Lake Evergreen

[PGottshall]

Anyone fish Evergreen? It's a few miles N of Bloomington, & is my "home" lake. It's a beautiful lake, part of a county park, so no houses on it. It has a 10HP limit, so I use my trolling motor, and the lake is nice & quiet. Fees are steep, $16/day or $45/yr. Nice campground too.

Evergreen is probably best known for Muskies, although it does have lots of Crappies, & they've shocked-up state-record Saugeyes.

My son & I went out today. Weather was beautiful, although a little windy. Water was 53. We caught about 30, all in 20-25ft of water. We were using 2-hook minnow rigs. Any shallower, & absolutely no action.

Evergreen's Crappies are small, though. None of ours today were over 9in, but we were catching some, & I wasn't at work! (I took an honest vacation day. . .) On a normal day I'll catch one 10in or so.

FYI - Paul

[Ranger375]

Paul Thanks for the info on Evergreen lake. Sounds like a lake to check out next year in the early spring. Like you say at least you weren't at work and were catching not fishing...LOL

[D. Busman]

Hey there. I fish Evergreen quite frequently. Had a couple of really good days on the west side (near the bike trails) back in late April. I managed to pull in 35 in 90 minutes, but they weren't all that big. They were tearin' up a 1/16 white/pink jig with a small split shot about 12 inches ahead of the jig.
Pulled a couple of good sized ones out of Lake Bloomington, near the spillway, over the summer.

[crappieken]

D. Busman - Welcome to the message board. I am located just 15 miles from Lake Shelbyville and there are several other members on the board that live as close or closer to the lake than I do. Next spring if you get a chance to get down this way, let us know as there are several of us that can give you some information on the lake. I use to fish Lake Bloomington fifty years ago when I attended Illinois State. I don't remember catching too many fish but the beer was good.

[D. Busman]

Thanks Ken. I've got some friends here in town that go down to Shelbyville a few times a year. If work isn't too crazy this spring, I'm going to try and tag along. As for Lake Bloomington...the fishing is pretty good now, and if things get slow on the water there's always a chair over at Green Gables.