Indiana Lake Depths

Ancient fish · gar family

Gars (spotted, longnose and shortnose)

Lepisosteus oculatus (spotted) · L. osseus (longnose) · L. platostomus (shortnose) · also called garpike, needlenose gar

Native to IndianaRecorded in 53 Indiana lakes
Illustration of a gars in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Breathes air
Gulps air into its swim bladder
Spawns
Mid-April to May, near 68°F
Eats
Mostly small fish, ambushed near the surface
Warning
Gar eggs are highly toxic to people
Indiana records
Spotted Gar: 9 lb 11 oz — Rivir Lake, Noble County, 2024
Longnose Gar: 23 lb 12.2 oz — Ohio River, Floyd County, 2025
Shortnose Gar: 2 lb 15.9 oz — Wabash River, Tippecanoe County, 2025

Where gars have been recorded

53 of the 111 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list gars, across 15 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyLake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyLake Manitou, Fulton CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyDewart Lake, Kosciusko CountyBig Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyOliver Lake, LaGrange CountyJames Lake, Kosciusko CountyPike Lake, Kosciusko CountyBlue Lake, Whitley CountyWitmer Lake, LaGrange CountyStone Lake, LaPorte CountyHoffman Lake, Kosciusko CountyHuntingburg Lake, Dubois CountyWall Lake, LaGrange CountyLittle Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyRound Lake, Whitley CountyBear Lake, Noble CountyCedar Lake, LaGrange CountyNyona Lake, Fulton CountyDiamond Lake, Noble CountyBarton Lake, Steuben CountyCass Lake, LaGrange CountyOlin Lake, LaGrange CountyFish Lake, LaGrange CountyTroy-Cedar Lake, Whitley CountyWestler Lake, LaGrange CountyPrides Creek Lake, Pike CountyRockville Lake, Parke CountyRiddles Lake, St. Joseph CountyLittle Long Lake, Noble CountyRoyer Lake, LaGrange CountyStory Lake, DeKalb CountyMessick Lake, LaGrange CountyLower Long Lake, Noble CountySand Lake, Noble CountyHackleburg Lake, LaGrange CountyBell Lake, Steuben CountyShock Lake, Kosciusko CountyEmma Lake, LaGrange CountySpear Lake, Kosciusko CountyCypress Lake, Jackson CountyMcClish Lake, Steuben CountySacarider Lake, Noble CountyEve Lake, LaGrange CountyRivir Lake, Noble CountyBuffalo Trace Lake, Harrison CountyBaugher Lake, Noble CountyGordy Lake, Noble CountyDixon Lake, Marshall CountyMartin Lake, LaGrange CountyRupel Lake, St. Joseph CountyPigeon Pit, Pike County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 53lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them

A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.

Inland lakes on this list run from 21 to 3,508 acres (median 92) and from 6 to 90 ft deep (median 40 ft).

How many turn up in DNR surveys

Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.

Found in
48 of 105 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
3.7 per hour where found
Highest
20 per hour
Method
fish per hour of night electrofishing

“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 46 lakes at a typical 1.0 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Spear Lake, Kosciusko 2018 20
  2. Shock Lake, Kosciusko 2018 18
  3. Baugher Lake, Noble 2018 16
  4. Sand Lake, Noble 2017 14
  5. Bell Lake, Steuben 2015 12
  6. Gordy Lake, Noble 2014 12
  7. Rupel Lake, St. Joseph 2018 12
  8. Pigeon Pit, Pike 2023 11
  9. Blue Lake, Whitley 2013 10
  10. Hackleburg Lake, LaGrange 2025 10

Fish per hour of night electrofishing, with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.

Often found with

Share of these lakes that also list each fish.

How to recognize it

A long, toothy snout and a body armored in hard, diamond-shaped scales that interlock rather than overlap. The snout and the spots tell the three apart. In the lakes on this site, spotted gar are recorded far more often than the other two.

Don’t confuse it with

Spotted gar — A moderately long snout, with spots over the head, body and all fins.
Longnose gar — A long, narrow snout more than twice the length of the rest of the head.
Shortnose gar — A short, broad snout, with spots only on the tail and rear fins.

Life in an Indiana lake

Gar lie still near the surface and ambush passing fish, swallowing them head first. A primitive swim bladder lets them breathe air, so they survive in warm, low-oxygen water. Spotted gar favor clear, weedy water in natural lakes, backwaters and marshes.

Spotted and shortnose gar spawn over plants and other submerged objects; longnose gar over gravel along windswept shores. The fry hang from objects by an adhesive pad until their yolk is used up. Spotted gar mature at about 3 years and 20 in.

Source: the sources below.

Rules and eating

Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.

All 53 lakes with gars

Show every lake, by county

DeKalb County 1

Story Lake

Dubois County 1

Huntingburg Lake

Fulton County 2

Lake Manitou, Nyona Lake

Harrison County 1

Buffalo Trace Lake

Jackson County 1

Cypress Lake

Kosciusko County 9

Big Chapman Lake, Dewart Lake, Hoffman Lake, James Lake, Lake Wawasee, Little Chapman Lake, Pike Lake, Shock Lake, Spear Lake

LaGrange County 14

Cass Lake, Cedar Lake, Emma Lake, Eve Lake, Fish Lake, Hackleburg Lake, Martin Lake, Messick Lake, Olin Lake, Oliver Lake, Royer Lake, Wall Lake, Westler Lake, Witmer Lake

LaPorte County 1

Stone Lake

Marshall County 2

Dixon Lake, Lake Maxinkuckee

Noble County 9

Baugher Lake, Bear Lake, Diamond Lake, Gordy Lake, Little Long Lake, Lower Long Lake, Rivir Lake, Sacarider Lake, Sand Lake

Parke County 1

Rockville Lake

Pike County 2

Pigeon Pit, Prides Creek Lake

St. Joseph County 2

Riddles Lake, Rupel Lake

Steuben County 4

Barton Lake, Bell Lake, Crooked Lake, McClish Lake

Whitley County 3

Blue Lake, Round Lake, Troy-Cedar Lake

Sources

← All fish of Indiana