Stocked with Saugeye, Indian Lake Booms

Perhaps it’s the bright sunshine, trying to provide warmth through still chilly temperatures and brisk March winds. It’s pleasant to sit outside, next to a lake, having endured another winter.

But more than that, it’s a time when fish begin to bite in large numbers. Spawning seasons vary with different species, temperatures and locations, but there is no mistake, when temperatures begin to rise in late March and early April, fishing heads toward its peak.

That’s certainly the case at Indian Lake in Logan County. Once known for its amusement park and, in the early 1960s, its annual summer college student rowdiness, Indian Lake has come back to life, thanks to the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocking 600,000 saugeyes per year in the 5,800-acre lake over the past six years. Now it’s a saugeye hot spot, maybe the best in Ohio each spring.

If you stop near the doughnut shop on the main drag through Russells Point, you see anglers casting for saugeyes in the shadow of the old footbridge. Now in disrepair, the bridge once connected the amusement park with the ballroom that hosted top name big bands of the 1940s and ’50s. Today there are modern condominiums where the fun house, midway and merry-go-round once attracted tourists from throughout the Midwest.

You’ll see bass boats slipping in and out of the old harbor. There are plenty of bass in Indian Lake, but right now most anglers are after the saugeye, a cross between saugers and walleyes produced at the state’s fish hatcheries.

“The saugeye have put this place back on the map,” said Art Ganger, a retired factory worker who makes the drive from his home near New Carlisle three or four times a week.

The bait business has improved as the saugeyes have matured and the stocking program has continued.

Four years ago, Gene Marciniak was operating an auto body shop in Russells Point on Ohio 366, just east of the spillway.

“I’ve always liked to work early in the morning and people started coming into the body shop before daylight, asking where they could buy bait,” Marciniak said. “Pretty soon, I decided I’d been in the body shop business long enough, so I opened a bait shop. We’ve been busy ever since and there have been other bait shops open around the lake in the last couple of years. Right now, there’s plenty of business for all of us.’

The warm days two weeks ago brought out the saugeye fishermen in force. The most popular spot seemed to be the area just outside of Lakeview on the southwest corner of the lake. The state has constructed parking areas all along the shore, which allows anglers to park their vehicles and walk a few feet to the rip-rap lined bank.

“With my arthritis, this is a good spot,” said Bill Montgomery, a retiree from Xenia. “It’s handy to be able to park right here and bring my chair over.

Following a cold front pushing through the area last weekend, the fishing had slowed down, but still the bank near Lakeview and the jetty on the same side toward the middle of the lake were lined with anglers.

“People always say, `You should’ve been here a couple of days ago.’ Well, you should’ve been here a couple of day ago. It was elbow to elbow and people were pulling ‘em in right and left,” Montgomery said.

“I had a full stringer and some big ones. One was at least 25 inches. They were really biting a few days ago and even this morning (at 6:30 a.m.) they were biting pretty good. But then they just turned off. But you can never tell, they might start biting again at any time.”

Although a few cast crankbaits, the most popular method of fishing for saugeyes at Indian Lake has been tight-line fishing with minnows.

Steve Graham, fish management supervisor for the Division of Wildlife’s District One, expects a strong saugeye season, but adds Indian Lake’s best fishing days may be yet to come.

“The population (of saugeyes) should still be building,” Graham said. “It takes a while to get a full complement of year classes out there. So I look for it to be even better in the future.”