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Published: 22 August 2016

By Louie Stout

Dick ParkerSt. Joseph River anglers lost a true friend and one of the river’s best ambassadors with the passing of Dick Parker early last week.

If you are a steelhead fisherman, you knew Dick. He and his former wife, Marianne, have run Parker’s Central Park Bait and Tackle in Mishawaka for 23 years. He also was a past president of the Michiana Steelheaders.

His business was one of the few remaining mom and pop tackle shops in this area, a place where you could not only gear up for river fishing, but also learn how to fish.

Ask anyone who knew him and they will tell you Parker was one the area’s best teachers of river steelhead fishing.

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Published: 17 August 2016

By Louie Stout

Muskies Add Intrigue to St. Joe

You never know what you might catch in the St. Joseph River, a fishery that hosts just about every freshwater fish available to this part of the country.

But there’s one that periodically shows up in surveys that continues to puzzle biologists.

Pure-bred muskies.

Another example of that popped up this year when Dar Deegan and his survey crew. Deegan is the aquatic biologist for St. Joseph and Elkhart counties assigned with the task of monitoring water quality in the river.

Deegan and his crew frequently capture river fish to monitor the health of various species of fish. When you have healthy fish, you have a healthy river.

Anyway, one day while shocking below the Twin Branch dam, they encountered a monster muskie -a 43-inch beauty that was estimated to be around 19 pounds.

Muskies aren’t stocked in the St. Joseph River, and honestly, nowhere near there. Yet, Deegan has come across some dandies while doing river research over the years.

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