Shepherd Pond Fishing in Tazewell County, Illinois

• Overview

  The Tazewell County end of Illinois holds Shepherd Pond. This is mixed forest country. It covers about 8 acres, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. It is high ground by Illinois standards. Nearest place of any size is Washington, 3.4 miles away. For a city, Peoria is 8.7 miles off. This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Shepherd Pond

  Depth is not on record here, so the bank has to tell you. Points where the flooded channel swings in are the reliable ones. Levels move with the draw rather than the rain on water like this. Records held for Tazewell County cover common carp, white perch and goldfish. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. At Shepherd Pond the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 75°F, with January the cold end at about 22°F. The middle months are generous; the ends are demanding. Ice-out usually falls in mid March, and the weeks after it fish hardest. Average temperatures cross freezing around mid March in spring and again near late December in autumn. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Anyone fishing Shepherd Pond regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. Recorded parking is 0.9 miles off, far enough to travel light. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Kennel Lake at 0.9 miles is the sensible second choice. Where Shepherd Pond is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.