I wanted to give the boat a test run close to home, before I take it south for the next nine months, so I hit Shabbona solo today. The lake was absolutely packed, as was the shoreline. The wind was whipping out of the north and the sky was bright blue, as I launched at about 9am.
The surface temperature was 62, and the NMZ and campground area were packed, so I headed away from the crowd. I relied on my electronics and found fish, alot of fish, in 25′-30′ of water. I had my way with the crappie in that lake for five hours today. I literally caught hundreds of crappies! The best part of it is I never had any live bait. I used strictly plastics today. The hot baits today were Bobby Garland Baby Shad and Midsouth tubes. Colors were electric chicken and smoke glow. I used a bunch of colors but those two were the hottest. The chicken was best until about noon and then the smoke glow tubes were by far the best. I cast the chicken baby shad and vertical jigged the smoke.
The smartest thing I did today was rely on my electronics. I moved frequently and looked for larger schools of fish. I was a bit surprised that I found them as deep as I did. They were suspended 10-12 feet down in 25-30 feet of water. I would not have found those fish if I had not relied on my electronics.
The daily limit for Shabbona is 10 per day and I ended up with some decent fish, with the biggest being 12.5″. I cleaned 8 females and 2 males. The females are no where near ready to drop eggs.
I usually stay away from Shabbona, because it gets so crowded, but I am so glad I went. Now I am tuned up for Shelbyville!!
I took the picture with my phone and it isn’t the best. By the glow, you’d think I was fishing closer to the nuclear plant…
