Early History of Lake Maxinkuckee - FISH AND FISHING  

FISH AND FISHING IN LAKE MAXINKUCKEE.

By Judge A. C. Capron.

THE EDIBLE FISH.
Common Name.	Scientific Name.
Black Bass (Large mouth)	Micropterus Salmonides.
Black Bass (Small mouth)	Micropterus Dolomieu.
Rock Bass (Red-eye)	Ambloplites Rupestris.
Crappie (New Comer	Pomoxis Annularis.
Warmouth (Goggle-eye	Chaenobryttus Gulosus.
Yellow or Ringed Perch	Perca Flavescenes.
Blue Bream (Blue Gill)	Lepomis Pallidus.
Sunfish (Common)	Eupomotis Gibbosus.
Long Eared Sunfish	Lepomis Megalotis.
Wall-eyed Pike (Salmon)	Stizostedion Vitreum.
Catfish (Bullhead)	Americus Nebulosis.
Calico Bass	Pomoxis Sparoides.
American Eel	Anguilla Chrysypa.
NON-EDIBLE FISH.
Long Nosed Gar	Lepisosteus Osseus.
Bow Fin (Dogfish)	Amia Calva.

Any history of Lake Maxinkuckee that did not make favorable mention of its fish and the opportunity its waters have always afforded for genuine sport to all lovers of the "gentle art," would be deemed incomplete to a large majority of those who have lived in its vicinity or had been visitors to this famous summer resort, for there is not another lake in the State of Indiana, large or small, that has or ever had the enviable reputation this lake has always maintained in this respect. And this reputation is well and honestly earned.

Nowhere else in the State do the edible fishes grow to larger size or attain a more delicious flavor than those of this beautiful lake. There are two good easons for this: One, the exceeding purity of its waters; the other, the abundance of fish food, both insectivorous and vegetable, found therein. There is no doubt but what its water is the cleanest and purest of any lake water in the West. It has no permanent surface inlets, its water supply being mainly from innumerable small springs along its margin and at the bottom, and from nearly half a hundred artesian flowing wells, which reach a depth of from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five feet, located along the north, east and south shores, from which there pours, summer and winter, unceasing streams of as cold, pure water as ever came from the inner recesses of old mother earth.

The lake is really an immense whitewater spring, out of which flows through its outlet on the west side a goodly stream of sparkling water, averaging some twenty inches in depth and eighteen or more feet wide.

The contour of the bottom of the lake is of a character to afford a great amount of fish food, it being very uneven, with a depth ranging from six to almost ninety feet, with deep gullies, shallow flats and bars and ridges with steep and sloping sides, where several varieties of aquatic plants and lake grasses grow profusely, which furnish excellent pasturage for the grazing varieties of fish (and these are more numerous than most people imagine), and also hiding places for the newly hatched game fishes and the crabs, sticklebacks, minnows and water insects, upon which the large fish are accustomed to feed. The bottom of the lake on the north and east, where the water is rather shallow, is fairly paved with small cobble-stones, with now and then a good sized boulder, where the soft-shelled crabs are found in profusion, which makes a famous feeding ground for the black bass during certain seasons.

The first colonies of white settlers who located themselves at and near the lake were not at first much addicted to the fishing habit. They came from southern Ohio and Indiana, where there were no lakes and the streams were muddy and afforded little sport in that line.

To open a new farm in a timber country required the hardest kind of labor, and every able-bodied person put in six days of steady work each week in clearing the ground for crops, building log houses for shelter and getting ready to live in some degree of comfort.

All except the very small children were devout church members, and such a thing as a fishing excursion on the Sabbath was never dreamed of.

But in their forced and hurried evacuation of the territory around the lake the Indians had left some of their "dugouts," and it was not a long time until the boys were paddling them up and along the lake shores, and they soon discovered there were plenty of fish to be seen sporting in the clear waters, and of course the next thing was to try and catch them.

The writer of this history can not, however, learn that any particular attention was given to fishing in the lake until about the year 1840.

There are yet living in Marshall County a few of those who as boys fished there with their fathers in those early times, and the stories they tell of the schools of fish to be seen and the quantities caught are enough to make the modern fisherman green with envy. With fishpoles cut from the grubs, homemade linen lines and hooks of antique make, a couple of farmers would man a canoe, paddle to the first bar and with worms and grubs for bait an evening's fishing would bring in a bushel of as fine fish as ever swam in lake or river.

It was not many months before a longer, a trolling line, with bucktail bait, was used, and a pull across the lake was all that was needed to furnish a small neighborhood with a hearty fish meal.

There were no statutory fish laws at that time, and spearing at night was one of the favorite methods of fishing, and if the occupants of a boat got less than a hundred pounds of fish during a night they considered themselves in bad luck.

