Annual Tournaments End With a Bang!
On Saturday, November 16, Great Parks hosted our annual Turkey Day Open fishing tournament at Miami Whitewater Forest Lake. Ten teams entered the six-hour tournament, casting their favorite baits in hopes of reeling in the most weight. The first place team received six free entries into 2014 fishing tournaments, prize certificates, and 2 plump turkeys. Prize certificates were also given out to the second and third place teams.

While some of the anglers were fishing for hundreds of panfish to accumulate for the most weight, others were hoping to catch a few monster catfish. The catfish approach ended up being the best route for Saturday’s tournament.

Seven blue catfish were caught during the tournament, six of which were over 20 pounds.  Butch Staat from Batesville, Indiana and Tony Thomas from Cincinnati, Ohio, caught four out of the seven blue catfish with a total weight of 82 pounds. The winners were using homemade strawberry chicken as their special bait. The second place team, Jon and Jessica Owens from Amelia, Ohio, were the defending winners from last year’s Turkey Day Open. This father-daughter combo caught three blue catfish weighing a total of 71 pounds. The Owens used cut shad as their special bait. Frank Yates and D. J. Huegel finished in third place with 11 pounds of panfish.

Congratulations to all winners! Thank you for another great fishing season!

Michael Brech, Harbor Manager, Miami Whitewater Forest

Lake Isabella Fishing Report
Friday, November 15 marked the final fish stocking of the year at Lake Isabella, with 250 pounds of rainbow trout. This brought the November total to more than 1,000 pounds of trout and the grand total to more than 15,500 pounds stocked throughout all the Great Parks’ lakes in 2013.

Even though we have finished stocking for the year, that doesn’t mean the fishing season has come to an end. All of the Great Parks are open year round, and bank fishing is still permitted in designated fishing areas. There are still plenty of trout left to be caught at Lake Isabella and a winter fishing ticket will only cost you $4 per person.

Stop by Lake Isabella on Saturdays, November 23, November 30 and December 7 for the Annual Holiday Fishing & Tackle Sales. After you fit in a little fishing for yourself, pick up something special for the fellow angler on your holiday shopping list. Get great deals on rod-and-reel combos, buy-one-get-one-free specials on fishing line and 50% off on select apparel, floats, fishing baskets, Damiki products, tackle boxes and American Spirit reels. We even have gift certificates for those anglers who are more particular about what they want.

Anthony Unkrich, Harbor Manager, Lake Isabella