R&R

I headed back to Illinois for the Easter weekend and the following week. Soon my life will be consumed by field work and it was time for a break!

One of the things I wanted to do while I was home was take the boat out for a spin somewhere. My Dad and I chose Lake Shelbyville which is a lake we're fairly familiar with. Storms were in the forecast so we hoped to get some fishing in before the bad weather hit.

We launched the boat and noted the water temperature was in the upper 50s and probably beyond what muskies spawn at and not quite where bass spawn at. Not expecting much since this particular lake can be a doozy to figure out in the spring we headed to our favorite spot (for those familiar with the lake, Buoy Cove).

Armed with mostly bass gear we flogged the shoreline with casts using rattle traps and Rapala X-Raps. Soon after deploying the trolling motor and cruising down the shoreline, Dad hooks up with a big pre-spawn female largemouth (18"). I speculate that she was likely staging in areas that males will soon move into and create nests.



With high-fives all around we continued down the shoreline. Maybe 50 yards down I cast my X-Rap beyond and left of a cluster of three stumps. As I twitch the bait back to the boat by lure gets hammered. The fish peeled off to the right, wrapping my line in the stumps. Fortunately I was able to get the fish unwrapped and I hoisted a beauty 19" pre-spawn female largemouth into the boat. Gotta love big bucketmouths!



Not to be outdone, Dad starts fan-casting the shoreline with a 3-bladed spinnerbait and puts the laces to a nice fish, which surfaces and shows itself to be a muskie! Not a giant, probably under 30 inches, but nice to see... and legal to catch in Illinois with no closed season! Slime time baby!



Headed to British Columbia momentarily so it's time to sign off. I'll be working with what some might consider "baitfish"/trout (bull trout to be exact; EDIT - bull trout are a member of the char family, more like a lake trout than, say, a rainbow). I'm hoping to take a few pictures so if anything exciting happens I'll post it here for you
folks to see!