Shabbona - March 25

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 yesterday. 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. I literally caught hundreds of crappies! The best part of it is I never had any live bait. I used strictly plastics. The hot baits 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 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...

Great report, I know what you mean about shabbona. I love this lake through the week but dont get near it on the weekends. What part of the lake did you find them suspended? The deep trees. Cant wait to get out for the first time, hope its soon. Keep up the good work!

I found fish in the deep trees, but the bigger fish came away from the deep trees. I would say I was near the south and west of the deep trees for the best fish. Maybe that area is still considered the deep trees. Please forgive me, this was literally my second time on Shabbona, in my boat. I used to ice fish it but stopped because I would get so angry seeing guys taking 4" crappies out.

Nice catch!

Good report and catch! Some nice feesh! Anytime you catch that many its always fun!