Can anyone recommend a decent fishing guide on Rend Lake, Shelbyville, Crab Orchard, etc? I'd like to take my Dad & Son fishing while the 3 of us are still together. Species isn't important....just would like to catch some fish and have fun. My Dad isn't much for roughing it these days so camping is out of the question. I'd have to find a simple place to stay. Package deals would be great. Any past experiences from others would be greatly appreciated.

Gill if you go to their respective web sites most advertise lake manuels, you can order them with a credit card. I don't know much about those locations but Carlyle Lake has motels at the south end of the lake and the Corp of Engineers has small cottages for rent located right on the lake. Just search Carlyle Lake and you will get tons of info., I am sure the rest of the areas have similar site's.

One of the sponsors of this website is a guide on Rend Lake(extreme crappie). You might check his website or pm him for some info.

The best info I've seen is with the fishing maps from HotSpots. Here is the link for Rend Lake's map with links on this page for other lakes. http://www.fishingmap.com/fishing-hot-spots/L186.html You can also find these maps in bait shops and the fishing sections of stores like Wal-Mart.

The map is water resistant and has information on what places are best for each kind of fishing. Carlyle Lake has billboards with numbers around the lake. Those numbers correspond to points on Carlyle's map.

You can also get a link for recent fishing conditions on each lake's website.