Between the years 1850 and 1860 seining the waters for fish became quite common, and loads of fish of all kinds were annually taken out of the lake.

But it was not until in the '60s that the sporting fraternity — the fishermen with rod, reel and line — began to visit Lake Maxinkuckee. By that time a few fairly comfortable row boats had been put on the lake and a small visiting party could find accommodation for a day or two with some of t he farmers near by, and the fame of the lake as a fisherman's paradise began to spread abroad.

The first lakeside cottage was built in the early '70s by a club of about a dozen Plymouth fishermen on the lot now known as the McOuat Place. The completion of the I. P.& C. railroad (now the Lake Erie & Western) brought the cities along its line within eight miles of the lake, and parties from Rochester, Peru and Logansport began to camp upon its shores, and their white tents could be seen all through the fishing seasons beneath the shady groves of Long Point, Edward's Landing and Peeples' Point.

And after the completion of the Vandalia railroad to South Bend the Terre Haute people came in goodly numbers.

The good qualities of the lake were first made known to the Indianapolis people by Hon. Martin H. Rice, who had known the lake since 1855, and when the railroad was completed the fishermen from the Capital City came up, first singly, then by twos and threes, and finally by the dozen, to try their luck in the clear waters of our beautiful lake.

They found good quarters at the Allegheny House, and they brought along their finest fishing tackle, their well-tried fly rods, their Frankfort reels and the most approved artificial baits, and they all caught fish—all kinds of fish—and enough to make a goodly show in their fish baskets, and nearly every man of them had a bundle of smashed fishing tackle to take home to prove the truth of his story of the big fish he had hooked, but which got away.

And the men from these cities came again and again, and they caught something besides the fishes; they caught a vision of the glory of the lake, with its clear waters, its tree-lined shores, its wooded bluffs, its clean sandy beaches over which gurgled the cool waters of its crystal springs, and the vision went with them to their homes, to their business rooms, and it would not depart, and they began to long for a portion of bluff, of shore or beach, where they might abide for days or months and take into their souls all the beauties that vision had revealed to them, and shortly they became possessors of jutting points, of stretches of beach, of tracts of wooded shores, of acres of the shady bluffs, and there they built the row of artistic cottages that now encircle the lake like rich tinted gems set around a luminous pearl — and out of that vision was born the Maxinkuckee Association, the most rational and pleasure giving summer resort association in the State of Indiana today.


Large Mouth Black Bass — Micropterus Salmonides.


Small Mouth Black Bass - Micropterus Dolomieu.

And what were the fish these Maxinkuckee fishermen caught? Well, they caught a dozen varieties at least, all clean, nice edible fish, all gamy and full of fight, and all ready to take the proper bait in season. At the head of the list we must put the two varieties of black bass—the big and the small-mouthed. They are the "king fish" of the Indiana lakes, as every real fisherman knows.

It is the general opinion amongst those who are accustomed to catch black bass that the small-mouthed are the gamiest and best fighters of the two varieties, but the big mouthed give plenty of trouble and excitement to the fisherman, and in the writer's experience he has found that pound for pound the latter variety make just as bitter a fight for liberty and life as do the other variety. But the big mouthed grow to almost twice the weight of the small mouthed, and as they increase in size they are less active and when struck do not spring out of water as often or as nimbly as when they are smaller; but the big fellows adopt different tactics. They dart for the nearest grass or weed patch and once within it they whirl and circle and soon wind the fisherman's line around a resisting mass of weeds which gives them a chance to tear loose from the hook.

This variety of black bass has been known to attain a weight of ten pounds and over. A quite well authenticated tradition has it that one was speared in the lake in the early '50s, brought to Plymouth and sold, that weighed twelve pounds without the entrails.

The largest the writer ever saw caught in our lake was taken by a lady in the year 1874. It weighed a trifle over seven and one-half pounds.

Of late years several have been caught that weighed over six pounds.

But, after all, the snappy, saucy small mouth is the favorite among the fishermen. There is grit and determination in his every movement and he keeps the fisherman continually guessing until he is fairly in the landing net. Probably more "strikes" of this fish are failures to "catch" than those of any other variety in the lake.

While there is yet a goodly supply of black bass in the lake, it is true that their numbers are much less than twenty years ago. Still, good strings have been caught during last season and this spring season of 1904, and during the past six or eight years there has been very little falling off in the catches, though the number of fishermen has increased.

The United States Department of Fisheries has started in to replenish the lake with the small-mouthed variety, and for several years quite a large number of fry have been placed in its waters, and the experienced fishermen are claiming that they are now catching the new bass and that they can distinguish quite a difference between the old and the new varieties.


