The questions I get are mostly from men who moved out here from somewhere flat and loud and bought a rod before they bought a license. I do not mind the questions. What I mind is the answer they find online, which was written for a lake in another state. The county keeps its water simple, the rules are printed, and the whole thing fits on one notebook page if you write it down once.
Where do I fish without a boat?
The easy water is the ponds. Jasper-Pulaski keeps several one-acre ponds in Areas 1 through 12, plus Wallace Pond by the office, all open year round for bank fishing, and Ryan Ditch has shoreline you can walk without sinking a boot. A self-serve check-in is required before you fish, which takes two minutes at the box and keeps a record of who was on the property.
Take a short rod and one small box. These are twenty-minute ponds, not all-day ponds, and a long rod will put you in the willows behind you. Caboose Lake Campground off US 24 in Remington keeps a 20-acre stocked lake on private ground; if you are camping there, ask at the office before you cast.
What do I need in my pocket before I start?
A license, and the Indiana prices are plain enough to remember: resident annual fishing 23 dollars, resident one-day 10 dollars, nonresident annual 60 dollars, nonresident seven-day 35 dollars. The license year runs from April 1 to March 31, so a February trip is covered by what you bought the previous spring. Add an 11-dollar trout and salmon stamp only if you intend to keep a trout.
Retailers in town sell them and the state sells them online, where a small technology fee goes on top of the price. Carry the printout or the number on your phone. A conservation officer will ask for it before he asks how your day has been, and he is right to.
What is in the water?
Catfish, bluegill and largemouth bass are the species the state lists for this property, and that is what I plan on. The two limits I carry in my head are 14 inches minimum on largemouth bass and 10 inches minimum on channel catfish, with all other Indiana size and bag limits in force on top of those.
Everything else is the state regulation book, which changes on a cycle and is worth reading once before the season opens rather than the night before you go. I keep the current year's booklet in the glove box, because that is where it actually gets read.
Which water is open, and when does it close?
The two gravel pits and the ponds in Area 16 run open through spring and summer and close to water recreation during waterfowl season in the fall and winter, and the sign at the gate is the only notice you get. Some other areas are restricted for the same reason, and the list moves with the hunt schedule.
Ask at headquarters before you drive out, or read the sign at the entrance. The office keeps the current restrictions on a sheet by the door, and one phone call saves a morning. If a gate is chained and the sign says waterfowl, the answer is not to find another way in.
Can I take a boat, or is a bucket enough?
Both gravel pits have gravel boat ramps, and the motor rule is the one people forget: a maximum 12-volt electric motor, nothing with gas on it. Life jackets are required by state law, including the one lying in the bottom of the boat while you fish from it.
A small kayak or a float tube is legal and easier to launch than anything with a trailer behind it. Bring the plug and check it before you back in, because the ramp is gravel and the water sits lower in August than the map suggests.
How is the ice in January?
I do not trust ice because it looks nice. My rule is four inches of clear ice before I drill anything and before I walk far from shore, and I check it at the edge, one step out, and again where the grass grows into the water.
The one-acre ponds freeze more evenly than the gravel pits, which hold dead reeds and open water near the outlets. Wind works the pits differently after a thaw, and a crust that carried me Tuesday will not carry me Friday. If somebody else has driven a truck out on it, that is their business and not my proof.
What should I check before I drive out?
The office number and the gate condition. Headquarters sits at 5822 Fish and Wildlife Lane in Medaryville and the phone is 219-843-4841, and one call tells you which areas are open, what is restricted for waterfowl, and whether the road in has been graded since the last rain.
Ask which clock the office is keeping as well. Half of that property sits on Eastern Time while Jasper County runs Central, and a mistake there means you arrive an hour early with the thermos and nobody there to hear about it. Check the time, check the gate, and leave the second rod in the truck.