Tippecanoe: Fishing and floating, too

WINAMAC, Ind.–On Thursday, I expanded my river horizons with a fishing float on the Tippecanoe River in Idiana about 2 hours southeast of Chicago.

It is the outdoor column in the Sun-Times for Sunday.

Lee Sczepanski called last month after a fun float with friends on the Tippy with rave reports of big nothern pike he had seen and a 19.5-inch smallie caught at the very end.

So we finally put together a more focused fishing float from Tippecanoe River State Park to Tippy-Canoe Rentals takeout, just upstream of Winamac.

We caught something like 20, but it is the kind of water that if we do it again, we should be able to top 100 if we put our time in.

Most of the smallies were small river runners, though we caught a few in the 10-12 inch range. This was the best one of the trip. The 16 1/2-incher blew up on a firetiger Pop-R where the riprap ends behind me.

For Tippecanoe River SP, which includes canoe camp sites, go to in.gov/dnr/parklake/2965.htm or call (574) 946-3213; for Tippy-Canoe Rentals, call (574) 946-4137; for Booky’s Bait and Tackle, call (574) 946-4465.