Albion, Indiana - Small, slow-growing bluegills continue to over-populate Upper Long Lake in southwest Noble County, Indiana despite the stocking of additional predator fish to reduce their number.

  Since 1996, the local lake association and the Lake Webster Musky Club have released more than 3,000 muskies in the 86-acre natural lake.

  The fish were purchased from a private hatchery in Wisconsin and stocked with permission of the DNR's Division of Fish and Wildlife.

  Muskies are large, toothy predator fish that can grow more than 4 feet long. They are similar to northern pike, but unlike pike, they are not native to Indiana natural lakes.

  Part of the reason for stocking muskies in Upper Long Lake, was that local residents, anglers and the DNR hoped they would prey on small bluegills. The reasoning was that once bluegill numbers declined, those that survived would have more food per fish and could grow larger.

  That was a good idea in theory but not so in reality.

  Based on recent sampling by DNR biologists, bluegills are now more abundant than ever before. And they are smaller.

  "I've never seen so many small bluegills in a lake," said Matt Horsley, a DFW fisheries intern and recent graduate of Michigan State University.

  Horsley was part of a three-person crew that captured 700 bluegills in only 30 minutes of electro-fishing along the shoreline. At times, so many bluegills were stunned by the shocker boat that Horsley couldn't net them all fast enough.

  Of the 700 bluegills, 97 percent were less than 6 inches long. Only eight were larger than 6 inches and only three were larger than 7 inches.

  The electro-fishing catch rate of 3- to 5-inch bluegills was 340 per 15 minutes of sampling, the highest ever recorded at an Indiana natural lake during a June survey and second only to a catch rate of 460 per 15 minutes at nearby Loon Lake in July 2004.

  Ironically, muskies stocked in Loon Lake, as well as in Skinner Lake, east of Albion, have also failed to reduce bluegill numbers and increase bluegill size. Biologists speculate that muskies likely prefer to eat other species, including other predator fish, which may actually reduce predation on bluegills.

  According to Horsley, the overall catch rate of bluegills at Upper Long Lake averaged 282 per 15 minutes from 1991 through 2010. A typical catch rate at other Indiana natural lakes is 100.

  "We don't know why bluegills are so abundant in Upper Long Lake. That's something we are still trying to figure out," Horsley said.

  Meanwhile, anglers may want to switch to muskie fishing there. Horsley also caught 10 muskies during the survey.

  For more about the great fishing, hunting and outdoor opportunities in the great state of Indiana, visit their web site at http://www.ingov/dnr/fishwild .

   We receive a lot of e-mails from readers covering a variety of topics. Some of them have to do with what we’d describe as “home remedies”. So we thought we’d pass along some of the better ones for your enjoyment. Some of these you might already know from the e-mail circuit. Others you may not. Remember, we didn’t come up with these, they were sent in by readers like yourselves so enjoy. The names mentioned are the people who sent it to us. There are many names on the forwarding line. Yours maybe one of them

  Al Kish sent the first one in awhile back and it has to do with filling zip lock baggies half full of water and hanging them around the house, on the patio and anywhere you have a problem with flies. Some of the folks claim you need to add 4 – 6 pennies in the bag with the water. No one really knows for sure why this works but the people claiming success are numerous.

  The second one to share this month was sent in by Tim Raven and it deals with killing fire ants. The method in the e-mail for killing fire ants is to pour 2 cups of club soda down the ant hole. Since carbon dioxide is heavier than air, the CO2 settles down into the colony and suffocates the ants. Each ant mound will need to be treated individually. This method is much more environmentally safer than poisons and a lot less expense. Will it work on other types of ants? We don’t know. Give it a try and let us know.

  The last one we have to share this go around has to do with recognizing the signs of someone suffering a stroke. There wasn’t a name on this one, only and e-mail address and we aren’t passing that along. Anyway it has been standard practice in the medical field that when you suspect someone had a stroke to remember following letters, S. T. R.

  1. S - Ask the individual to SMILE.

  2. T - Ask the person to TALK and speak a simple sentence coherently. (I.e. It is sunny out today)

  3. R - Ask him or her to RAISE both arms.

  4. And here’s a new one, S - STICK out their tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, it’s an indication of a stroke.

  If he or she has trouble with ANY one of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

  That’s all we have this time. Thanks and keep forwarding those e-mails.

  Well, I mowed the lawn today. That may not seem like a big accomplishment to most people but for me it really is. You see, I am not usually allowed to run the riding lawn mower. My wife says it is for adults only and that it was not meant to run at top speed when you mow. My reply was if that is so, why do they have such a fast speed and still let the blades turn?

  Mostly, her reason for not allowing me to mow is we had our first new riding lawn mower for one year and the first time I mowed with it the second year I ran into a post and bent the deck on the mower. After that we had to let a little air out of the right rear tire to get it to mow straight. Oh, and we always had to mow on height level 4 or it looked like our grass was growing in waves. Personally I liked the rolling ocean look that it gave the lawn, but Sheila did not find it as appeasing as I did.

  After much foaming at the mouth and gnashing of teeth, I finally took pity on Sheila and worked on the deck. With hammer and giant channel locks I managed to straighten it out to where we could mow on height level 3 and air up all the tires! To me, this was a great improvement! To Sheila, I was still the culprit that broke the lawn mower.

  After much discussion (griping) I took the mower to a real mower repairman. He said he could replace the deck for a mere $500.00 plus labor! Well, after I slapped him on the arm and told him that was a good one, I asked him what he would really charge. He was serious!!

  I said "Man, the mower cost me $800.00." He said, "Yep, and the deck will cost around $600.00 total." I loaded up my mower, brought it home, and told Sheila she had to live with the deck problem. She said something about me being a deck head or at least I think that is what she said.

  The old mower just didn’t like me. I was mowing close to the sidewalk out in the back of our garage and suddenly the old mower tried to buck me over the steering wheel! The front right clip that held the tire in place came off and so did the darn tire. No one was hurt, but there was a huge plume of dust around the whole thing where the blades chopped into the dirt! Luckily I was mowing on height level # 4 out of habit.

  A couple years ago the mower would not start and Sheila came inside, sure it was time to send it to the mower graveyard and buy a new one. Upon inspection I found that some of the drive teeth that the starter engaged were missing. I rotated the upper part of the motor and it started right up. I could tell by the way Sheila rolled her eyes she was amazed by my mechanical abilities. We managed to mow with this mower for a total of ten years.

  Last year we bought one of those Zero-Turn Radius mowers and Sheila said I was not to have my butt in the driver's seat. Since that meant I did not have to mow, I feigned sadness and threw a half-hearted argument her way, but finally agreed she was right and I would stay out of it. Still I have to weed-eat and I have tried bending the drive shaft on the weed-eater, but for some reason she just makes me fix it.

  So you can see it is something of a great personal accomplishment for me to have such a successful day of yard work. I don't think she wanted those flowers near our pecan trees anymore. I tried like hell to stop, but I was moving a little too fast!