Shakamak and Indianapolis

Well we’re back from a week’s vacation in the beautiful southern region of Indiana. We stayed in a cabin heated by a wood-burning stove in the Shakamak state park. There are three lakes at Shakamak; Kickapoo, Lenape, and of course Shakamak. FGB and I fished the Shakamak and Lenape. The fishing on Lenape was fantastic. Unfortunately we went in the evening and forgot to bring a camera so I will do my best to describe it to you. The air temperature was 70 and the wind was only gently blowing. It was about 7:00 pm when we pushed off from the pier in our rented John boat. While waiting for FGB to bait up I took a cast by the pier and wham I had hooked something immediately. It turned out to be a 12 inch Large Mouth Bass. Not huge but a lot of fun on the ultra-light tackle we were using. Soon after that I bagged two nice crappies and then FGB got into the act the next 8 fish would be caught by FGB each of them crappie and one of them pushing 3lbs, what a beauty. The fish seemed to hit better while the boat was moving so I continually rowed us around the lake while we let our lines troll out behind the boat. We caught several more fish Crappies and Blue Gills all of which were good size fish.

Lenape is a long thin lake with many fingers and coves branching off along the shoreline. The lake itself lays East and West. After an hour or so of fishing the sun began to set in the West. It was a beautiful red ball of fire that reflected eerily off the placid water. The lake came alive with frogs of all kinds and other animals making their evening calls. The whole chorus rang out with an ominous beauty. FGB said that it sounded like an evil scientist laughing. Soon the moon was rising in the East, it too shone brilliantly reddish orange and added to the evenings “charm.” Truthfully the sights and sounds grew on us and we fell in love with this Southern Indiana Park.

The fishing hadn’t quite come to an end, we had yet to get back to the pier and there was one more promising cove to explore. Of course FGB quickly landed a few more crappie as we entered the cove. FGB couldn’t resist pointing out that his crappie total was much higher than mine, I quickly responded that I had caught a bass and that he hadn’t. Shortly after this exchange my pole bent under the weight of another nice fish. After fighting the fish for a couple of minutes I landed our expeditions only catfish. It was a beautiful channel cat. The sun was almost completely down and the fishing had begun to slow so we headed back to the pier. About 20 feet from the pier, my pole jumped up and flew towards the end of the boat. I dropped my oar and reached out just catching the end of the handle. I threw back my arm back to set the hook and felt the tug of a nice fish. He headed straight to the weeds and with the light tackle I couldn’t stop him. Soon I was just pulling up dead weight. I was sure that the fish had got off and all that was left was weeds. FGB reached over the side of the boat and picked up my catch of weeds. He began peeling away the muck when I heard, “Dad! You’ve got to see this blue gill!” I had caught the biggest blue gill I had ever seen, bigger then even the monsters I’d seen at the Milwaukee zoo river exhibit. It was truly a beautiful specimen and like all the fish we caught he is back in the lake making babies for the next trip.

The hiking was also great. If I had more time I’d describe it to you in detail. Suffice it to say we saw and heard more birds then we could name; water fowl, seed eaters, birds of prey and bug eaters all calling back and forth to each other! By the way on our way back from an excursion to Brown County State Park The beautiful wife snapped the picture of the shark in the sky. We also saw some clouds that looked like arrowheads and missles.

The trip ended up at the Crown Plaza hotel in Indianapolis. We went to the zoo, the museum, the State House, The historical society, the Indianapolis State Library, and the RCA dome. The wife who usually feels very strange in cities said that she truly felt great walking around Indy! It is a clean city and the hoosier hospitality was everywhere. By the way the zoo was fantastic and my 1 ½ year old daughter was a blast to watch! Her favorite part was petting the Yak! Go figure!