Heading into ep26 on fishing opener! Primarily fishing for pike but any kinda of fishing works for me! Heading in with 3 close friends and was wondering if Indiana is worth the trip for some big pike? And any advice for wood lake would be greatly appreciated! I fished wood in the winter quite a few times always had a great bite! Any info for pan fish to would be awesome!

In Indiana there is a nice deep weed bed at the end of the lake next to the portage that leads into Basswood which has some good pike in it. Water is clear, they can be fussy. The largemouth bass fishing in those same weeds is very good as well.

There are walleyes to be had in Wood.

Spent 5 days on Indiana, the pike fishing wasn't very good.

Heading in there on the 4th, I'll let you know how the gills are.

I have a permit for wood lake on saturday for opener as well! I will be heading to back bay for blue gills and smb/pike everywhere along the way. In my opinion Wood is better for pike. Master tangler is right about that essential weed bed in the west end of Indiana. I have only seen one small pike from Indiana but lots of bass. I have caught nice small mouth on wood plus eater size walleye.


Wood lake small mouth

My daughter & I were in Indiana years ago (when FourMile was still open). We camped there & on the north side we had some decent pike fishing & I caught a hog of a smallmouth on the southeast end.

Heard another group that came in from the northwestern creek and were doing well at pike on that side too. They never came down 'our way", and fished for about 2 hours before they left.

We used leeches & crawlers but that was July.

quote QueticoMike: "Spent 5 days on Indiana, the pike fishing wasn't very good."

But weren't you bass fishing ;-)

I wish the pics I have weren't old school I would put a few up. There are very nice pike there but again they are fussy and I have never caught any outside of the weeded area........and I can't remember catching any small or middlin sized pike. What I do remember was drifting in those deep tall weeds and looking down (the water is crystal clear) and seeing some big dark logs in some of the pockets.

My biggest one came right at dark trolling a perch colored Fat rap (Fat Rap? I'm dating myself ;-) on 6lb line trying for walleye (there is no walleye). I ended up landing it in almost complete darkness on the other side of the lake standing in the water in a cloud of mosquitos. That was the first pike which actually towed my boat and an experience I will never forget. I kept the fish on a length of rope until morning so we could have a photo session.......yes it swam away no worse for wear.

I suspect there is a good population of nice bluegills as we seen them mid lake in the evening doing the topwater feeding thing. At least I surmise they were bluegills.

thanks man much appreciated!

murphylakejim we are going to being staying on wood also!! Come find use and share an adult beverage! Really excited just to be up there! Cant wait to just relax and catch some nice fish! We were going to take kayaks up but not sure what weather will be like so i think we will be taking canoes!

quote Mojoman88: "murphylakejim we are going to being staying on wood also!! Come find use and share an adult beverage! Really excited just to be up there! Cant wait to just relax and catch some nice fish! We were going to take kayaks up but not sure what weather will be like so i think we will be taking canoes!"

Ill be taking my new (used) wenonah prism solo canoe but am undecided which lake to stay at. Its all relatively close so ill be on the look out for some kayakers, or.... what canoe are you possibly paddling as a substitute? Good luck with fishing!

If you want northerns there's a pretty good sized lake right next to Indiana that is just phenomenal. :). In fact that entire bay which is next to Indiana is just one giant shallow slimer factory. Indiana is beautiful but for that I'd just go next door.

I fish the wood lake area quite often. I would focus most of my time on wood as there is good fishing for smallies, pike, walleye and some hog bluegills if you can find them. Indiana is definitely worth a day trip. Excellent smallmouth fishing throughout, some nice largemouth around the 2 beaver lodges and the pike are not plentiful, but are certainly above average in size.

Thanks everybody! Only a few days out now! Now only if time would move a little faster! If you find yourself in the wood lake area feel free to stop in and say hi! Anybody is welcome to come and share an adult beverage!