I was out with a client on McMaster the day the 51.75"er was caught on a plastic worm. We raised 4 fish in the mid 40" range that day and some smaller fish but no takers. I believe the fish that was caught by the bass anglers was one we raised an hour or so before they caught it. We had raised a very large fish in the same area the fish was caught.
Oh well...maybe next time.

Lake Storey is an electric motor only lake & gives up large fish regularly. I have heard basically the same thing about the locals wanting to keep the lake a secret. After fishing lakes like Shabbona that get more publicity & seeing whats happened there, I can't say as I blame them for wanting to keep quiet.