INDIANAPOLIS (WANE) The Indiana Urban Fishing Program is celebrating 10 years of annually stocking channel catfish in urban lakes.
Last week the Indiana Department of Natural Resources stocked nearly 2,000 catfish ranging in size from 10 to 14 inches in the following locations:
- Meadowlark Park Pond (Carmel – Hamilton County) – 100 catfish
- Krannert Lake (Indianapolis – Marion County) – 225 catfish
- Washington Township Park Pond # 2 (Avon – Hendricks County) – 100 catfish
- Dubarry Park Ponds (Indianapolis – Marion County) – 200 catfish
- Garvin Park Lake (Evansville – Vanderburgh County) – 200 catfish
- Diamond Valley Park Pond (Evansville – Vanderburgh County) – 225 catfish
- Dobbs Park Pond (Terre Haute – Vigo County) – 200 catfish
- Northeast Lakeside Pond (Fort Wayne – Allen County) – 175 catfish
- Munger Park Pond (Lafayette – Tippecanoe County) – 150 catfish
- Robinson Park Lake (Hobart – Lake County) – 300 catfish
These lakes are stocked three times from mid-March to the first week of June with catchable-size channel catfish.
The catfish being introduced to ponds like the one at Lakeside Park are solely meant to offer a different challenge to the urban angler.
“We do these catfish stockings to offer an additional fishery for these urban environments to the anglers,” said Andrew Bueltmann, the 6th district fisheries biologist with the DNR. “We throw these fish in just to give another in that is apt to bite, they’re a little more aggressive and they’re a little bigger.”
Bueltmann told Wane 15 that the ponds are too small for the catfish to reproduce in any significant number, so the fish are just for catching.
“They are put in there with the thought and mind that they are table fare,” Bueltmann said.
As for what Bueltmann recommends you use to catch the fish, well let’s just say they aren’t picky.
“You can throw just about anything for these channel cats, something as simple as a hotdog,” Bueltmann said.
DNR’s urban fishing program offers a way for Hoosiers to experience the joys of fishing close to home. To find out more about the urban fishing program, including tentative stocking dates and quantities, visit bit.ly/INUrbanFishing. View the most recent fish stockings on the DNR fish stocking dashboard at bit.ly/StockingDatabase.
The catfish daily bag limit per angler is 10, and there are no size restrictions. Anglers age 18 and older must have a valid Indiana fishing license to fish at these locations. A license can be purchased at on.IN.gov/INhuntfish.
