By Louie Stout
If you want the latest fish population about an Indiana lake, the DNR is providing a real-time website that will give you the same statistics fish researchers use.
You can search by lake, by fish species and by fish size on the state’s Fish Community Survey Results Dashboard.
The site, www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/fishing/fisheries-status-and-trends/, is based upon fisheries division status and trends surveys it conducts on various lakes each year. Those surveys don’t count every fish in a given lake, but do give a perspective of what’s there and how the lake has changed.
For example, if a bluegill angler wants to know how many ‘gills over 7 inches were captured in a specific lake, you’ll know that by using the site’s slide bar for fish size.
If you plug in smallmouth bass on the drop-down menu, you can see which lakes turned up the biggest population during DNR surveys.
You can also select glacial lakes, such as we have in the north, or reservoirs that are located mostly in central and southern Indiana.
Results are posted on the website the minute the survey stats are finalized.
Biologist Matt Linn said that the program works faster on a desktop, but is designed for mobile phones as well.