Lake Shelbyville Illinois Fishing Blog

With the cost of today’s fishing lures I’m glade I have a lure retriever that works. About 30 years ago I came up with what I call the dog chain lure retriever and I have tried lots of others and never found one that works as well and easy to use. To make this take about 5 or 6 ft. of light dog chain and an oval snap ring , about 50 ft. of good nylon cord and something to wind the cord onto. ( I used an old marker bouy, that way if you drop it in it floats and it’s easy to wind your line up on it .) Now take the dog chain and about every 12 in. put a link threw the oval snap, now tie the cord to the snap ring and you got it. Your cord should be on one end of the oval ring and your chain on the other end. When you snag up that lure , just get your boat where your line is straight up and down and snap the oval ring to your line and let it slid to the lure, work it up and down till you get the hooks in the chain and pull. You may bend the hooks or even break the hooks , but you can always put on new hooks. Today with all the fishing going on we are getting a lot of line build-up on the snags and when your lure gets caught in all that line the dog chain will get them out for you. Many of times I’ve came home with more baits then I started with. You would be surprised at what you can pull up with this retriever. Over the years I pulled up many of anchors and the ropes are usually loaded with lures. If your not sure how to make this retriever,catch Barb of I on the water or at the ramp and we would be glad to show it to you. With the lake at winter pool be careful of shallow water and very slick boat ramps. On Feb. 11 th. at 1pm we are having our 2 nd. annual message broad get together. We’ll have the chili and if you want to bring a dish to go with it and bring your own drinks your all welcome to join in the fun and put a face with names that post on the board.

There are a lot of different kinds of line on the market today and I have lots of fishermen ask what we use and why. For many years I’ve been fishing with the original clear blue fluorescent Stren. It fishes good in all kinds of conditions , and it is highly visible. We also like the Mr.Crappie super vis. by bass pro shops for our crappie fishing. Both of these lines stay limp , have good knot strength and are easy to see which is very important to the way we fish and teach our clients to fish. When you are using a line you can see and learn to watch it you will catch more fish and less snags and the line can show you the lite bites you’ve been missing. We hope the New Year brings us all the best in fishing and health.