwise.

Late Sunday night, Jeremy Wade of River Monsters went to NW Ontario in search of muskellunge.  It looked like it took him three watersheds and a lot of time to finally get one (despite a number of follows and encounters with pike), and when he finally did catch one, it was accidental.  These are strange fish.