Most lakes are merely fish bowls with weed lines, drop offs and varying lake bottom structure. These lakes are fairly easy to ice fish, in that fish will remain in existing weeds, stage off of drop offs or move to differing bottom structure, such as soft bottom transitioning to a hard bottom.

But what about a structure filled lake, such as Shabbona Lake? Structure in a lake is a natural fish attractor. A fish never knows how big he really is, so he is always leery about some bigger fish having him for lunch. So fish that survive to adulthood are those who have learned to duck and hide into whatever the lake has to offer. If a small fish didn’t learn to duck & hide, he soon became growth food.

Often those that survive the longest and become the biggest have leaned to get to the food first. How many times have you pulled up to a spot and hooked a big fish on the first cast. A lot of times you will catch your biggest fish of the day on your first cast in that spot.

By using the above info: 1) big fish have learned to duck & hide and 2) big fish often feed first, you have two secrets to success on a structure oriented lake, such as Shabbona Lake.

Shabbona Lake is located in Southern DeKalb County, about halfway between Chicago & Rockford. It is known as the Muskie Capitol of Illinois with 4 State of Illinois Record Muskie. It is the one and only lake in Illinois built just for fishing. It is not a power plant lake, a flood control lake or a water supply lake. Its only reason for existence is to fish.
When they built the lake in the early 1970’s, the IDNR added 47 fish cribs, 3 major brush piles, left standing trees in shallow & deep water and a submerged bridge. Since 1982, the Shabbona Lake Sportsman Club has been adding rock piles, brush piles and numerous other habitats.

So to fish, a heavily structured lake, like Shabbona Lake, what does one do? First get a detailed structure map (they are available at Lakeside Bait & Tackle, www.shabbonalake.com.) Then go find that isolated structure. Fish will be in or near structure; they will not be in open water. Remember survival is paramount to a fish. Those fish that learn how to survive, live to grow.

The best way to learn a structure lake is to go ice fishing and pinpoint exact structure locations. If you get out on early ice (always be careful) and the ice is clear with no snow on it, you can actually see the outline of the fish cribs and submerged trees formed by oxygen bubbles coming off of the structure.

If you get out after heavy snow, check out areas where there are multiple holes within a small area. Check out the holes for structure, you may have just stumbled on a honey hole.

Early ice is also a good time to fish the remaining weed beds. Usually you will find lots of Bluegill and some very large Bass. As the ice gets covered with snow and the light penetration is diminished, the weeds start to die off and the fish move to the next best available structure, fish cribs or standing trees.

Shabbona Lake has had two State Of Illinois Hybrid Crappie caught while ice fishing. They were both caught at Area 19 on the Shabbona Lake Fishing map. Area 19 is a drainage ditch that enters the lake in the Northeast Bay. Both fish were caught by using a large Bass minnow under a bobber in about 7 feet of water, just off a major weed line. One was caught in 2005 and the other in 2007. They weighed 2.7 and 2.8 pounds respectively.

Both fish caught in the same area. Is it coincidence? I think not! These two fish were merely following rule number one and rule number 2 mentioned above. They had learned a good place to duck & hide and grow to State Record size. They lived in a dense, large weed bed, next to a drop off drainage ditch that provide an abundant of food. They learned to be first at the table for that large Bass minnow, because that is how they got that big. Eat and you grow.

Bottom line when it comes to ice fishing a lake like Shabbona Lake is “structure = fish, open water in a structure lake = no fish.”