THE BAIT SHOP CONNECTION
An old-timer is a person who can remember when there were no national big-box stores in Indiana. Old-timers can remember when there were shoe stores, clothing stores, grocery stores and other small shops in every town, stores that were quickly driven out of business when national big-box shops came to town. I'm not arguing whether or not this is good or bad, but one of the things I do miss is the town bait shop.

Nearly every town had one; towns located close to popular fishing hotspots may have had two or three anglers' emporiums. They had their own smell, you could be sure they had the exact lures or bait the fish were nailing in area lakes; but most important, they always had the latest information about what was biting, where and how the fish were being caught.

So, before I started writing this article, I searched out a few of the remaining bait shops in the "ice zone" of Indiana and asked the proprietors of them about the best bets for ice-fishermen in their areas.

GRACIE'S HUNTING AND FISHING
I talked with Gracie Dickey, owner of Gracie's Hunting and Fishing (1350 Pine Lake Road) in LaPorte. Since her shop is along the shores of Pine Lake, which connects to Stone Lake, most of her customers are fishermen stocking up to fish those two lakes.

According to Gracie, both Pine and Stone are reliable producers of bluegills and perch for those fishermen using bee moths or spikes. Put a minnow on the line and expect either a perch or a crappie to tug on it.

She said when she walks outside she has a pretty good view of the lake; on most days, there are fishermen scattered over much of the lake's surface area. "There just aren't the big concentrations of fishermen in one area with large, empty areas between them like I've noticed on other lakes. I guess everyone has his favorite spot," she said.

"There are bass to be caught in both lakes, but in the winter, anglers who use golden shiners on tip-ups pull in more walleyes and northern pike than bass. I weighed in a 7 1/2-pound walleye last winter," Gracie said. "Hudson Lake is a better wintertime bass destination and it's probably a bit better for crappies than Pine and Stone."

Gracie's is open seven days a week, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (4 p.m. close on Sundays). Call Gracie or Ron for information at (219) 362-7913.

HORSESHOE BAIT AND TACKLE
There's only one place that people who are visiting the Horseshoe Bait and Tackle Shop are heading to fish, but that destination may well be the top panfish lake in the state these days. Several years ago, J.C. Murphey Lake, the keystone feature of Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area in Newton County, was drained, refilled and restocked. This was the forth incarnation of Murphey and the result each time was several years of world-class fishing, especially for big bluegills.

These bluegills come with an attitude and an average size that continues to make fish biologists scratch their heads at the growth rate (twice the state's average). At the same time, these fish are putting permanent smiles on panfishermen.