Rend Lake Reports Posted Here!

[BigHarry]

Please post all Rend Lake reports here.

Please provide conditions & date. Type of baits would be nice but I don't expect you to give up your secrets!

[nullster]

I cant find any reports on this darned lake, I wish some one would go fish it.

Well maybe I will go out this weekend and see how the bite is coming along on this lake.

[BigHarry]

Be sure and post a report! That's why I'm doing this (with everybody's help). It will take a while, but it will be worth it.

[xjcraver]

I hope somebody posts a report pretty quick - we're fishing a T down there Sat.

[xjcraver]

Wait a week before you fish this one...

Apr. 21 - 6:00A to 2:00P
Water: 55* - 58*
Wind: barely
Skies: Bluebird

At least it was a gorgeous day... Fished a 20 boat team tourney, and we had 8 total fish weighed in. That's right... 8. Winning weight was 5.90 lbs., with 2 fish. It was a beautiful day for fishing, but it sucked for catching!!

The fish that were caught were in 4' - 5' of water, and were caught on soft plastics worked SLOW. I think a couple were caught on jigs also. Dad and I fished mainly jigs, Yum Dingers, Zoom lizards, and spinnerbaits. I think we had 3 or 4 bites all day, but didn't catch a single fish.

Must have been all that cold weather. I think they're just on the verge, and the bite will turn on if it stays warm.

Moral of the story: Wait a week or two and then fish it HARD.

-J

[nullster]

Hey Joe, I fished rend on Friday (20th) and it sucked then too. I lost one that went about 4 lbs that took me in some buck brush and got off. I seen him come out of the deepest part of that brush to attack my lure but then he took off back into the brush and got off. I could not get a hook set on him it happened so quick.

I only got bit 2 times the whole day and my girlfriend did not get bit once. It was a nice day but the barometric pressure was 30.22 and climbing. Blue bird skys.

I threw spinnerbaits, crank baits, rattle traps, and finesse plastics all day and could only get bit on the finesse plastic (Unamed plastic ).

I will be fishing Rend again May 5th in the Wallmart BFL tournament, I hope the bite gets better by then. I will come back here and post how it goes when finished.

[ChadASX]

I fished Rend on the 18 and again on the 22. The water warmed up a lot within those four days. It was mostly in the mid 50's on the 18 and by the 22 I was finding some water in the coves that was 68. Even the main lake was mostly in the low 60's. I found 5 fish already making beds all in one area by the end of the day. Fishing on the 22 flat out sucked. I hooked one really nice fish but broke it off. I'll be spooled up with braid before I go back up there. On the 18 the weather wasn't as nice but I did catch a few fish that day. I had two about 4 lb a piece that day but on the 22'nd I never put the first fish in the boat. I spoke with two other guys at the ramp taking out and both of them also said they never caught a fish or even had a bite all day. The wind was horrible on the 22nd also. The lake was turned upside down. I got into a few places that the waves were down right scary. The water is anywhere from really stained to really clear depending on where you are. There will be a bunch of fish on beds really soon up there as fast as the lake is warming up. I only found bedding fish in one cove but I look for a big wave of fish to move up soon. So far every bite I've had has been on plastics but I havn't gotten very many bites. I'm going back this weekend so I can be practicing for the BFL. Hopefully the fishing will pick up a little.

[xstreamjf]

Rend Lake was very stingy for the Illini Divison opener. I pre-fished Thursday and Friday and only got 6 hours of fishing in due to trolling motoer trouble. Bought a back up motor, and was ready for the tournament.

The water was 69-71 degrees and slightly stained. I spent all of my time in the Muddy arm and caught 6 bass flipping buckbrush, but only two of them kept. A Baby Brushhog with a 5/16 tungsten sinker pegged was my best lure. Weighed in a grand whopping total of 3-8 and finished 48th and went home happy under the circumstances.

Only 3 limits were caght on the boater side. and most of the fish came from buckbrush on soft plastics.

[nullster]

I fished the Rend lake BFL also this last weekend and never caught a fish. I did get bit a few times but the fish were not taking the bait in enough to get a solid hook set. It seems they were just grabbing the end of the bait and running back into the buck brush. My co-angler and I was not able to weigh any fish in. It was pretty tough. I hate Rend lake and was not really expecting much anyway. My year is pretty much done with a poor start like this. Rend kills me. The tournament boat called it the dead sea.

