With walleye record weekend fastly approaching, you might want some tips. It is not going to be easy for you guys to catch walleyes on Shabbona Lake in April, but it can be done. Here are some ideas:
1) I would try slow trolling along the dam face with fathead minnows. This is only possible if you have a large portion of the shoreline to yourself. I would use just a sinker and a minnow on a hook. I think the best method would be to use a bottom bouncer and a 6-10 foot lead, depending on how practiced you are on this presentation. Use your trolling motor and keep yourself moving at a very slow pace. Bounce your bottom bouncer up and down on the bottom to keep it on the bottom at the depth changes. Experiment with depths from 6 - more than 20 feet . The thing about this is, don't give up. It is going to be slow going.
2) If I wanted a really big walleye, I would sit in the deep trees and wait. I think the best place to sit is area 24. If you are not familar with area 24 on the lake map, go into Shabbona's Lakeside Bait, Tackle and Boat Rental and buy yourself a lake map. It has a fish by numbers feature. I would sit in shallow water and cast out to deep water with a fathead minnow and a slip bobber. Use as many rods as you are allowed to use and have your minnows at different depths. Sit in one spot for about an hour, and then move to another spot.
3) The rock piles on Old Indian Road always hold walleyes. Move up and down the road bed until you see one of the pyramid shaped rock piles on your locator. If there are walleyes holding on it, you will see them lying about a foot above the bottom of the lake. Once you see the fish, throw out your structure marker. Put your minnow under a slip bobber right into the face of the walleyes. You want this minnow swimming around as close to the fish as you can place it. Fish are opportunistic feeders and if you place a juicy minnow in their faces, they will eat.
Good luck guys! I hope you catch a big one next weekend.
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