Hi there Jeremy, I don't get to fish there as much as I would like, but I might be able to help get you started as to what areas of the lake to try. This past year was pretty busy with business travels so didn't make it up there. It ended up being a pretty tough year to catch slabs there but some of the locals still found them regularly. The biggest thing about MTL is the water level changes. The lake can go up as much as 15-18ft. in the spring if conditions are right. Adds a lot of new water. What part of Illinois are you from? I fish Rend Lake a few times a year and Carlyle a few times in the summer for the White bass. There are now lakes in Illinois that I'm familiar with that resemble MTL in any way. Deep creeks and all the timber you want to fish. You can find flooded timber in the 20-25ft range pretty regularly. Let me know if I can help out more. Also Bruce Carp fishes the lake pretty often and is very knowledgeable to its strong points. He might help you out also. Don't catch em all!