Wall-eyed Pike (Salmon) — Stizostedion Catfish — Americus

Next in size and interest to the fish gourmand are the wall-eyed pike, or salmon, as they are usually named by the people around the lake. They are the most toothsome of all the large fishes, having, when properly cooked, a most delicious flavor of their own, while the rich, even grain of the flesh presents a most appetizing appearance. They are not as numerous as formerly, but they are caught during the entire season and the number taken is considerable. They frequent the lowest and deepest growths of weeds and grasses in their search for food and are usually caught in from twenty-five to forty feet of water (though occasionally one will be found in much shallower spots), and the long pull makes the catch quite exciting, especially if the salmon wakes up to the situation and gives fight. All at once he becomes ambitious, often just as the fisherman is about to slip the landing net beneath him, and he puts up a battle worthy of a black bass and it takes skill and caution to save him.

They are quite handsome fish and present an appearance of health and solidity that is entirely satisfactory to the lucky one who makes the catch. These fish are always of good size, weighing from two to five pounds, and heavier ones are occasionally caught, and, strange to say, no really small salmon have ever been caught in the lake; at least, this is the writer's experience. The United States Fish Department has been trying for the past few years to replenish the lake with these fish, and probably fifteen millions of fry have been planted here, and it is expected that in a reasonably short time the wall-eyes will be more plentiful than they were half a century ago.

There are two other varieties of fish in the lake that deserve special mention for their good qualities, viz., the yellow-ringed perch and the blue bream, often called the buffalo blue gill.


Yellow or Ringed Perch - Perca Flavescenes.

The perch are the most plentiful of any fish in the lake, and larger or finer ones are nowhere caught. They are by all odds the handsomest fish in our Indiana waters, and to fish for them is the especial delight of the lady cottagers who spend the season at our lake. They are caught in great numbers on the bars and about the weed and grass patches in the early season; later they are found in deeper water.

The large perch are especially brilliant fish. Dressed in ribbons of silk and satin they come out of the water wet and shining, their golden yellow sides and red and orange fins making pleasing contrast with their green brown stripes as they flash and sparkle—genuine jewelled water sprites. They are of a most delicious flavor when properly cooked, and they really furnish the greater part of the fish food used by the lake cottagers. They often grow to weigh a pound and a half, though the greater number caught weigh less than half a pound. Every year some extremely large catches are made, often as many as 200 by one fisherman.

Not long ago a catch of 110 perch weighed eighty-seven pounds, and the writer has seen strings of these fish laid upon the shore fully six feet long, all of which indicates that the "fish hog" is not yet an extinct species.


Blue Bream (Blue Gill) — Lepomis Pallidus.

The notable thing about the blue gills or bream in Maxinkuckee Lake is their uncommonly large size, the majority of them weighing a pound or more. They are a handsome, active fish, and game to the backbone. When struck they have a way of darting sidewise swift as an arrow, and for a time they pull like a three-pound bass.

It is a fact that more tips of fine rods are broken by these gritty fish in their sudden springs and dartings while trying to escape than in all other ways put together, and much the safest way of fishing for them is to use a long, light bamboo. They are a most excellent pan fish, their flesh having a peculiar sweetness much liked by most fishermen and their families.

At times they can be caught in great numbers, and again not a blue gill can be got in the lake for a month. They are great wanderers, and except when on their beds they do not stay in one locality any length of time.

When the blue gill spawning beds are found the word goes quickly around the lake and a dozen or more boats loaded with country boys and men will be early on the grounds, and, with bamboo poles, cork on line and fish worms for bait, the murder of the innocents goes steadily on until the spawning is done or the last fish caught. And the sporting crowd and the cottagers are not a whit behind the country folk in their eagerness to get a share of the sport and fish. No wonder that the blue bream are getting scarce, and the State fishing laws do not protect them.


Rock Bass (Red-eye)— Ambloplites Rupestris.

The other varieties of edible fishes found in the lake may properly be classed as pan-fish, of good quality every one, but they need no extended mention. From rock bass to catfish, all are gamy and put up the best fight possible.


Crappie (New Comer) — Pomoxis Annularis

The crappies and calico bass both take the fly at times, when they afford rare sport, for many of them grow to large size, often weighing a pound and a half or more. They are gamy and full of fight, having some of the tricks of the blue bream, and the fly rod fisherman is often put to his best to land his catch.

There are two rare species of sunfish — the long-eared and the butter-bellies — both noted for their beautiful markings. Only a few are caught in the lake. The smaller species of sunfish are quite plentiful, and as they frequent shallow water, especially about the piers and landings, they afford rare sport for the small children of the cottagers, who industriously fish for them and religiously insist on having all they catch cleaned and cooked for their own especial benefit, ofttimes much to the annoyance of the culinary department.


