Lake Profile

The exciting thing about fishing the tranquil Beaver Dam Lake in wintertime is the possibility of hooking one of the rainbow trout that were stocked for the fall season.
But don’t call them “leftovers.”

Never have fishermen been as curious about a DNR lake sampling as the fishermen in Stephenson County who once frequented Lake Le-Aqua-Na.

Largemouth bass and sunfish were the start of DNR’s 2022 sampling of Dutchman Lake, as bluegills and channel catfish appear to continue struggling in the fishing spot in deep southern Illinois.
Largemouth bass abundance

DNR’s fall sampling of Carlyle Lake provided catfishermen a trio of reasons to be pumped about future excursions to the 24,580-acre lake.

A largemouth bass that weighed a tad under 8 pounds was pulled out of Lake Sara in 2022, basically backing DNR’s strategy in 2017 to implement a protected slot limit on bass.
The 8-pounder,

“This size structure provides quality bass fishing in a relatively small area, but because it is connected to the Des Plaines River fish may not remain as residents long enough to grow really big,” DNR

During it’s most recent spring netting survey of Evergreen, DNR collected five saugeyes per net-night. The 15-survey average is 5½ saugeyes per net-night.

Bass are never a preferred food item. Muskie predation on large adult gizzard shad is highly desirable on Mill Creek Lake to thin this size group, with white suckers a potential valuable diet item to

Illinois DNR’s report on bass tournaments held on Devils Kitchen Lake in 2022 revealed some encouraging signs for anglers who had grown accustomed to a magical fish.
The 6-pound bass. In five DNR-sanctioned tournaments