Despite being created back in 1943, Geist Reservoir remains one of the more popular bass fishing spots in the central Indiana area. I recently came across an angler survey that was taken over 3 days in 1958, and it is pretty interesting to look back and see some of the stats that were captured from that short time period. It makes for an interesting window into the fishery and popularity of the lake back then, some 54 years ago.
The survey took place over Memorial Day weekend (Fri.- Sun.) in 1958, and was carried out by Conservation Officers Roy White and Robert Boots, with assistance from spoertsmen Albert Toule and Clarence Lowe. The highs that weekend were in the upper 70's, but Saturday and Sunday were rainy and breezy which limited angler traffic. Scattered storms moved through the area leaving 0.1 in of rain on Saturday, and 0.3 on Sunday. Winds were predominantly out of the south on Friday and Saturday, switching to the west early on Sunday as the storms moved through in the early morning hours. Barometers slowly fell through Sunday morning, then began to rise again later that afternoon. To set the mood and get a feel for the time period and the weather, I found this old 8mm video from the same weekend just a little to our north in Grayling, MI. Even there you can see the gray skies and wet pavement from the weekend weather.
Personnel met anglers who were in the process of fishing, or who were headed out to fish and gave them a postal creel card which was to be filled out and returned in the mail. In total, they handed out 270 cards, 100 on each of the first two days and another 70 on Sunday. The cards were coded so that they could differentiate between those fishing in Hamilton County or those fishing Marion County, as well as whether they were in a boat or fishing from shore.
All told, 173 anglers filled out and returned the cards. From that response, biologists were able to gather some interesting information:
> 334 anglers fished 1,692 hours and caught 992 fish.
> The average trip lasted 5.1 hours, and each angler averaged 0.6 fish per hour, or 3 fish per trip.
> Each party averaged 2.1 anglers, and caught an average of 6.3 fish. Overall, more than 64% of all parties were successful in catching at least one fish.
> Sixty-four percent of the fish caught (636 fish) were crappie, followed by bluegill which comprised 31.4% (311 fish). There were 15 largemouth bass caught over the 3 days, as well as 3 smallmouth bass.
> Men accounted for 77.5% of all anglers, with women making up 13.5% and children 9.0%.
On the afternoon of May 31 between the hours of 3 and 5 PM, a survey was taken to count the number of anglers fishing the entire reservoir that day to get an idea of the fishing pressure. They came up with 73 boats out on the lake, 57 of which were in the Marion County portion of the lake, and 16 of which were over in Hamilton County. All boats combined had 166 anglers fishing in them. From the shore, there were 428 anglers, 275 of which were fishing the banks in Marion County and 153 of them in Hamilton County. The number of shore anglers is particularly interesting, as it suggests just how undeveloped and open to the public the land around the reservoir was at the time. It was still Water Company owned, but the next survey taken in 1983 would mention how there was almost no shoreline angling taking place at the reservoir due to nearly all of it being bought and held as private property. It remains that way to this day.
One other interesting comment from the survey report was that there was or recently had been a 10" limit on bass at the time, and a 5" limit on panfish. Only 51 of the reported 992 fish fell under these size limits and were considered "short", having to be released.
Needless to say, things at the reservoir have changed considerably over the past 50 years, but the basic fishery as far as species composition seems to still be pretty much the same. Interestingly though, fishing pressure is probably much less now days than back in 1958 when taking into account both bank and boat angling totals.
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