shabbona lake

Having lived about 20 miles south of you all of my life I have discovered that any good fishing lake is either 3 hrs south or 3 hours north. Supposedly Heidecke lake has crappie I have never fished it for crappie but they allow bank fishing also. It is an old cooling lake that no longer has power plant on it so it has no structure rip rap around the entire lake. Plenty of creeks and rivers but not areas containing much crappie.

I spoke with a young man last winter who needed help on Shabonna. He mentioned it gets heavy pressure. I mentioned the rillinois River. He has been very successful and he said no one is crappie fishing on the Illinois. Rivers have plenty of fish in them, so give them a try.

Thanks for all the information guys. I'll have to poke around on the river and give that a shot.

Chicago Fishing Reports | Chicago Fishing Forums
Crappie Professor Jim Kopjo- member of this site and Chi-Town. He guides on Shabbona and Evergreen.
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Didn't realize that they were that close

I will be staying there this Thursday-Sunday. I will give you an update Sunday night.

There's also a website for Shab that has a fishtails section. I used to visit it a lot. It's not as active as it once was, but I'm sure you could find some useful info there. It is run by Denny Sands, who owns/operates the baitshop there.

Shabbona isn't going to give you the size of other lakes. If you want a whole bunch of 8"-9" fish, I recommend it. April and May vertical jigging have been very productive for me in the past. Won't be fishing it any longer as my time in Illinois ends Saturday morning...

You going to camp Guber?

I start my job that week, so no I'm not coming back up. It's over 6 hours and I am driving my old Escape down and leaving the Acadia with Pam. I'm praying that thing makes it down to Arkansas!