Hoosier volunteers have the opportunity to become certified to participate as specialists in the toad and frog survey this spring.

Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is offering two workshops on our state’s 17 frog and toad species. Attendees will learn how to identify Indiana toads and frogs by their calls and may volunteer to assist the DNR with the Indiana Amphibian Monitoring Program (INAMP), part of a national roadside driving survey.

Participants need not volunteer for the program to attend the workshop, and participants don’t have to attend the workshop to volunteer.

Workshop attendees should tell the gate or building staff member at the workshop location that they are attending the Amphibian Monitoring Workshop so they aren’t charged gate entrance fees. The workshops will be Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. EST at the Versailles State Park, at 1387 E. U.S. Highway 50 in Versailles, 812-689-6424; and Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. CST at Angel Mounds State Historic Site, 8215 Pollack Avenue in Evansville, 812-853-3956.

Volunteers may select an available roadside driving route with 10 listening stops. The volunteer will survey the route three times per year from late February through June. Surveys are conducted at night, usually after rainy days, when frogs and toads give their breeding calls.

Each survey takes approximately 90 minutes to complete, plus travel time to and from the route location. At each of the 10 stops, the volunteer listens for five minutes, recording what species are heard and some environmental data. Information collected will help DNR biologists better understand the distribution and abundance of amphibians in Indiana.

Anyone is welcome to attend, but must be 18 or older to participate in the monitoring program. Registration is not required, but Internet access and e-mail are required to participate in the program.

Attendees should bring pen and paper. For more information, visit www.IN.gov/dnr/fishwild/5455.htm

INAMP is part of the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP) of the U.S. Geological Survey. For more information on NAAMP, see www.pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp

The program is funded by donations to the Endangered Wildlife Fund on the Indiana tax form. Look for the eagle and donate all or a portion of your state tax refund to keep frogs and toads hopping in Indiana.

Muskie stocking ending
at Loon Lake

In a move to better allocate muskie produced in Indiana state fish hatcheries, the DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) plans to end its 32-year muskie stocking program at Loon Lake in Whitley County.

The DNR first stocked muskie in the 222-acre natural lake in 1978 to boost predation on small, overabundant bluegill and create muskie fishing opportunities. Since 1978 more than 34,000 muskie fingerlings, typically measuring 8-10 inches long at the time of stocking, have been released into the lake.

Funds to cover the cost of producing and stocking the muskie came from the sale of fishing licenses and federal sport fish restoration dollars.

Muskie are members of the pike family and can grow more than 48 inches long and weigh more than 25 pounds. Muskie are a toothy predator fish, foraging on a variety of other fish species, including bluegill. They prefer, however, to eat suckers, shad and other soft-rayed fish.

By stocking muskie in Loon Lake, biologists theorized bluegill escaping predation would have more food to eat and would be able to grow larger. When the stocking program began, the lake already had a long history of producing bluegill too small to interest most anglers.

“So much for theories,” said Jed Pearson, DNR biologist, who has managed the Loon Lake muskie stocking program since it began. “What we hoped would occur once muskie were in the lake just never happened.”

Bluegill continue to dominate its fish population. Bluegill represented 80 percent of the fish collected in a recent DNR survey.

“That’s about twice the normal percentage of bluegill in Indiana natural lakes,” Pearson said. “And most of them were small, less than six inches long. Unlike bluegill at other lakes in the area, none of them were eight inches long.”
The lack of many catchable-size bluegill deters anglers from fishing. Based on an angler survey conducted by the DFW in 2009, fishing effort at Loon Lake was low, at only 35 hours per acre. The bluegill harvest rate of 0.6 bluegill per hour was only half the average compared to other lakes. The number of bluegill taken home by anglers plummeted from a high of 15,000 in 1983 to only 1,600 in 2009; however, the decline in bluegill harvest was not due to muskie predation.

“A lot of bluegill fishermen simply lost interest in fishing,” Pearson said.
Meanwhile, muskie fishing failed to attract many anglers, and interest waned in recent years. “Only 6 percent of fishermen at Loon Lake fish for muskie,” he said. “That figure is half of what it once was and well below average compared to other muskie lakes.”

With ample opportunities to fish for muskie already in several nearby lakes, Pearson expects anglers who previously fished for muskie at Loon to switch to other stocked lakes, including Lake Tippecanoe and the Barbee lakes.
“Muskie won’t disappear from Loon Lake overnight either,” he said. “Fishermen will still be able to fish for them for many years. Fingerlings that were just stocked last fall could be around for 10 years or more.”

DNR reservation system
overhaul online Feb. 28

Hoosiers ready to book camping sites, cabins or recreation buildings and shelters will have to take a break and wait for the DNR reservation system to be put back online. Improving the DNR’s reservation system will require a system interruption which started Feb. 8.

DNR officials intend for the improved system to be available Feb. 28 at noon. During the service interruption, no advance reservations will be taken at the DNR’s call center or at www.Camp.IN.gov but same-day walk-up registrations will still be available at the various properties.

The State Park Inns/Lodges will take reservations for rooms and cabins associated with the inns during the system interruption, at www.indianainns.com or 877-LODGES1 (563-4371).

When www.Camp.IN.Gov reopens Feb. 28, customers will be able to select preferred amenities and use an easy-to-read availability calendar and interactive campground maps. Eventually, photographs of campsites will be added.

“We thank everyone for their continued patronage, and appreciate their patience while we add features to make the system more convenient,” said Christie Wilmoth, DNR Division of State Parks and Reservoirs business services program director.