Skip to content

Fly fishing in and around Louisville Kentucky

Derby City Fly Fishers

  • Home
    • Education and Instruction
    • Community Support
    • Contact Us
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • By Laws
    • Conservation
  • Membership
  • Events & Trips
    • Calendar of Events
    • Classes & Special Events
    • 2023 Club Trips
    • Trip Information and Suitability
  • Derby City Fly Fishers Classifieds
    • Place Ad
    • Browse Ads
    • Search Ads
    • Edit Ad
  • Fly Tying
    • Fly of The Month
    • 2018 Fly Tying Year
    • 2017 Fly Tying Year
    • 2016 Fly Tying Year
    • Flybrary
  • Reference
    • Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife
    • Indiana Department of Natural Resources
    • U.S. Fish and Wildlife
    • Jack’s Knot
    • Fly Fishing Knots
    • New to Fly Fishing
    • Releasing Fish
    • Release Forms
    • Newsletters (Archive)
    • Stream Gauge Links
    • The Current Online Magazine
    • THE BEST PLACES TO GO FLY FISHING
    • Air Travel with Fly Rods
  • Stream Info.
    • Cumberland River
    • Hatchery Creek
    • Otter Creek
    • Floyd’s Fork
    • Elkhorn Creek
    • Ohio River – McAlpine Dam
    • Kentucky Blue Water Trails
    • “Fly Fishing Kentucky”, a book
  • DCFF Member Login
    • DCFF Member Login
    • Member Registration
    • My Account
    • Lost password
  • Member Discounts
  • Websites of Interest
  • Kentuckiana Fly Show
  • DCFF Logo’d merchandise
  • Picture Galleries
    • Obey River Trip Report June 2023
    • Greene-Sullivan/Shakamak Trip Report June 2023
    • Boundary Waters Canoe Area Trip June 2023

Greene-Sullivan/Shakamak Trip Report June 2023

by Wes Krupiczewicz

The club had a great inaugural warm water fishing trip to Western Indiana and the Green-Sullivan State Forest Area. In addition to the numerous lakes in the G-S Forest, there are other lakes in the Duggar Unit of G-S Forest, three larger lakes in Shakamak State Park, and lakes in the Hillenbrand Fish and Wildlife Area. All areas are an easy drive from Shakamak State Park. On some of our club trips, we tend to crowd each other with limited water.  Not here!   We stayed in a group bunk house in Shakamak State Park. The bunk house had recently been remodeled and had 11 double bunk beds with new mattresses. Since we limited the trip to 8 bunk mates, everyone had a lower bed with storage in the upper bed. We were joined by two club members staying in the campground area.   The kitchen included an electric stove top and oven, a microwave, a sink, and an apartment size refrigerator; the kitchen was small and crowded by a bunk bed, so we kept that bunk empty to store utensils and food stuff. Fortunately, we brought a folding DCFF table to help with meal preparation. Outside, we had four picnic tables, our DCFF popup and a two burner propane stove top as well as our camp chairs. A very comfortable arrangement overall.   We shared group meals including breakfast and supper. Unlike our trout trips, this was not all catch and release. There are nice fish cleaning stations in the area and we took advantage of those to have a fish fry one evening with at least 5 pounds of panfish fillets served with deli sides.   There was a fire pit, so we gathered after supper to enjoy the camaraderie of the fire! We purchased the wood at Shakamak, making it a little pricey but with a large group, individual costs were small at about $10 each for four nights.   Fishing was good to excellent with good numbers of large panfish and small bass taken by all. Productive panfish flies included mops, various nymphs and of course, the trout magnet! Topwater poppers took a number of the bass. Most of us fished out of kayaks or canoes, but larger boats were well accommodated by good launch ramps on most of the lakes. Large boats are limited to trolling motors, so there were no issues with large boat wakes. We were a little early for the panfish spawn this year, but a lot of the other fishers we talked with indicated that the 2nd week of May is usually great.   Group consensus was that we are going back and possibly expanding the trip to more participants if we can get additional leader/coordinators. In addition to the twelve group bunk houses at Shakamak, there are 20 family cabins that accommodate smaller groups as well as almost 200 campsites. Reservations will need to be made in advance, but probably not as early as we did this year in January. Hope to see you there next year.  
Bunkhouse Gathering
Campfire After Dinner
Bunkhouse Interior
Fish Fry Dinner
A Keeper
More Keepers
Cleaning Station
Hard at Work Cleaning
Ready for the Frying Pan
Finished Product
Launching at Long Lake
Reservoir 26
Reservoir 29
Brian and Nice Bass
Crappie Too!!
George Got a Keeper
So Did Wes
Another George Keeper

Upcoming Events

Oct 3
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Kentuckiana Fly Tyers Fly Tying Night

Oct 4
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

KDFWR Trout Stocking Conservation Event – Bark Camp Creek

Oct 4
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Board of Directors Meeting

Oct 10
October 10 - October 13

North Carolina Fall Trip

Oct 10
11:30 am - 5:00 pm

KDFWR Trout Stocking Conservation Event – Chimney Top Creek

Oct 11
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

EAT & TALK

Oct 17
11:30 am - 5:00 pm

KDFWR Trout Stocking Conservation Event – Parched Corn Creek

Oct 18
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

MONTHLY MEETING

Oct 21
10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Quest Outdoors Fly Tying

Oct 25
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

FLY TYING – CABELA’S

View Calendar

Derby City Fly Fishers Webmaster