Lake Profile

Predators create an attraction at the Rice Lake complex, with both northern pike and alligator gars swimming – and eating – in the collection of lakes and backwaters near the Illinois River in Fulton County.<br

What is typically is a month of furious crappie and bass fishing for southern Illinois’s largest lake got off to a slow start due to early April rains.
Rend Lake officially crested at 413.67,

The former cooling lake located between Illinois Route 47 and Interstate 55 on Lorenzo/Pine Bluff Road certainly has more than muskies to attract anglers, as largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, crappies, walleyes, and hybrid striped bass

It’s rarely among the small group of Illinois lakes boasting about its big flathead catfish, but Lake Murphysboro may soon enjoy a day when catfishermen around the state say, “Let’s try to find a monster

Reigniting Dutchman Lake’s channel catfish has been a goal of the Illinois DNR, as the agency stocked 1,500 of the fish in 2023. That stocking featured channel cats in the 4- to 7-inch range, providing

A fish kill in 2024 at Ramsey Lake appears to have had the most effect on bluegill and redear sunfish populations, according to DNR’s most recent survey of the lake.
But channel catfish and

DNR’s reports on the Chain do not typically specify individual lakes, but Pistakee’s varied depths and populations of walleyes, white bass, and channel catfish attracts many. Although the lake’s average depth is only six feet,

A 17.5-inch, 3.7-pound white crappie was brought to an Illinois DNR fisheries biologist for weighing and identifying. That followed a 16.5-inch, 3-pound black crappie being caught a few years ago, raising eyebrows and confirming what

The push to boost catfish and redear sunfish populations in the collection of lakes that make up the Mautino State Fish and Wildlife Area continued this year, with Illinois DNR stocking 450 channel cats and