By Louie Stout

Chris Peabody with 31.5-inch brown trout

The Tippecanoe River is teeming with good fish.

The famous northern Indiana river accounted for seven of Indiana’s 2020 Fish of the Year Awards.

The Indiana DNR awards are open to anyone who catches a big fish and submits the details in an online form at www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/9453.htm.

Rivers produced several of the top fish in northern Indiana last year. Of course, many of those would be considered as “rough fish” to some anglers, but not everyone.

Among the sport fish categories, Richmond Sekach caught the biggest smallmouth bass (23 inches), Douglas Dohl the biggest sauger (23 inches) and Mark Holbrook the largest walleye (30.5 inches) from the Tippy.

In the non-game class taken from the river, Craig Hulsey won the black buffalo (32.3) division while Holbrook won the carp (40.5), golden redhorse (25.5) and the bowfin (29) divisions.

Gamefish caught elsewhere in northern Indiana include a 31.5-inch brown trout taken by Chris Peabody from the St. Joseph River, a 41.3-inch lake trout caught from Lake Michigan (LaPorte County) by Don Urbas, and a 39-inch steelhead caught from Lake Michigan (Porter County) by Theodore Finicle II.

In inland waters, Holbrook also caught the top muskie (45 inches) from Bruce Lake, while Scott Hebble had the biggest pike (43 inches) from Adams Lake, and Richard Hicks had an 18-inch white bass from Hoffman Lake.

In panfish, a 15.3-inch yellow perch caught by Benjamin Perce from Lake Michigan (Lake County) took top honors in that category while a 9.3-inch pumpkinseed was caught by Keyth Voirol from Round Lake in Steuben County.

Central and southern Indiana produced other gamefish. For example, the largemouth bass went to Mark Browning for a 25.9 incher caught from the Patoka River. The largest bluegill reported was only 10.5-inch caught from the Glendale Fish and Wildlife Area. There was a tie for the biggest black crappie (18 inches) caught from Bushong Lake (Noble County) and Geist Reservoir (Hamilton County). The biggest white crappie (20 inches) also was taken from Geist.