Saugeye at Indian Lake

A friend of mine, Chad had invited me to see his Father play in a band at a bar in Anna, Ohio. I had another friend, Gene, come with me so we could go fishing the next day.

Leo and I had made it home from the Deer Creek around 6:30 Saturday evening. I had time to get cleaned up before Gene showed up at the house.

We drove about an hour and a half to get to Anna. The band was really good and we had fun in Anna, staying at the bar until it closed. We made our way to Chad's house who lives at Indian Lake.

The next morning came fast and we weren't feeling great. We woke up to rain, so we hung around Chad's and watched a movie until around noon. Then we went to BlackHawk Bar and Grill and had an awesome breakfast for lunch. I had the 8 oz. ribeye with eggs, homefries, raisin toast and several cups of coffee for less than 10.00, and the steak was grilled perfectly.

Feeling better after a good warm meal we drove to the harbor to fish in the rainy windy conditions that the day had brought us. I started out with a rattling rogue in blue/silver. I have had luck with it in Kansas fishing for saugeye near rocks before. I ended up losing it and tied on a white beetle spin. I have never had luck fishing with saugeye of walleye before but saw a guy down the bank casting something similar and thought I would give it a shot. Eventually, I switched to old trusty, a 1/8 oz, jig head with green twister tail. A huge majority of my spawning walleye/saugeye have been caught on this setup.

After having no luck at the Harbor we drove to the spillway. It was a lot different than any other spillway I had seen before. All the water came over a wall, then ran into another wall that funnelled the water towards the center where there was an opening that released the water under a bridge to start the Great Miami River.



We fished the shallow spillway for a bit then walked down the river and tried several spots with no success. We had been fishing for quite a while when we got back to the truck. We pulled out the crappie rods and fished above the spillway for a while for crappie or bluegill while we took a short break and sat on a ledge.

It was apparent that the fish were not going to cooperate in that spot. I had heard that there was decent crappie fishing near the Moundwood boat ramp, so we drove there to check it out. There was a nice channel that ran back to the boat ramp and beyond that looked like an excellent fishing spot.

As we were getting out poles out to go catch crappie we saw a couple guys heave a stringer up in the air and started taking pictures of all the saugeye they had caught. I grabbed my walleye rod with the twister tied to it and started casting away. Right down the bank from us a guy caught a saugeye. I noticed he had 2 twisters tied on and had caught the fish on the top twister. He was using orange for the top twister and chartreuse for the bottom. I tied an orange twister on top and almost instantly caught the first saugeye.

Gene and I continued pulling in suageye after saugeye for about an hour. Then just as we thought we might get our limit the saugeye shut off. We ended the evening with a catch of 7 saugeye. Gene caught 3 and I brought in 4. I had one break my line and another got off after a good battle up to the bank. Gene had a couple get off on him near bank. One of them fell off as he was lifting it out of the water.

Once we arrived home we unpacked, took pictures, then I cleaned the fish. It was time for bed shortly after and as I laid in bed I thought of how much fun I had this weekend. There was quality time spent with my son, time spent with my friends, and I am finally fishing again after a long winter.