Fished Clinton Lake in Clinton, IL. today. It's my home lake, and I don't really fish it too often for bass until lately. I caught 11 fish total, including this 20" 4.5lb'er, as well as a Smallmouth, which aren't caught all too often in that lake. All fish were 14" and up, except one lone 10"er. All fish were released quickly after the photo. I was using one of my own hand painted crankbaits to catch these fish.

It's hard to take a picture by yourself with a cell phone!

Seeing these pictures makes me want to go out and catch me a few.  This Saturday will be the day for me.  Yipeee!

Those are some nice fatties.

*Jealously ensues.

Them sonm nice fish you got there.  Makes for an extra fun day.

Nice fish!  Clinton's only a 20 minute drive from my house.  I won't ask where, precisely, you caught them but was it on the warm water discharge side?  Any particular pattern?  (I always practice catch and release, in case you are hesitant to say).

Nice smallmouth.  Didn't know Clinton had any.

No, it wasn't on the warm side.  It was kind of nice, because the few people that were out on a Thursday seemed to keep toward that side of the lake, which left the rest of it to me!  I started on the cove just across from the marina and caught three in there on a blue shad crankbait (The same one in my picture).  I lost the bait a couple of casts later, something underwater cut my line.  That really made me mad, since I didn't have another one.  I wasn't getting any action on the other two colors I tried in the coves, so I headed to the riprap around the dam and tied up a Crappie colored crankbait, as that was the closest thing to a shad that I had left, and ended up catching the other eight on that lure.  Today I am painting up two more "Clinton Lake Shad" lures, similar to my Crappie pattern, but with more of a shad style to them.

So, I guess it's not much of a secret anymore, but hopefully that will work for you.

No, it wasn't on the warm side. It was kind of nice, because the few people that were out on a Thursday seemed to keep toward that side of the lake, which left the rest of it to me! I started on the cove just across from the marina and caught three in there on a blue shad crankbait (The same one in my picture). I lost the bait a couple of casts later, something underwater cut my line. That really made me mad, since I didn't have another one. I wasn't getting any action on the other two colors I tried in the coves, so I headed to the riprap around the dam and tied up a Crappie colored crankbait, as that was the closest thing to a shad that I had left, and ended up catching the other eight on that lure. Today I am painting up two more "Clinton Lake Shad" lures, similar to my Crappie pattern, but with more of a shad style to them.

So, I guess it's not much of a secret anymore, but hopefully that will work for you.

I'm happy for you.  It'll probably be a few more weeks before my boat and trailer are fully functional so who knows whether the pattern you had will still work.  I remember that last spring I had decent luck with a blue Glass Rap off a main lake point and then again last fall on the windward side between the dam and the the marina.  Blue definitely seems to be the color.