The April Hoosier Fly Fishers Meeting was a great success. Everyone had a good time visiting and telling fish stories as well as welcoming some new faces to the group. There were several of us old faces there for the fellowship and a helping of Steve’s awesome cooking but mostly we were there for the Annual HFF auction of good stuff. The Annual HFF auction helps to fund the club’s activities and any Environmental Projects we support. As usual, Kernal Kevin was in good form for the occasion and with his quick wit and humor he managed to auction off tons of good stuff. Among some of the more popular items were fly tying supplies, fly rods, and fly boxes full of one pound bluegill flies. Kevin worked hard at clearing the tables full of stuff and when the dust settled he had raised over $600 for the club. Many thanks Kevin for a job well done and thanks to all the members that brought in all that good stuff!
After the meeting, I was standing in the Colorado Steakhouse parking lot talking with club president TimM about all the one pound bluegill flies he had been tying. All the good stuff had been loaded and hauled away and all that remained was a small car exiting the parking lot. As the car turned south on College I heard a faint voice say “going once…… going twice…….”
HFF Projects: The HFF Club has purchased 500 trees for the Indiana DNR to plant around Monroe Lake. The DNR plans to plant the trees the morning of May 21st. Fishing clubs and the Boy Scouts have volunteered to help plant the trees but more help is needed. If you can spend a couple of hours with friends and help with the planting you can contact Rex Waters at the Paynetown Office and let him know you are coming to help. Bring a shovel and meet at Paynetown. PH: 812-837-9546
The club also purchased some fishing line disposal units to be placed around Monroe Lake. More info soon.
Fish and Lake Report: Fishing has been good pretty much everywhere. We have received good reports from North Carolina, Lake Lemon, Griffy Lake, farm ponds, Monroe Lake and a few local creeks. We have had reports of almost every species of fish being caught on flies. Warmer weather has the fish in a feeding mood, Spring is a great time to fly fish, try it.
Monroe Lake is 5ft high and dropping slow, surface water temperature is hovering around 60 degrees and warmer in the backs of bays. Northern Indiana Reservoirs are at pool or below, expect low flow rates downstream from them, southern reservoirs are high and releasing lots of water, expect high water levels if you fish downstream from them. If you fish below reservoirs or in Indiana streams or rivers you can get water flow rates and levels on the USGS website. You can read historical, recent and real-time water data by clicking on a location in Indiana. Some of the gauges even read real time water temperature. Check it out here: USGS Water Data for Indiana