The Hoosier State boasts approximately 125,000 acres of public water in Indiana and about one million anglers. If all of Indiana’s anglers decided to go bass fishing on the same day, each angler would be sharing an acre of water with nine other fishing enthusiasts.

Do not despair. Although fishing pressure on Indiana’s limited largemouth bass population is intense, state fisheries biologists say there are more bass swimming in Hoosier waters than ever before as a result of intensive management efforts. And because of adjustments to minimum size limits and because the majority of anglers are committed to catch-and-release, those bass appear to be growing to larger sizes.

Bill James, chief of fisheries for the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), has said a largemouth bass — far and away the preferred fish of Indiana anglers — is too valuable to be caught only once. If you catch a keeper-size bass in the state’s public waters, chances are high that it has been caught before. Some bass are caught and cleaned, some are never caught and many more are caught over and over again, biologists say.

“Without the high degree of catch-and-release,” said Brian Schoenung, the state’s District 6 fisheries biologist, “harvesting bass could have a significant impact on the quality of the bass population.”

“It’s a challenge for us to maintain quality bass fishing in public waters,” said Stu Shipman, Indiana’s northern district fisheries supervisor. “But I think the future of bass fishing in Indiana is great.”

Shipman says his biggest concerns are the lack of larger bass and a decline in the sale of fishing licenses, which may indicate Hoosiers are losing the old family tradition of fishing.

A project at the Tri-County Fish and Wildlife Area in Kosciusko County was designed to improve the size of bass in four lakes on the property. The project imposed an 18-inch minimum size limit on largemouth bass. Shipman says the six-year project “really didn’t generate a lot more bass over 18 inches.”

Shipman says biologists are still evaluating the data to determine why the 18-inch limit failed to produce more large bass. Possibly, six years was not a long enough time period to grow big bass. It takes eight or nine years for a bass in the state’s natural lakes to reach 18 inches, he said.

“The theory is that higher minimum size limits will grow big fish,” he said. “It may just be a bad theory.” The biologist says the 18-inch minimum will remain on the four lakes. Anglers are happy with the regulations, according to Shipman, and bluegill fishing has improved because the panfish population has been thinned through greater predation. Shipman says larger numbers of big bass may still result.

Fisheries biologists agree that a new state law requiring permits for bass tournaments on lakes in state parks and reservoir properties (also Wawasee and Syracuse lakes) will be an important tool for managing bass populations. The permit requires that tournament officials report results within 30 days. The report includes the number of participants and the weight and length of all bass weighed and of all bass released.

“It’s a huge pool of information for us,” Shipman said. “And it’s an opportunity for bass fishermen to support management efforts and help bass fishing. It just makes good sense to have access to so much information.”

The new tournament permit system, which went into effect last year, applies to all contests involving 15 or more boats and in which participants are charged a fee. Applications must be received at least 90 days in advance of the tournament.

Shipman encourages voluntary reporting of tournament results for contests on waters not covered by the new regulations. “It’s a super, super opportunity to help out with the future of bass fishing if anglers really care about the resource,” he said.

Here are six lakes where bass fishing should be excellent this spring:

MONROE LAKE

Indiana’s largest and oldest man-made lake, Monroe is Indiana’s most popular bass fishing destination as well. More than 100,000 anglers annually pursue largemouth bass at Monroe between April and November. Located in Brown and Monroe counties, Monroe covers 10,750 acres.

Anglers questioned in a creel survey at Monroe show a high degree of satisfaction in their fishing experience. Nearly 85 percent of the anglers who answered the creel clerk’s questions expressed satisfaction with Monroe fishing. A survey in 2000 showed 100,760 anglers harvested 1,178 bass, averaging 2.7 pounds and 16.5 inches during a seven-month period. Additionally, the survey showed 27,619 bass were caught and released. Included in those released bass were 8,289 fish of legal length (14 inches or larger).