July 12, 2006

Fishing at Shabbona

Today was my second fishing trip in the past 5 WEEKS (I gotta get out more) Anyway, the water temp was 75-76 degrees, clarity was very good at 3 to 4+  feet depending on location. The weeds, while thickening in the very shallow areas, have maintained the same perimeter over the past several weeks so that normal giant weedmat that usually forms (hopelessly hiding acres of prime fishing territory) is still missing !!!!

We arrived when the park opened and stayed all day. The fog was thick in the morning, and stayed overcast until the afternoon. We got lucky with the weather, it rained nice and steady from 11AM until noon, but we just happened to be sitting in the Lakeside restaurant for lunch the entire time. Great place to stop for lunch, we actually had dinner there too. Joey is a "popcorn shrimp maniac" now, and it's a 50/50 vote between the choc/van twist cone and the M&Ms blizzard for dessert.

Back to the fishing: straight to the NE bay, and found the bass right where we left them 2 weeks ago. Best in the boat today was a nicely colored 18.5 incher on the blue-black chatterbait (I had a nicer bass hit and spit the golden spinnerbait 3 feet from the boat in the East bay, I should have been using a trailer hook, I got lazy and paid the price). Also had six or seven "keepers" between 14-16 inches, and a nonstop parade of 10-13 inchers on anything you wanted to throw shallow or on topwater. Never saw or hooked a muskie today, I heard a 3rd hand story of somebody getting a 35 incher by the roadbed, no details.

In all, probably had about 4 hours of hardcore bass fishing today. Lots of breaks, Bluegill fishing, boat rides, etc. Kids get antsy even when the fish are biting, gotta keep it fun. I'm hoping to get out alone in the next few weeks to work on a midsummer pattern. I'd like to get a deep-edge swimbait pattern going. (I'm sure there is some awesome slop fishing right now for anyone willing to battle the lilypads)

And we saw officer Steve, and Robert and friends out on the lake today catching bass and chasing muskies, Thanks for visiting the web site guys !!!

Good Luck Everybody

See you on the water.

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