Thread: Shell Creek and Shell Creek Lake 2017

We have lost our fair share of gear out there as well, the debris pads from all of the rain are horrible if your trying to bust through them is nearly impossible, did ok fishing off the edges of them. We catch mainly bass when we go, I've pulled in a 7-8 lb largemouth a few years back, average one's for us are between 2-6 lbs out of Shell Creek. Caught one saugey about 6-7 years ago. Plenty of perch, crappie, I caught two white bass on our last trip and my old man caught 4-5, channel cat, and about 7 years ago I caught an 8 lbs blue cat in some sticks off the main lake using a sapphire blue craw jig. Shell Creek is by far one of our favorites.

Originally Posted by KMSJones

We have lost our fair share of gear out there as well, the debris pads from all of the rain are horrible if your trying to bust through them is nearly impossible, did ok fishing off the edges of them. We catch mainly bass when we go, I've pulled in a 7-8 lb largemouth a few years back, average one's for us are between 2-6 lbs out of Shell Creek. Caught one saugey about 6-7 years ago. Plenty of perch, crappie, I caught two white bass on our last trip and my old man caught 4-5, channel cat, and about 7 years ago I caught an 8 lbs blue cat in some sticks off the main lake using a sapphire blue craw jig. Shell Creek is by far one of our favorites.

I'm surprised to hear you've only caught 1 saugeye? How big was it? ...I've asked several people who were fishing the shore or loading/unloading boats and It seemed catching a saugeye was also rare for them. I know they're kinda nocturnal like walleye but I assumed more would be caught accidently especially in the mornings or evenings then I'm getting a sense for so far. If my count is accurate: I think I've actually caught more Saugeye then bass or crappie.. maybe even sunfish, but I try to avoid those unless I'm getting desperate.

I've been there like 8-10 times this year, and all but twice caught at least 1 small saugeye, usually 2, and 3 twice (which is the most I've managed). But it's always been at the boat ramp, early in the morning or at Dusk/ just after Dark. Honestly I've pushed it a bit and not left till last light was gone and stars were shining... and been the last guy off the lake about every night I've been there. Since it was just me and I wasn't being loud they didn't seem to mind, but now that my fishing fever has been somewhat satisfied some after 3 years of not fishing... I'll be packing up at last light, and not pushing my luck so much.

Really wish it was ok to night fish there though, because I'd be happy to sit there and catch small crappie and saugeye off the boat ramp all night if they'd let me. The last saugeye was finally big enough to keep and I ate it because I'd never had any and hear they and walleye are supposed to be pretty much the best, even better then crappie... but I've only really ever liked salmon and trout to eat enough to be highly motivated to keep some usually... So while the saugeye was ok, it's not enough to my taste to warrant keeping more. So catch and release on them now like everything else I catch (except rainbow trout. I let the browns, brooks, and cutts go)

Are you catching many keeper size crappie? ...All mine from shore have been dinks. I don't wanna eat them, but would be nice to know larger ones are out there

P.S. I'm looking to meet local fishing buddies

Dinks only as far as crappie go but I have seen decent ones pulled from there. The saugey was about 4.5 lbs and it was close to evening time right before we left near the rocks on the north shore of the first bend towards the creek from the ramp.

Cool... That was a nice Saugeye. I hope I run into one that size ...I need to get my 1 man pontoon re registered or my Kaboat finally registered so I'm not shore bound anymore.

I've honestly never shore fished shell creek.

Originally Posted by KMSJones

I've honestly never shore fished shell creek.

If I had my boats in order I wouldn't bother, but I've done ok considering the pressure that shoreline probably gets.

If you ever decide to try, and/or someone else want to fish from shore...
I found a little concrete walkway that leads to a couple ok spots to fish from then I think dead ends. But if you walk up the hill and continue to walk down the mowed area that's on the hill above the lake there are I think 3 (at least 2) more trails that go down. The first assuming I didn't imagine it while sitting here trying to remember is a little rough and is basically bushwhacking it down to the water. The second seems to lead to the the best spot but you have to kinda jump down this small rocky gorge area that's kinda a pain to get back up and if you don't stop yourself as you go down and trip/slip you could end up in the water... But further on down there is a 3rd trail leading to the water that has got another series of concrete steps that leads to another spot to fish, and you can walk through a little brush from there and get back to where that second trail led you, or if you took the second trail in the first place you can bush wack a little to where that 3rd trail takes you and then use those better stairs to climb out instead of that rocky gorge area.

The shore fishing area seems to end after you discover the first walk way leading to a couple spots. I think that's about where the old telephone pole sticks up from the shore, and I think because of that most people never walk up the hill and further down the mowed area and find the other trails that lead back down to the shore further down that arm of the lake. It might be there that the telephone pole at the water's edge signals the end of the trail, but if I'm remember right its just the signal that the end of the first trail that everyone probably sees ends. So to go further you have to back track a little and climb the hill, walk down that mowed area and find the other trails I mentioned... I don't know, but If someone explores a little all those areas are pretty easy to find. If you hit the fence then you've gone to far. My assumption was beyond the fence might be trespassing if there is even another trail down to the water.

