Matt's Fishing Journal

My uncle and I decided it was time to fish our first tournmanet. This one was nice because it was very informal and free. We hit Shabbona for the “Walleye Open”. The prizes were only for the largest, legal walleye measured on that day. There were bonuses given out for both lake record walleyes (10 lbs) and/or a state record walleye (14 lbs I think). We arrived later in the day, 4 pm ish, and there was a line at the launch. It wasn’t because all the boats trying to get on the water, but instead, the boats the were leaving. Everyone said the same thing, “a few dink crappies, maybe a bass, and/or nothing biting”. Our hopes were actually raised, as we figured a single keeper walleye may be able to win this thing.

We started for bass in the Northeast bay, as many other areas were very crowded. We did not catch anything on cranks. We quickly switched to jig and minnows, and headed over to the deep timber. We worked that area until sunset, as we marked fish that were most likely crappies. Paul ended up getting a decent size crappie, but other than that, it was nothing but snags.

The highlight of the day came right as the sun was going down. I saw what I thought was a big branch floating in the water. I began to see the branch wiggle. I pointed it out to my uncle, and he explaimed that it was a large snake. As we motored closer to it, we quickly realized that it was a large musky swimming on the surface. We went to grab our rods and cameras, but we quickly spooked it. We did see one other musky roll on the surface after sun down. We packed up the boat and retrieved the boat from the water around 10:30 pm.

There was not a legal walleye caught, so no one won the competition. They are definately in there, however, as the DNR had netted two 10lb + class walleyes earlier in the week. I can not wait to get back to Shabbona and seek my first muskie. Knowing those walleyes are swimming around also gets me excited.

Trip Totals:
0 Fish

Year to Date:
11 Trips
15 Keeper Perch
2 Largemouth Bass
3 Coho Salmon