Sarley: Why Shabbona Lake is a gem suburban fishermen shouldn’t miss
Shabbona Lake is an incredible gem for fishermen and those who just enjoy the outdoors. The park and its grounds are close to pristine, and the lake itself is near perfect.
Shabbona Lake State Park is located at 4201 Shabbona Grove Road in Shabbona, Illinois. It is located off U.S. 30, east of Interstate 39 and west of Aurora. It is close to DeKalb, which is not far away at all. You’ll enjoy the drive as you pass through towns like Plano, Big Rock and Hinckley. Sounds rural, doesn’t it?
They have a great selection of boats for rent there, depending on your budget. In motorized watercraft choices, they have fancy Lund rigs, pontoon boats and plain three-person aluminum boats with 10-horsepower motors. If you have your own boat, 10 horsepower is the max allowed. To rent a boat, try shabbonalake.com/rent-a-boat/ or call 815-824 2581. Reservations are strongly recommended.
The lake itself is 319 acres with a depth that runs to 40 feet. I really can’t explain it, but the Illinois Department of Natural Resources does an incredible job of stocking Shabbona with fish. Fishermen by the hundreds pull out limits of keeper-sized crappies every single weekend and they never seem to run dry. Shabbona is a crappie factory.
Shabbona Lake is home to panfish aplenty, largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleyes, channel catfish and muskies. Are they big muskies? Well, the Illinois state record has been broken four times by Shabbona’s muskies. I’d say that big is an understatement.
For crappies, I would try a tiny minnow impaled on a Mini-Mite jig. The area across from the boat launch that holds a large number of trees sticking out of the water is a popular spot. You just need to find the right depth.
To find walleyes, you will need to locate the sunken road bed that they like to hang out around. Minnows and crawlers work well, as will a variety of deeper diving crankbaits.
Largemouth bass are plentiful, and I would work the edges of weed beds if I were looking for them. Remember that weed beds have a deep edge and a shallow edge. Fishermen often forget to try the shallow edge and are surprised to find bass in 3 feet of water.
Smallmouth bass seem to like residing along the rip-rap shoreline that runs along side of the lake that is directly to the right of the boat rental area. Chatterbaits are a good choice here. Remember to vary your speed until you find the right tempo. They fight tenaciously when you connect.
I have caught catfish all over the lake on crawlers, and Shabbona is home to a population of stripers that I have never tried to catch.
Try for muskies near the entrance to the spillway and also in the area you reach before you hit the area that is restricted to fishing. Use anything in your tackle box to entice these fish. Baits don’t have to be giant-sized because plenty of musky are caught accidentally by anglers fishing for bass. I took a partner out for the day and he caught a 48½-inch behemoth on his first cast.
If you feel you need help in learning the lake, two guides I would recommend are Ron Fulk and Jim Kopjo. Fulks is a musky specialist and is just great. If you’ve never caught one before, Fulks will more that likely put you on one. Kopjo is called “the Crappie Professor,” and the nickname is well-earned. He is great with newbies and children and a day on the water with Kopjo just flies by. Kopjo is worth his fee.
You can contact Ron Fulk at 847-697-1951 and Jim Kopjo at 708-601-1962. Both of these gentlemen have pages on Facebook.
• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.