I've yet to walk down the Dam and try off of it or that little structure that's attached to it. I heard somewhere online a lot of small crappy could be caught there. May check that out next time since I've lost most of my jerk and crank baits that were catching the bass and saugeye. Plenty of crappie jigs left I could dangle off there though. Plus since all the saugeye I've caught were between the tree just to the right of the boat ramp, and the care takers fence line to the left of the boat ramp... Maybe some saugeye are lurking around the dam.

On a side note...
I actually caught a crappy or 2 of the 3-4 inch jerk baits I was using... That's happened to me a few other places, and I think the only walleyes I ever caught were off of them while trying for brown trout. I love those baits, they'll basically catch anything, and so many ways you can fish them to entice a strike if they aren't biting good. I even fish the floating ones at the surface popping and twitching as makeshift topwater lures.

I may actually head over there at daybreak (Wend). I tend to sleep days so I'll likely be up at sunrise. If I miss that window I may go that evening. If anyone is there and sees a silver mitsubishi outlander SUV and a guy fishing alone that's probably me (Dave)

Thanks for the tips, we took the boat out all day Saturday and caught literally almost nothing. I finally caved and started throwing out some nightcrawlers and a bobber for panfish, caught plenty of perch and one baby spotted bass. No crappie, no white bass, no catfish, nothing on any of our lures. Had a few bass go after our plastics (lizards and craws are our usual lures and normally slaughter them) that either got off before the boat or just got the back tail end of our lures. A very frustrating day indeed.

Bummer, sorry about the bad luck. That makes me feel bad about my sunday fishing trip...

So I went to Shell about 6am, and made a few casts at the boat ramp hoping to pick up a saugeye or 2 like usual from that spot, but no bites. So I decided to stop being lazy and finally for the fist time ever walk down the road and fish off the dam.

The Sand bass were stacked up in front of the spillway. I caught around 20 ranging from about 8-12 inches and probably lost another 10 and had a bunch of short strikes. There were also a couple schools of bluegill feeding near the surface. I caught 3 or 4 of those while trying a small tube jig for crappie. Also caught 3 or 4 crappie (all dinks). So I think there was a school of crappie down there too, but I didn't really try for them till the Sand bass bite started slowing down between 10-11am.

And icing on the cake was I also picked up 3 small black bass and 2 small saugeye from the spillway area. About the only thing I didn't catch was a catfish (Didn't try) and whatever rough fish are in there. I did see 3 gar swimming together in such a way I'd assume they were mating. My guess is there were probably some catfish lurking below the spillway too.

One of the reasons I decided to try the dam that day was the wind was out of the NE (according to weather.com), so I figured the bait fish may be blown that direction. But water going over the spillway creating a current drawing in food for everything lurking in front of it was probably the best reason for my good day.

Nothing big, but there were some moments where I was literally catching a fish every cast. I think in one set of 3 casts I caught a sandy, a saugeye, and a black bass. Sunday was my best day there for numbers of fish, and variety. My biggest fish ever there is one 2-3 lb catfish years ago, and that recent 14-15 inch saugeye.

I wasted a good hour (maybe more) working my way down the length of the dam, and fishing off the walkway to that little building in the water. I might have picked up a few sand bass past the spillway but pretty much everything I caught was in the area close to the spillway. If I would have stayed there I'm confident I could have picked off at least another 10 sand bass and maybe a few other odds and ends.

I fished various colors of jerkbaits, deep diving crankbaits, tube jigs, small little rubber minnow jigs, a larger holographic curly tailed minnow jig, and a weighted streamer fly similar to a large olive wooly bugger with some iridescent hackles or whatever on it. At least one of the sandies was caught on a crawdad color deep diving bomber crankbait. I pretty much got strikes on everything I tried, I was just getting more hookups with the cranks and jerkbaits though. Fish would hit the jigs about every cast but they weren't taking them aggressively enough and I wasn't quick enough to catch their one quick tug, but did get multiple tugs if I picked the bait up and let it swing through the water again to a stop.

As the sun came up the fish got more reluctant to come up to the surface where I could see whether or not I was getting follows or short strikes. A lot of people showed up to the lake that day and I had left a couple tackle boxes by the concrete picnic table so with the bite slowing down and my feet getting wore out; I walked back over to the ramp and checked on my stuff and probably fished that length of shoreline for another 45 minutes with no bites.

Strangely enough none of the boats came and fished near the spillway, and I'm pretty sure a lot of them saw me actually catching a fish as they drove by me on the dam. Some lady and her kids fished off the dam by me for a little bit and she caught a bluegill, but the kids got bored pretty quickly and they all went off somewhere else. I told them what I'd caught, and some guy at the boat ramp launching a nice wood canoe he made himself I think, but other then that I was quiet.

So ya was a pretty good day for me. I let everything go, so it should all still be there for the next person. I know now it is definitely worth the walk to check out the dam especially if water is going over the spillway and the wind is blowing that direction too. So after a few casts at the boat ramp that's probably where I'll head every time unless it's crowded with people.

Sadly I left my phone in the car so didn't take any pics, but here is a pic of the largest saugeye I've caught so far at Shell...