April 20 and 21, 2007

Fishing at Shabbona Lake State Park, Shabbona Illinois

Jim (from Angling101) and I hit the lake today, hoping to get a pattern nailed down. Too bad the bass weren't interested.

Launched around 8:30AM, water 52 degrees, clarity 8 inches, weather perfect.

Shot right over to the NE Bay, tossed out the Chrome/Blue Rat-L-Trap, and had this 16 inch bass within the first five minutes.

"This is going to be good," we thought.

20 minutes later, Jim has a nice 19-20 incher, solid 4 pounder, up to the boat.........SPIT-OUT !!! Ouch.

Another 20 minutes go by, Bang, I have a nice 17 incher up to the boat, get lazy and try to swing him by the line.. Ooops. Good Bye.

Then 8 hours of NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING.

About 5:30 PM, someone flips the switch and the NE Bay is back on. 4 "keepers" at 17.5", 17", 17", 17" and 8 or 9 runts. All on shallow shad raps and Rat-L-Traps in 2-4 feet of water.

April 21, 2007

Glad to see so many friends out on the lake today.

Beautiful weather (just a tad of the Shabbona Breeze)

Joey and I got to the gates at 8 AM, had our turn at the ramp by 9 AM. 

Temps 52-56, clarity 8-12 inches. Up to the NE Bay with shad raps, rat-l-traps, and even the blue-black grubs. Several pods of bass in the 2-5 foot zones, no whoppers today. Best was 17" 16" 14" 14" and a handful of 10-13 inchers.

Lunch at the Lakeside Restaurant. Fresh Burgers with all the fixin's. MMmmm, twist cone for dessert. Fish won't bite, go get some lunch and swap lies with the guys at the table next to you !!!

Back on the water, bass bite isn't fast enough to keep his interest. Switch over to catfishing (but just wasn't in the mood to get into the livers), so he got one on a nightcrawler.

Back to the baitshop, stare at the pics of that NEW LAKE RECORD BASS.

He's restless, fish are lazy, gotta keep it fun, so we yank the boat out of the water, grab a snack and a water bottle, and end the day with a nice 2 1/2 hour hike along the parks trails. By the way, the DNR guys are doing a great job of maintaining the park. Beautiful.

Here's a few "hike" pics.



Fishing with kids tip: Keep it Fun, let them be kids, they'll be stuffy old grumps like us soon enough.
 

Good Luck Everybody !!!!

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