By Louie Stout

Willow Slough Lake BedWillow Slough Lake Bed

Anglers looking for a place to fish avoid boat traffic and get away from the crowd should put J.C. Murphy Lake on their to-do list for 2024 and beyond.

The electric-motor only lake covers about 1,000 acres on the Willow Slough Fish and Game Area near Morocco, Ind., close to the Illinois state line. It’s about a two-hour drive from South Bend.

You won’t be able to fish there this year as the lake is in the midst of a DNR renovation, but should be full and ready to go by the summer of 2024. It was drained last year and will be refilled this fall.

Murphy’s renovation occurs about every 12 years because it lies in shallow, wetland habitat and tends to silt in. The lake averages 3 feet with the deepest areas around 10 feet.

According to award-winning District Fisheries Biologist Tom Bacula, who has been spearheading the renovation, the lake is capable of producing a lot of big bass and redear in the coming years, as several hundred of those were salvaged when the lake was drawn down last year.

“We captured several nice fish by electro-fishing as the water was going down and we also put out holding pens for those anglers who caught fish but weren’t going to keep them,” Bacula explained. “All of those fish were put in a storage pond to be restocked when the lake refills.”

Approximately 2,000 bass, bluegill, redear and catfish were retained.

“We had 200 bass weighing 5 pounds or more and about half the others were between 3 and 4 pounds,” Bacula noted. “The biggest was over 7. It was crazy how many big bass were in that lake.”

Of course, part of the reason for the big bass abundance is the lake has a two-fish, 18-inch size limit. It also is the only lake in Indiana with an aggregate bag limit of 25 for bluegill, redear and bass.

Willow Slough BassWillow Slough Bass

Bacula said the DNR’s bluegill recapture was lower than hoped, but there were several 11- to 12-inch redear moved from the lake to the retention pond for restocking.

The hope is to transfer the fish from the holding area back into the lake in September.

“We’re hoping some of those fish will spawn in our holding pond this spring,” Bacula said. “We’re still going to stock more bass, bluegill, redear, crappie and catfish in addition those we salvaged.”

Because the lake is relatively shallow and contains a lot of vegetation in some areas, the DNR’s goal is to keep the bass population high to eat more bluegills and prevent over-population. When bluegill overpopulate there is less for them to eat and their growth is stunted.

That explains the trophy bass bag limit.

“The lake has always been known for its panfishing and typically comes on like gangbusters after a renovation,” Bacula said.

Perhaps one reason Murphy doesn’t get the attention of avid bass anglers is because it’s electric motor only for boaters, similar to Worster Lake at Potato Creek. However, a boat ramp is located at the property headquarters and the lake is ideal for today’s kayak anglers.

Willow Slough HabitatWillow Slough Habitat

During drawdown, some areas of the ditches and creeks were dredged to create deeper areas that had silted in and the excavated material was used to create underwater humps.

In addition, Bacula’s crew created more habitat, with brush piles and stake beds installed during the drawdown. More than 60 have been built so far and he hopes for another 50.

Willow Slough Stake BedsWillow Slough Stake Beds

“We also put in some artificial (plastic) structures around our floating pier to attract fish while reducing the snagging problem for shore anglers,” he said.

Murphy Lake sits on nearly 10,000 acres of state land and is an equally popular place for hunters and is one of the state’s prime spots for waterfowl hunting.

For more information, call the property, 219-285-2704 or visit https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/properties/willow-slough-fwa/.