The fall 2023 survey of Du Quoin City Lake turned some heads – specifically the heads of anglers hoping to see an improved catfish population in the southern Illinois water.
Catfish surge noted in Du Quoin City Lake survey from Perry County, Ill. Read More »
Suspicions that black bears are headed our way once again – Illinois has become somewhat of a summertime destination for the wandering species – means I wasn’t really surprised when the following question landed in my inbox on June 20.
Isn’t it now illegal to interact with bears?
While it sounds like a silly email, there actually is a new state law that “prohibits anyone to allow any member of the public to come into direct contact with a bear.”
The clock has been running for 18 months, but groups partnered with Illinois on a project to keep invasive carp out of Lake Michigan say Gov. JB Pritzker isn’t hearing the tick, tick, tick toward a looming deadline.
Illinois must agree to the Project Partnership Agreement with Michigan and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by June 30. The signing date is important because an agreement will allow parties to take advantage of a planned closure in the river at Lockport Lock near Brandon Road and move forward to construction later this year.
A few quick and important lessons for anglers arrived with the newest Illinois state record fish: Persistence pays off, trusting your handheld scale does not — and the metric system continues to create chaos. Michael Farniok will certainly vouch for each.
On June 2, the dedicated Argyle Lake fisherman was tossing a crankbait near the lake’s dam when he hooked something determined to rip the rod right out of his hand. “I thought I had hooked a flathead due to the fight,” Farniok said in retrospect.
New Illinois record saugeye has ‘weighty’ story Read More »
The 6-pound bass has reappeared at Glenn Shoals Lake.
Those who didn’t know such a fish ever existed – or those who never realize it had disappeared – may not take note. So let’s put things in perspective: for local anglers, it’s a big deal.
Mythical 6-pound bass is a reality at Glenn Shoals Lake in Illinois’ Montgomery County Read More »
Illinois has gone ahead and gotten itself into the beauty pageant business, which is what the “I Love My State Park” campaign really sort of is.
According to DNR and the Illinois Conservation Foundation, every dollar donated by me and you to the campaign during the month of June equals one vote. All we have to do is go online, pick our favorite state park, cough up cash and our vote counts. Think of it as a small town pageant. Candidates raise money, asking every neighbor, pew dweller and Dairy Queen loiterer in town for a buck or three. The candidate who raises the most money is crowned queen!
Ralph Loos: Instead of a beauty pageant, solicit votes for Illinois DNR projects Read More »
Efforts to monitor black carp in Illinois rivers continue to strengthen, with a bounty program that pays anglers for catches remaining in place and the species receiving increased emphasis in the federal Invasive Carp Action Plan for 2024.
Also, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has been focused on the fish, publishing a thesis paper in 2023 reporting evidence of frequent upstream movement, as well as regular lock and dam passage by black carp on the Mississippi River.
Black carp movement is evident in Illinois Read More »
As she did with the first five turkeys she shot in her hunting career, Jennifer Cheely grabbed the freshly-harvested Edgar County tom and threw it over her shoulder.
That’s what first made her go “hmmm” on that otherwise typical Illinois April morning.
Following up on that feeling – and on advice from a taxidermist – Cheely soon went hunting through National Wild Turkey Federation records and learned the 28.88-pound bird was the heaviest turkey ever taken by a female hunter in Illinois. That weight also ranks her turkey No. 7 overall in Illinois and 66th in the entire U.S.
Illinois gobbler ranked 7th heaviest in state history, top tom taken by female hunter Read More »
A pair of fishermen wandering about in the wetlands just outside of Banner were among witnesses to a rare site almost four years ago.
In April 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was taking hold and lockdowns were beginning, two whooping cranes were spotted by a handful of people that day. The tall birds – ”whoopers” are the tallest of all cranes – were seen in an area of the Illinois River floodplain between Banner Marsh and Rice Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area.
Sightings, catches part of Rice Lake mystic in Illinois’ Fulton County Read More »
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