IN public hunting & fishing areas

[Dinny]

Here's the place to share public areas that are open for hunting and fishing.

Deam Lake-www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/4825.htm

1300 acres. 194 acre lake

Thanks, Dinny

[Lon371]

 There is a bunch of ground around deam lake to hunt. There is also a lot up in Henryville area. There is also a bunch in between the 2 parks that is also state land. The catch is figuring out what is state and what is private.

 My suggestion is, if you are wanting to hunt it do so before gun season kicks in. When gun season hits the masses will swarm!

Lonny

[schoolmaster]

Trying to hunt in the Hoosier National Forest can be an exercise in frustration. It is difficult to find places to park and the areas are not well marked also the locals post the National Forest ground to further confuse the issue. There are patches of HNF land that are surrounded by private land the public can't get to and along the roads there are strips of private ground between the road and the actual public hunting areas. When you ask the locals for help, they look at you like you are from Mars. Some places like Deam Lake are big enough and well marked enough to hunt but that is why they get so much pressure during gun season. I have USGS maps, county road maps, of all kinds and still can't always get where I want to go. I don't want to get arrested for trespassing or have an unpleasant experience with an irate landowner so I avoid the places I am not 100% sure of. Am spending a lot of time on Google Earth. I am in NE Indiana so it is an expedition to travel to HNF to find places to hunt. I like to hunt around Patoka lake and usually spend one weekend there during the MZ season. We camp and get to experience hunting the way it should be. Very enjoyable.

[theoldarcher]

Schoolmaster: I was just going to suggest Patoka Lake area, then read the last of your thread.  Try bringing your boat sometime and use that to bypass most of the foot traffic from the roads.  There are several long fingers that have always contained deer but they just 'hole' up way down yonder where only a few ever walk to.  Using a boat can put you in front of the walkers and help you deer sightings.  Don't forget to look into the thickets adjacent to the boat landings either. 

I hunted one particular buck one bow season that was living right by a boat landing.  I guess he felt safe there as most would go right past the area to hunt in the big woods.  When he did get bumped he would jump in and swim to another finger instead of running into the woods.  I didn't get him until the next spring when mushroom hunting.  We found his remains in the water under some brush.  It looked like someone had made a poor shot on him and he made the water but died in it.  I have the rack at home so at least that was salvaged.

I now only hunt the area during ML season as well.  Although my brother has property on which he lives there at Eckerty, and we hunt relatives' property toward English.  I don't make it to PL to hunt anymore.

Best of luck, Arch

[schoolmaster]

Yeah archer, a buddy of mine got an invite to hunt around English and we went down there to hunt on an Amish farm. He shot a beautiful 8 pointer that scored 148. We never got asked again. That was one of the motivators to get me to make a trip down there to hunt we never see bucks like that where I hunt. I usually see more deer there in two days hunting than I see all season on my in laws farm. Of course that isn't difficult as I saw one deer on my in laws last year. If it wasn't for the draw hunts I probably wouldn't get to shoot anything.

[Lon371]

 Schoolmaster

 I have had pretty good luck seeing deer out here. We have a bunch of Amish, they hunt thier own grounds and dont envite many people. We hunt some bottom grounds, fields,creek and usually plenty of does and youngens. Every couple years a nice buck will stroll thru. Oh by the way, you said you dont see much on the in-laws farm? Do they like you? Are you sure your in-laws are not sabotaging your hunting area?
Just kidding.

Lonny

[schoolmaster]

In laws live in Blackford county and brother in law runs the farm. He just wants the deer dead so the two hired hands get to hunt, the renter and his brother and nephew get to hunt and we have several hunters on ajoining properties that slug trespass so the deer are highly pressured. We planted a food plot and several secret spots in the 8 acres of woods and put up stands etc but have a hard time with people using the stands and trespassing. I don't want to complain because I could be denied use of the property. I get to fish a pond and camp there and have a shooting range I built, so just grin and bear it. Blackford county is always in the bottom 10 in total deer kill in the state with just over 300 last season. That is why I love the south.

[Lon371]

He just wants the deer dead

Thats the way it is down here where we hunt. There are several people who trespass, but as long as it stays peaceful the farmers will let them hunt. Actually that is part of the reason I hunt there. First time I had permission to bow hunt, one of the nieghbors snuck in behind me and unloaded an SKS. He did it because every year he had a bunch of friends come to town and hunt the whole area WITHOUT permission. From the day untill today, my friends and family have vowed as long as we hunt it will be mainly there. Guess who does NOT hunt the area anymore In fact as soon as I figured out his favorite spot, I  built a permant stand 25 yards away. I would actually shoot squirrels until he would give up for the day and go home. Needless to say he no longer hunts the area .

 I know about the pressures of crowds to say the least. But like you said, it is a place to hunt.

Lonny

[olydraft]

  Somebody did the constant firing of an  sks or ak ( something cheap to shoot) they must have gone through 5 or 6 30 rnd mags before they quit. I would have liked to wrap it around there neck. It happened twice this season. Once in Brown County and once just at the edge of Morgan Monroe park. I don`t have the foggiest idea what there problem was. Both time i believe it came from close by houses.

[Lon371]

  Some people think because they once had permission,  or find a honey hole on public ground, that they are the only ones aloud to hunt it. In our case all it did was make me all that more determined to hunt it. Thanks to the fella in our case, I have ate a lot of deer He now only has his couple acres to hunt

Lonny

[mrcoolid]

I hunted Elk Creek in Washington County a couple years ago. I took a boat ride across the lake about 4am and the Amish were already there. We did harvest a doe. It is a great place to squirrel hunt also. It is off of Highway 56 between Scottsburg and Salem.

I have a buddy that hunts Deam Lake every year. He always see's lots of small does. He walks a long ways in to hunt.

Talking about deer... the dnr says there was a record harvest in Indiana. Somewhere around 132,000.  One county up north had a record harvest of over 4,000 deer.

[Lon371]

 Elk creek is a small area. The squirrel hunting up there use to be great! not tried it in a while. Have known some folks to deer hunt it. Like you said, the Amish also hunt it. Their land backs up to the south side of the property.

 Deam Lake as well is a great place to hunt. But with the hilly terrain it is harder than most places. Use to camp there during squirrel season. Would take a boat to the far side of the lake and hunt the furry rascals.

 Not sure how we had a record harvest. These last 2 years all the people I have talked to have had their worst years. A lot of them are older folks that fill there freezers(in the past) on a regular bases. Maybe our southern herd moved north.

Lonny

[mrcoolid]

Lonny

Here is the link. I think the disease did hit in the south harder as well. With more people out of work,they had more time to hunt.

http://www.in.gov/portal/news_events/51412.htm


Mike

[Dinny]

After reading the article, I still have to agree with Lonny. Last year was a poor year in the South, whether it be a combination of disease or wet weather leaving the crops in, it was a poor deer hunting year. Even my deer camera felt that way, only taking a small amount of pics.

Thanks, Dinny

[Tom Threetoes]

We had problems with locals posting state ground when we hunted it. I went to the court houses and got plat books for the counties involved. They're not 100% accurate but will give you a pretty good idea where the boundries are. And yes, we found the deer numbers down in our part of the state too.