Musky Hunting @ Bluegrass FWA

I never heard about bluegrass but if you are willing to drive Webster is where it is at. 7 muskies per acre or something like that most places only have 1 per acre. I have been there once and we had 4 solid follows in about 3 hours. this was in horrible weather also.

I bowfish loon & Bluegrass quite often for carp and gar. I see the majority of the Muskies in Loon Pit. They are growing quite well. 8-12" is what I have seen and plenty of em. Should be a good fishery in a couple of years.

There are 36 inch limit signs posted for Musky on the North and South boat ramps at Loon. Also on Bluegrass. Musky stocking began in 2005 I believe.

everything i can find is saying that they put the first batch in loon in january 07.... so i wonder were these big fish you seen came from? im calling sugar ridge in the morning to see what the real deal is!!

Hello guys and gals:

I am new to this site and just wanted to say hi!

As for the Muskie at Blue grass F&W area.

The new size limit signs were installed this year. 2007. I have spotted one young muskie at the launch ramp (south) on Blue Grass pit. It was about 10 to 12 inches long.

Most likely they stocked young muskie and they will have to grow for a while before they can be harvested after they reach 36".

I hope that they eat all the big gizzard shad up and leave my crappie alone.

Dan Carnahan at Sugar Ridge is the District 7 Fishery Biologist and he was the one that decided to stock the muskie in Loon and Bluegrass Pits. They will end up in Otter Pit if we get some flooding of that area as all three pits are hydorlogically connected via culvert that run under Boonville New Harmony Road and Kansas Roads.

I was reading the research notes on the Indiana DNR web site. It's under the Fish & Wildlife division of their web site.
Easiest way to find it is to look at the "Site Index" and then look for Management and Research Notes. Now under the Management and Research Notes look for the latest Fisheries Biologist Report on Blue grass and Loon Pits. It's near the top and on the left column. Read though this report by:

Michelle L. Weinman, AFB
Bluegrass and Loon Pit Angler Creel Survey and Largemouth Bass .

In the discussion section it will show that a little over 900 fingerling muskie were stocked in these two pits. And the biologist is recommending that they continue to stock muskie fingerings in the coming years.

It's going to take a few years for these Fingerling Muskie to grow to 36" in size.

This may be a very good thing for these lakes. There is an abundance of Gizzard Shad in these waters and these shad are a favorite food of the muskie. A gizzard shad can grow quite large and these fish eat a lot of the same food that sunfish feed on. The Gizzard shad are slowing down the grow rates of the sunfish. Crappie soon find that gizzard shad are too large to eat. Only the young of the year gizzard shad can feed those stunted 8" long crappie as the adult gizzard shad can reach 18" in length. Now not many fish in these lakes can swallow an Adult 18" long Gizzard Shad but a big Muskie can not only swallow them whole but bite them in two.

I think it would be wise to protect these muskie for the next few years in order to let them do their thing in reducing the amount of gizzard shad in the lake.

I also think that the IDNR should put some brush piles in strategic areas of these lakes to help the fish habitat. The brush piles will give the smaller fish like bluegills and crappie a place to hide. Muskie don't do very well in tight quarters as per their body shape. Muskie are long and slender and are built for speed in a straight line unlike a crappie which is built for quick turns in and among the brush.

The gizzard shade will frequent the open water areas and that's were the muskie will be too. Just as the Striper's at Patoka Lake frequent the open water zones where the gizzard shad are found.

So these muskies should help the balance of the fish in this lake.

Note: The 18" size limit is working. It will work much better if people stop poaching small bass out of these waters.

According to the latest fishery biologists report in 2006 for Bluegrass and Loon Pits the PSD is getting better as well as the PSD 14. In other words there are more large bass in these pits now than last year. That's a good sign. In the future if everyone obeys the size limit rules these bass will be reaching the 18" size limit were they can then be harvested. These bigger bass will help produce more bass in the area and the muskie will help balance out the fishery. That's a good thing.


Once you read this report you will find the following:

Under the Executive Summary on page 2 of this report you will find the following statement:

A muskellunge stocking program was initiated in the fall of 2006 and it is recommended
that muskie fingerings be stocked annually at both pits.