What’s the best place in Indiana for bass fishing? Geist Reservoir. At least, that’s what 100 percent of the fishermen who spoke to Current for this story said. And that’s no fish tale.
Trent Darlage runs the USA Bassin tournaments for a few lakes in Indiana. He lives a couple hours south of the Indianapolis area, so only gets up to Geist seven or eight times a year. But those seven or eight times are meaningful.
“For me, personally, it’s the best fishing in Indiana,” he said.
Jim McWhirter is a director for U.S. Angler’s Choice in Indiana.
“I’ve been running tournaments on Geist for about 20 years now,” he said. “And quite honestly, it’s probably one of, if not the best, bass fishing lakes in the state. It produces numbers of fish and big fish all the time.”
Dalton Mollenkopf is a competitive collegiate fisherman who is interning at Geist Marina this summer and has fished since he was a toddler.
“I personally believe that Geist is one of the top-ranked lakes in the state,” he said. “There’s no other lake in the state that produces the same amount of weight that this lake does tournament after tournament. With how many events there are each week out on this body of water, it just amazes me how many fish are in this lake and the caliber of fish that are in this lake.”
But why is Geist so good for fishing? The three anglers agreed it’s all about habitat.
“I think a lot of that is attributed to the grass and the vegetation in the lakes that make it so good,” McWhirter said. “I know the homeowners don’t really care for it and would like to get rid of it. But, boy, it makes it a great fishery.”
Mollenkopf noted the variety of fish food available in the water.
“There’s an abundance of food in here,” he said. “(Like) bluegill, crappie (and) crawfish that these fish can just feed on all year long, and the abundance of grass as well.”
Mollenkopf said the grass provides cover for bass to hide.
“I feel like a lot of these fish don’t even get the amount of pressure (from fishing) that people think, just because there’s so many places for them to get away and hide out here,” he said.
Mollenkopf has been fishing in tournaments since high school. Now 21, he fishes for Adrian College in Michigan, and tours the U.S. to fish.
The fishing experience on Geist can be pretty fast tempo, he said, especially this time of year. Mollenkopf uses a fish finder — technology that shows fishermen up on the boat where fish are schooling — and then drops a line with his favorite bait.
Some patience is required with fishing, but once a largemouth bass on Geist bites, it can be exciting, said Darlage.
“When you hook one, they’re going to come jumping up out of the water, they’re gonna go as fast as they can and go jumping,” he said. “It’s exciting to catch.”
McWhirter agreed and said bass bite pretty hard on a lure. Or sometimes not.
“Sometimes it’s a very subtle bite,” he said. “That’s where experience kind of comes in. I mean, some people could go out and throw a lure out into the lake and get a bite and not even know it. But sometimes they’ll hit and about rip the rod out of your hands.”
Largemouth are good fighting fish, McWhirter said, and they’re fun to battle once they’re hooked. He said there are some big fish in Geist, and they can jump 2 or 3 feet out of the water.
McWhirter said fishing is a great sport, especially for an older person like him.
“You know, I was a football player in school and a wrestler and stuff like that,” he said. “And I just can’t do that stuff anymore. So, it gives me that opportunity. And sometimes being older, that gives you a little bit of advantage just from experience.”
For Mollenkopf, it’s relaxing to be out on the water with family and friends.
“I’ve grown up fishing since I was like, probably 3 years old,” he said. “It’s just been my favorite thing to do ever since then. I find it peaceful, relaxing. It just kind of gets my mind away from things and allows me to do what I love.”
Geist hosts multiple fishing tournaments
Throughout the fishing season. Geist Marina hosts several tournaments a week on Geist, with multiple boats out on the water for each. Dalton Mollenkopf said he’s received some decent payouts fishing in Geist tournaments with his father and with friends. But the money pretty much goes back into fishing.
“Most tournament winnings go back into buying bait or new tackle,” he said. “I recently sold my boat so I’m saving up my money and putting it toward another new boat. Yeah, pretty much everything goes back into entry fees and more tackle.”
The tournaments aren’t about getting a trophy fish to mount on your wall. McWhirter said most bass tournaments are mandatory catch-and-release.
“Today’s boats, they’ve got what we call live wells that we put fish in,” he said. “They’ve got aerators in them that aerate the water. They’re pretty high-tech stuff on some of these boats to keep fish alive, and that’s the goal because, as bass fishermen, you wanna catch them again. Most all of the tournaments that I fish, if you bring in a fish that’s dead, it’s a penalty. So, they really stress keeping them alive and returning them to be caught another day.”
Cash prizes for the biggest fish vary, depending on how many boats pay entry fees. There are incentives other than the immediate cash prize. McWhirter said top fishermen in the U.S Angler’s Choice tournament that he runs can qualify for the national championship. The 2022 winners, for example, head this season to fish on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. Top fishermen in that competition win a new boat.
For a calendar of fishing tournaments at Geist, visit geistmarina.com/event-calendar.