[ChadASX]

I fished the Rend BFL also. I fished Wed Thur, and Fri before the tournament. Wed, the fish were biting like crazy. I could have had well over 20lb if I wanted to set the hook. You could run anything right under the surface and they would come kill it. It got slower thur but still got a lot of bites for Rend. Friday it got even tougher. Tournament day it flat out sucked. I had to check in at 2:00 and I finaly caught a 2 lb keeper with 5 minutes left. I was dang happy to catch it too. I should be in good shape again for this year now. 2 tournaments left at Shelbyville, which I like that lake a lot, and 2 tourn left at Smithland, which is my home water. So I'm sitting in just about the same position I was last year after the Rend T. Should be all fun and games for the rest of them.

[Rudeman]

Fished Rend on 20 May 2007.

Temp was low 80's up from about 50 in the AM.
Bright sunny day; not a cloud in the sky.
Water temp ranged from 68-71

Tried topwater early with no luck. We fished riprap and wood cover and never got a strike.

Switched baits and my partner caught a 3lbs bass on a crankbait off riprap. I stuck a keeper with a C-Rigged Zoom Grn Pump lizard off a rocky flat near the 154 bridge. I caught a second keeper on a Nichols Chart/White spinnerbait with tandem Nickel/gold willow leaf blades back in Jackie Branch. He freaking hammered the bait. That was it for keepers; from 1100 to about 1430hrs all we caught were shorts.

[xjcraver]

26 May 2007

Water: Clear, 68* - 74*
Wind: Variable, from 5 - 10 mph
Weather: Perfect. Mostly overcast all day, rained a little right a weigh-in.

We sucked up the lake. Took 20 lbs. to win, and we weighed one fish... It was horrible. I don't know what we did wrong, but we were NOT on any fish all day. I think most of the fish weighed were caught off the rocks, but I can't swear to that.

Sure hope we have a better day next month...

-J

[xjcraver]

Anybody got a recent report for Rend?? I've got a T coming up on the 11th, just wondering where they're at.

Thanks!!

-J

[illinifish]

I fished a night tournament on the 28th.
The lake is low. Water temp 83.
More stained in color than I thought with lack of rain.
Fished from 4pm to midnight. Results were very scattered. 1st place was 4 fish for 7.88 lbs, 2nd 3 fish for 7.7 lbs and 3rd place 3 bass for 7.2 lbs. Big bass weighed 5.2 lbs and was caught on blue fleck power worm. Only 2 fish weighed in were caught on top water all others on some type of plactic. Plastics that produced were power worms, brush hogs. Reports of a shallow water bite.
It was a nice evening with a great full moon. would have thought we would have done better. Be careful running as the lake is real low.

[xjcraver]

Thanks Todd, I appreciate the info.!!

[illinifish]

Joe,
Are you fishing the Focus classic or another T ?

[xjcraver]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by illinifish &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Joe,
Are you fishing the Focus classic or another T ? </TD></TR></TABLE>

USA Bassin', and we're fishing out of Sailboat. How many boats are they expecting at the Focus Tx??

It's gonna be HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Supposed to be 100* both days this weekend...

-J

[xjcraver]

11 Aug 2007

Water: Clear, 78* - 86*
Wind: Variable, from 5 - 10 mph
Weather: Bluebird skies, VERY hot.

We sucked, again. We did catch fish all day, but they were all 13". Only weighed in one fish, and it barely went 1 pound. We caught all our fish in less than 10' of water, mostly on jigs and chatterbaits. Tried some C-rigging and deep-water jigging, but couldn't get bit.

Caught 6 or 7 in Jackie branch on a frog first thing, but they were all short. I've never seen so many little fish go after a frog like they did.

-J

[ChadASX]

Anyone been on Rend recently and know what the water levels and temps are and how muddy the lake is? I'm assuming with all the rain we've had this spring its way up. The first BFL is coming up pretty quick there and its about time to start thinking about it.

[LarryP]

Crossed it yesterday.........DANG HIGH is the only way to describe it.
Oh and Muddy to.