Spaulding Outdoors
By Jack Spaulding

Lindsey Fleshood has liked fishing for as long as she can remember, especially when she gets to go with her father, Mike. “We’re really close,” the 13-year-old Wabash, Ind., girl said. “Fishing, that’s something we get to do together.”

She doesn’t recall exactly when their fishing expeditions began. “I had to be very, very little when it first started,” she said. “Ever since I was old enough to go fishing, it’s been a hobby of mine.”

As a result of her hobby, Lindsey has become a regular contributor to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Fish of the Year awards program. She got started in 2007 with a gar, followed with a grass carp in 2008, and then turned in the biggest common carp, goldeye and gar in 2009.

“I usually don’t try to send them in, but every once in awhile when I think something is good enough, I will,” she said. “It’s not exactly a goal.”

Lindsey took the fish-catching recognition a step further this summer after catching a shortnose gar July 17 on the Wabash River. Noticing the DNR didn’t have a state record listing for shortnose gar, she submitted the 24.25-inch, 1.58-pound fish on a state record fish entry form.

“We have three types of gar in Indiana – longnose, shortnose and spotted,” said Bill James, chief fisheries biologist for the DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). “We’ve always just kept gar in a single category for state record recognition.”

Lindsey Fleshood’s catch prompted James to separate the listings and create a new category. “I was really excited,” Lindsey said. “I thought it was cool.”

The shortnose is the smallest member of the gar family, but Lindsey’s catch was even small by shortnose gar standards. The world record for shortnose gar, according to the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, is 6-pounds-6-ounces and was caught in 2001 by Kay Lyn Butterfield on Kentucky Lake in Tennessee.

Ken Schultz’s Fishing Encyclopedia describes shortnose gar as “the most tolerant of all gar” because it is “capable of withstanding murky and brackish water with the help of its specialized air bladder. The bladder allows the gar to gulp in supplementary air and release gases.”

The fish has a long, cylindrical body with diamond-shaped scales and no spots on its head like the spotted gar. It does have spots on its fins, and it has a single row of teeth in the upper jaw (longnose gar have two rows).

Lindsey said she knew right away she’d caught a gar but didn’t know it was a shortnose until reeling it in. Despite the fact it launched a new state record category, she still doesn’t rank it as her most memorable catch.

“That was probably when I caught a 24-inch catfish, a channel cat,” she said. “That always will be a memory to me. It’s just a day that’s kind of stuck in my mind as one of my greater fishing achievements.”

For more information on the DNR State Record Fish and Fish of the Year programs, go to www.in.gov/dnr/fish wild/3577.htm

Muskies to be stocked in Lake Everett
State fisheries biologists plan to approve a private request to stock muskies in Lake Everett in an ongoing effort to reduce an unwanted population of gizzard shad in the 43-acre lake northwest of Fort Wayne.

The step comes after an attempt to reduce shad abundance in September 2008, when DNR biologists applied 21 gallons of rotenone to the lake. Some shad survived and many returned to the lake by swimming up the outlet ditch. Based on results of a survey conducted by the DFW in early June, shad are still the most abundant fish in the lake, accounting for nearly half of the fish biomass.

“We knew some shad would eventually get back into Lake Everett, but heavy rains this spring raised the water level in the ditch and allowed many to return,” said Jed Pearson, DNR biologist. “We now need to look into other options to manage the shad population.”

Gizzard shad are silver-colored fish and compete for food with bluegills and other popular sport fish. Their flesh is oily and of little interest to anglers. Although they are native to many Indiana lakes and rivers, including Lake Everett and the Eel River watershed, shad numbers can reach nuisance levels when predator densities are low. Biologists hope the stocked muskies will eat many of the shad in the lake.

According to Pearson, the Webster Lake Musky Club, headquartered in North Webster, has offered to purchase 250 muskie fingerlings this fall from a private hatchery in Wisconsin to stock Lake Everett. For the stocking to be legal, the DNR must first issue a permit.

“We’re glad to see the Lake Webster Musky Club step forward to make this offer,” Pearson said. “Muskies will not only eat some of the shad, they will provide more muskie fishing opportunities in the area.”

Muskies are stocked in seven lakes in Kosciusko, Noble and Fulton counties, but none are stocked in the Fort Wayne area. Once muskies are released in Lake Everett, plans are to continue to stock the lake with the fish annually.

Comprehensive state forestry report is online
The first comprehensive assessment and strategy since the 1980s of all of Indiana’s forests – private, public and urban – has been completed by the DNR Division of Forestry, and is available for viewing at www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/ 5436.htm

The strategy outlines many new forestry initiatives, such as developing a Forest Mitigation Bank, a hardwood timber checkoff program and best management practices for slowing the spread of forest invasive species.

Thousands of individuals and landowners and more than 300 agriculture, conservation, education, environment, government, natural resource and recreation organizations participated in the planning process.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Jack Spaulding may contact him by e-mail at jackspaulding@hughes.net or by writing to him in care of this publication.