Illinois Fishing

[XxthejuicexX]

I spent the morning below lake Shelbyville fishing for walleye or what ever would bite, that turned out to be Gar. I had a few long fun fights on 6lb test with my Light action set up. I ended up hooking and fighting what I think was a walleye from the back right by the spillway, It was on 6 pound test also. I was doing well until it tried to get tangled into the stair handrail that was leading into the water, I tried to turn it and that's when I lost it, hook popped out. I think I was a nice walleye, I got a look at it but but not a good one. I left there and headed to lake Homer. I put the kayak around 4:45 and started fishing for bass, this is a smaller lake around champaign. I was not catching anything on the shaky or the frog until I hooked into a bullfrog on a frog...... Never seen that before. One guy was in a boat catching a few bass so I paddled over and talked to him, he said fish the channel banks. I did that and caught one small 13" bass on the shaky. I had some minnows left from this morning so I thought I would try for some crappie. I caught a few on minnows and then switched the the Bison trout magnet. I probably caught 30 off a tree laying in 11' of water not one over 8". This lake is a 9" keeper size, I think it's just like the one alpha fishes, all small fish. I had fun catching all those fish even though they were small, I might head back tomorrow for some more bass. Sorry for the long winded paragraph :)

[Alphahawk]

Congrats on the catch....including the frog.



Regards

[TNBronzeback]

Thats a good read!
Always enjoyable going to new waters and catching fish!
Poor little bullfrog :-(....LMAO!

[SAMBOLIE]

Frog legs taste better than any fish.

[XxthejuicexX]

Frog legs taste better than any fish.

I do enjoy me some frog legs. There were a bunch of frogs around this lake. I kept thinking that it was bass under the grass along the banks hitting the surface so when I finally made a good cast under a tree to the commotion it turned out to be that guy, felt kind of bad for him because the hook put a pretty good hole in him. I get to baby sit today so I will try and make it out this evening for a few hours.

[TNBronzeback]

Babysit....more like early fishing lessons! Lol
Never too young to start em fishing! Lol

[XxthejuicexX]

Babysit....more like early fishing lessons! Lol
Never too young to start em fishing! Lol

I wish, My son is 8 months old. Trust me, as soon as he is old enough to try fishing he will. The lake I fished yesterday would be a great place to start him, Crappie on every cast... that would keep any kid entertained, kept me pretty well entertained :D

[Reel Tune]

Sounds like a good time. I've frog gigged from the kayak. It takes a little getting used to, but is better than wet legging it around the bank, sinking in mud, and dealing with trees.

[XxthejuicexX]

Growing up we waded some of the smaller creeks and rivers in murfreesboro and frog gigged. I had a blast doing it. I went to Homer again today and found the same small fish, 15 crappie plus some blue gill off the same tree. I also found a few stumps in 13' of water that had some crappie holding on them. I caught a nice 2 pound cat on the trout magnet today, that was a fun fight. I had a bass boat fishing the same bank about 10' away when I hung into the cat. We talked for a bit and I found out he was from Smryna, he moved here to Illinois back in the late 70's to start a trucking company, he told me they shocked the lake a few years back and found some really nice bass in it, I think I am going to try it again tomorrow and just flip the banks because there is very little structure on the bottom in deeper water. I caught another bullfrog on a frog today, twice in a week , this one actually ate the frog. I am looking forward to getting back home, I plan on fishing my stretch of river Sunday afternoon.