A good fishing story

Last weekend I was crappie fishing on Shabbona. My bobber went down and I assumed that it was another crappie. When I reared back to set the hook, my rod bent over double.

I fought the fish for a few minutes and then handed the rod off to one of my customers. He fought the fish for a few minutes and then we saw that it was a huge muskie.

The muskie came close and then just opened his mouth and spit something out. We brought the fish aboard to discover that it was a large gizzard shad. Look at this photo! what a mess!

This shad was a bloddy mess.

Great Fishing At Shabbona Lake

Sorry that I have not posted in so long, I have been spending most of my time on the lake lately.

Just look at all of these crappies. They were divided up three ways and we all went home with some nice ones.

This was a big fish. Deb had a great time with it!

Jim caught this bluegill using a beetle spin. It was a big one!

First nice bass of the season on Shabbona.

Big bass have been caught at Shabbona lately

Here is a huge bass that was caught by an angler casting a rattle trap in the shallow waters over the emerging weeds.

Here is another bass that was caught in hte last week.

Just look at this thing. They are everywhere on Shabbona nowadays. I can't wait to get back out there. If you want to book a trip, I have some openings coming up. Just email me! dekalbfish@yahoo.com

Let me help you pay for your gas during a guide trip with me

I hate paying for gas when it gets this expensive and I know that you do as well. What I am going to do is this.

From now until June 15, I am going to take $25 off of any guide trip that I book. This discount is not good with any other discount I have already offered and you must tell me that you are taking the high cost of gas discount when you book the trip.

Think about it, at $4/gallon, $25 buys you 6.25 gallons. In my Santa Fe, that will take me $120 miles. You wanted to fish anyhow, why not book a trip with me and not have to worry about controlling a rental boat, and have the benefit of my experience telling you where to catch fish!

I was on Shabbona Lake last evening

We got a break in the storms for a couple of hours yesterday. I didn't want to risk taking my boat out and having it rain another 5 inches while we are trying to trailer it so I fished from the shore.  I picked up my 10 year old son Matt from school and off we were to Shabbona for some early season crappie action in between storms.

One of my buddies (Jeff) was already there and he had the same idea that he didn't want to have his boat out ont he lake.

We fished in the no-motor zone over by what I call "crappie island." Jeff had hooked into a muskie using a Mini Mite just a few moments before I arrived so he was excited.

We caught a few crappies in the shallows by the island, but fishing was slow. Then we decided to move a bit east to the edge of the trees. There is a blown down tree by this edge that has held crappies in the early season for as long as I can remember.

We each caught several crappies up to 11 inches long and we managed to fill Jeff's 10 fish limit in a little over an hour. The wind was whipping around about 20 mph, the temperature was dropping rapidly, and it was raining off and on the whole time and we managed to catch 10 crappies that were over 9 inches long in a little over an hour, I think we did well considering the terrible conditions we were faced with.

Good News about Shabbona Lake

 Just look at this bass. It was 21.5 inches long and weighed 6.7 pounds. This was caught in the bay just south of the bait shop by this angler. Denny tells me that he was casting a spinner bait in the shallows. This bass was returned to the lake. So it is still in there! wow. Look at this HAWG!

Now for the good news! Denny also tells me that the crappies are shallow! I can't wait to get out there now! CRAPPIES IN SHALLOW WATER I TELL YA! What a thrill. This means that 100 plus fish days are here for the next 3 weeks!

YIPPEE!

5/7 at Heidecke

Steve wishes that his first muskie would have been a little larger!

This was the typical size of the stripers we were catching.

Fishing guru John Mannerino told me exactly where to catch fish on Heidecke, and wow! was he right. There are lots of fish to be caught on this lake right now. We didn't catch any big ones, but we had a great time landing small walleye after small walleye with plenty of stripers thrown in! We also landed a small muskie. The action was so fast that I couldn't use 2 rods.

More fish caught at Shabbona Lake 5/7

Just look at these crappies. The big onr on Denny's right(your left) weighed over a pound. These crappies were caught fishing over a fish crib using minnows.

Bass like this one are not uncommon at Shabbona. Denny has caught lots of bass this size in hte last several days, and you can too! I know where they are, just contact me by email and book your trip soon, dekalbfish@yahoo.com

Big fish have been caught at Shabbona Lake today, May 6

This is a limit of crappie that was caught in the southwest bay by an angler today using minnows.

This guy had a really good day. He caught a 4 pound bass, this six pounder and he had another six pounder hooked. He was using a rattle trap type lure and casting it over the rock piles by the northeast bay.

Look for the fishing to improve at Shabbona soon.

Shabbona Lake May 5

This bald eagle sat very patiently while I took its photo. What a beautiful sight!

Denny and I were out on Shabbona Lake tonight. He is the "Old Master" of Shabbona Lake. He knows more about this lake than anyone else.

These are the first crappies I caught on Shabbona Lake of 2011. They weren't huge, but it was great to get back on Shabbona with a good friend of mine! I am looking forward to several hundred more of these in 2011. This is just the beginning. Crappies will be all over the place in a week.

Shabbona Lake muskie rescue 5/3/2011

The first muskie rescue of 2011 is scheduled to take place tomorrow. Clint Sands and I drove down to the lower creek barrier tonight to take a look at some muskies that were attempting to swim up the creek. when we got here we saw the two fish. They look like they were a little displeased with the barrier fence that was blocking their progress.

Clint quickly donned his waders, grabbed his muskie net and jumped in the creek and bagan stalking the muskie. He had that muskie in his net in no time and quickly released it upstream of the barrier fence so we can net it out tomorrow and release it back into the lake.

We spotted 3 more muskies on our way back up the creek. Sands thinks that the creek is full of muskies and that we are going to have a very sucessful rescue tomorrow.

If you would like to participate in the muskie rescue, please meet the guys around 5:15 pm at the park office. Bring your waders and large coolers.