The Illinois Muskie Tournament Trail closed its 2025 season with a State Championship Tournament on Kinkaid Lake earlier this month, following up on its annual Fall Classic held in mid-October on Prairie Lake.
Illinois Muskie Tournament Trail wraps season with State Championship at Kinkaid Lake Read More »
Now and then we stumble upon something that makes us recall something else that reminds us of another thing that brings to mind Brent Manning, the former Illinois DNR director who passed away last year.
This time, it was a social media post about the 2025 “Director’s Hunt.”
Coyotes are expertly adapting to areas where humans live and recreate, leading researchers in Chicago to offer what not many years ago would’ve been surprising advice.
Get used to it. Focused on 54 coyotes – 44 males and 10 females – the Urban Coyote Research Project tracked predators for an average of 221 days in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.
Chicago study shows coyotes prefer golf courses – just like humans Read More »
Diving ducks finally showed up, but mallards remain somewhat shy. That’s basically how Josh Osborn summed up his recent waterfowl aerial census report on the Illinois River.
The stretch drive of the Illinois duck hunting season is in full swing, with the North Zone set to close Dec. 16 and the Central Zone shutting down Dec. 23. South Central Zone hunters will be in blinds until Jan. 13, while South Zone hunters can shoot until Jan. 27.
Patience pays off for Illinois hunters as overdue ducks answer the call Read More »
November and December tends to put many Illinois fishermen on the sidelines, especially those who dedicate time to hunting or find it tough to fish cold water on cold days.
Crappie anglers who frequent Lake of Egypt are a different bunch.
Lake of Egypt’s hungry crappies serve fall anglers in southern Illinois Read More »
For 16 or 17 years in a row, I’ve gotten the same phone call from 16 or 17 different deer hunters just before the gun season.
“You’re always writing about how good of shape the Illinois deer herd is in, yet I haven’t seen a deer under my treestand in three years,” is how the call usually goes – give or take a year or two since the last time the hunter on the other end of the line saw a deer under his or her treestand. They’re not exaggerating, this I accept, because there are patches in the state where deer remain scarce.
Ralph Loos: Illinois deer and turkey hunters both facing a numbers problem Read More »
Suggesting a turnaround in the upland game arena in Illinois is being a little overly optimistic, given the decline of cottontail and Bobwhite populations over the past three decades. But Don Kahl, DNR’s Agricultural and Grassland Wildlife Program Manager, did bring sprinkles of good news and dashes of hope to rabbit, quail, and pheasant hunters when he shared the 2025-26 Upland Game Forecast earlier this month.
Uptick in rabbits, quail have Illinois hunters optimistic Read More »
Illinois wildlife managers have shared plans to ditch the fourth waterfowl hunting zone starting next year and return to a three-zone format.
A split season is also in the mix, as is a rearrangement of duck season dates. While DNR credits duck hunters for sharing opinions that led to proposed changes to the 2026-2030 season framework, response from at least one segment of hunters to the changes appears to have the agency backpedaling a bit.
Illinois waterfowl seasons, zone lines face reset, drawing concern from some hunters Read More »
Spring in Springfield was an odd time and place to be for someone who’s both an avid fan of deer hunting and also a proud product of Illinois agriculture.
I speak of efforts by lawmakers to push and pull legislation designed to make it easier for farmers to secure deer removal permits and other tools to protect crops from whitetails.
Ralph Loos: Hunters (and scarecrows) not left out of nuisance deer efforts Read More »
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