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Rainbow trout stocking creates an angler tradition in Illinois

Rainbows are stocked by the Illinois DNR in selected lakes, ponds and streams twice a year, creating brief windows when anglers can pursue the cold-water fish. (Stock photo)

You could legitimately question what Illinois fisheries biologists were thinking decades ago when they decided to introduce rainbow trout to a state where cold-water streams are barely more common than mountain ranges.
Still, somehow the idea stuck. So for a few weeks each spring and fall, Illinois anglers get a chance to catch a fish that is almost impossible to find outside of Lake Michigan.

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