Shabbona Magic 05/13

Today I had my oldest daughters 8th grade confirmation, followed by the traditional party. I sat around all day getting fish pics sent to me by my pals, who were having great fishing days. It was a tad torturous, but I was content to spend a great day with family and friends.

After things wrapped up, it still felt kind of fishy out. I had been thinking about the day I had earlier in the week at Shabbona. A really good walleye numbers morning in a couple hours, under blue sky conditions. Tonight it was cloudy, with about 15mph winds. It seemed like the bite should be on, and to say the least it was.

I do quite a bit of walleye fishing. Outside of smallies, it is probably my favorite fish to target. I have had some memorable outings on Delavan, Geneva, Green Bay, and a few other places. From a pure action standpoint, tonight was probably the best action I have ever had. Literally a bite or fish every cast for 3 hours. Just crazy fast fishing. No monsters from the walleye front, but all 15-20 inch fish, with some bonus fish mixed in. I spot locked on 3 different areas and it really did not matter. All of them were loaded with active fish. Final totals on the clicker were 46 walleye, 6 hybrids, 1 musky, 1 crappie, and one gill. All once again on reaction baits. WTF is about all I can say as I spent the whole trip laughing to myself at how crazy it was. I'm sure this is a limited opportunity, and those fish will be sliding out deeper very soon, but kudos to the DNR for loading the lake with quality fish.