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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026

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Ralph Loos: Be it a fox, a rabbit, a fish or a bird, tracking for research makes for ‘a good day’

Ralph Loos says sampling of fish and studying wildlife is fascinating, which is why Outdoor News reports on studies up and down Illinois. (Photo by Chris Park, Flickr)

Two of the most enjoyable days of my career involved topics covered in a pair of stories that appear in this issue of Illinois Outdoor News.
The article about the beginning of the “fish sampling” season in Illinois reminded me of the time almost 30 years ago when I joined now-retired DNR fisheries biologist and Fisheries Chief Dan Stephenson to sample Lake Springfield. As a kid who grew up threading worms and grasshoppers on hooks to fish small farm ponds in southern Illinois, my imagination always provided an image of a fish the size of a mule flopping at my feet.

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