Lake Shelbyville Info?
 

My kids are getting out of school tomorrow and the first thing they wanted to do was do a bowfishing trip out of our normal area here in northern IL. Shelbyville is only about 3 hours so we are going to try to head down next Tuesday night and stay through Friday. Can anyone give me a quick tutorial on where we should start, look for etc? I have no idea where to launch or what area to try to fish, so any info would be a huge help. I think we are going to camp also, so a recommendation on campsites would help if anyone has any thoughts. We'll be tent camping, but will need electric hook up for charging batteries and such. Thanks in advance!!!

Wolf creek, there is a very nice camp ground. if you get a spot in the back you can tie up your boat below the camp and walk up the hill to the camp ground. Put your boat in at Wolf creek boat ramp go North around the Island bear to left and you will be right below the camp ground. There are dirt trails up to it. As far as fish go the whole lake is good. I was down there a few weeks ago and the lake was very low. I know they have had more rain than us since, so hopefully it will be up. Usually during the day the long nose gar can be found around any standing timber in deep water. If you can find any grass in the water you will find carp. At night the buffs like to hang off the points. As in most lakes at the end of any cove will produce fish. We will be there June 2 for our state shoot, so take it easy on us.

I was down there for the past two days, i took my bow along and we went up into some coves and couldnt find much...I only saw about 5 and they were always one step ahead of me! But the lake is still dropping. Could the dropping water be pushing them deeper? We were at the North end @ 'Bo Wood'.

Actually mdonova, Bo Woods is not really on the north end, you can go much further north up around Wilborn Creek. This area can be very productive but after a decent rain, the water tends to get rather stained up there. If there has been no rain and the water is low, then much of the north end will be tough going unless you have a push fan. If you can hit it just right, I've had some awesome nights up there.

I'll be in a 2072 Landau with a troller, so hopefully I can get into areas without a fan. We did change gears a bit on the camping side.. We'll now be "camping" at an air conditioned motel in Mattoon..lol. I guess since we'll be coming in on 16 from the east, we'll just go to that wolf creek area and launch? From there I guess we'll head north and see how far we can make it.

Are there any off limits areas we should know of? I don't want to get into trouble with the law in any way!

My kids and I both hate dayfishing for the most part, so I think we'll probably launch just a few hours before dark to scout around and get our bearings, but then fish after dark. Are most of the ramps open all night so we don't get locked in?

Thanks again and sorry for all the questions.

No off limit areas and ramps are open all night. Some of the ramps are "pay" ramps but Wolf Creek is free to load and unload. Nice facility over all.

If you go south down at Litha springs marina they have a subway on the water, not sure of it's hours. The farther south U go the clearer the water is.

IDk f they got the dam back on or not but last year when we went below the dam it was the clearest water i had ever shot in. Quite a few fish and alot of big ones. But there was alot of raft traffic and the ramp is a 3 out of 10 at best and drops off at end and u gotta pay to use it