[BigJim]

My wife and I took the kids on a spur-of-the-moment camping trip to Shabbona over the weekend. I fished the "no motor zone" from my kayak Saturday morning, throwing topwater, spinnerbaits, and cranks. Nothing worked.

My son and I fished off the campground dock Saturday afternoon before the rain came in. I had one fish make a run at a spinnerbait. We tried wax worms, but didn't get to fish long before we got drenched. Skunked again

Sunday morning, I decided to fish the dam embankment from my kayak. I've had days at Shabbona where the bass were only biting off the riprap. I marked a lot of arches on my graph in the 13ft range out near the trees in 30ft of water. I tried pulling a lipless crank through that depth, hoping to run into some wipers, but no dice. Threw cranks and jigs at the rocks, once I got to the dam side, but no fish there either.

Water was murky, maybe 1ft visibility. No one I talked to caught anything, outside of a couple kids bluegill fishing off the dock. The guy in the bait shop said fishing has been terrible with all the rain.