Sunfish (Common) — Eupomotis Gibbosus


Long Eared Sunfish — Lepomis Megalotis.

It will hardly do to omit all mention of the two species of non-edible fish which to some extent infest the lake.

The meek-eyed dogfish quite often makes himself manifest, much to the annoyance and always to the disappointment of the fisherman, for his "strike" is exactly like that of the wall-eye. A bitter fight is sure to follow, for Mr. Calva never knows when to quit, and it is only after ten or fifteen minutes of keen excitement when the flat tail and the mouse-like eyes of the catch comes to view that the situation clears up, and a collapse follows. Several mild "cuss" words from the fisherman and the other occupants of the boat are in order, and they are brought forth with the greatest unanimity.

During July and August the long-nosed gars make themselves manifest, greatly to the disgust of the fishermen. Apparently they are getting more plentiful each year. They frequent the edges of the bars, where, as a usual thing, the trolling is the best, and, as their strike is similar to that of the black bass, they get up as much or more commotion as the dogfish. To the novice who enjoys a pull with anything that gets on his hook a tussle with a five or six-pound gar is rare sport. If, however, he manages to get his ugly customer in his boat, the three feet of round solid fish and the six-inch bill filled with sharp teeth discourages all attempt to disengage his tackle, and hook and snood are quickly sacrificed and the ugly "beast" dumped in short order. It is said that the gars are of some use as scavengers, but the fishermen would gladly forego this if the lake could be rid of them.

According to Professor Everman there are more than thirty varieties of minnows in the lake. They are extremely numerous and furnish an inexhaustible supply of bait.

To be even moderately successful one must be fairly well acquainted with the "lay of the land" in the lake. There are considerable areas that are absolutely barren of fish at all seasons, where one may fish a week and not get a nibble.

The large map of the lake made under the supervision of Prof. Barton W. Everman, Ichthyologist of the United States Fish Commission, furnishes an accurate description of the contour of the bottom of the lake, and it may be studied with profit by all newcomers who wish to get a decent catch of fish. Where the water is sixty, seventy or eighty feet deep there are no fish, unless it be a few gars swimming near the surface in a migration from one side of the lake to the other.

And there are days when the lake appears absolutely without fish of any kind, when the experienced fisherman with both live and artificial bait may search the bars and gullies of the very best fishing grounds from "morn till dewy eve" with not a single strike.

But even such a day is not without its recompense to the genuine fisherman, for he is always a lover of nature in her various moods. After a fruitless pull of a couple of hours and he realizes that the fish are hugging the bottom among the lake weeds and grasses and beyond the temptation of his alluring baits, he can drop his oars and drift idly in the summer breeze that brings to him across the lake the odor of the woods, the fields or the new mown hay, and watch the changing colors of the lake as the shadows of the fleecy clouds creep slowly over the surface; or, looking shoreward beyond the line where land and water meet his eyes will rest upon a sylvan picture of wooded bluff and shady beach with their bright tinted cottages nestling among the trees, wordless invitations to the weary to come and find rest therein, and, as the evening comes on and the winds are hushed and all the west, both sky and water, is painted in gorgeous colors by the glorious sunset, there comes creeping over the glassy lake a tinkling music as of water bells touched by the sparkling streams that gush from the flowing wells and splash upon the margin of the lake. And, as his boat glides to his landing place, the joy and sweetness of life fills his being with a new and thrilling sense of pleasure, and as he picks up his creel and saunters slowly toward his cottage he feels in his heart more than half glad that it is an empty creel—with nothing dead in it. Surely such a day is not a lost day, not a day to be regretted!

And there are other days, red-letter days for the fisherman; days when every good-sized fish in the lake appears to have wakened up hungry from a two or three days' snooze in the grass, and every one of them seems to be hunting the fisherman's bait; and, whether anchored on the edge of a bar or trolling deep among the gullies, the time between strikes is little more than enough to adjust a new bait and get the lines well out again.

On these days the catch of a couple of hours half fills the creel with three or four varieties of goodly sized fish—all the small ones discarded and thrown into the lake. On these days the fisherman finds no time to watch the shadows on the lake; no matter how gorgeous the sunset, he sees it not.

The winds may waft the odor of the spices Araby across the lake—he perceives it not; the music of the rippling streams that gush from the flowing wells is drowned by the chirr of his reel, and the cottage-lined shores are simply a landing place, where he will beach his boat and step proudly upon the shore, holding up to the gaze of family and friends his wonderful catch on this his lucky day. Well, it's only human nature to enjoy success, and these are the days the fisherman loves to talk and think of the days he remembers best.


Warmouth (Goggle-eye)— Chaenobryttus Gulosus