Lake Profile

Regular anglers at Evergreen Lake are convinced the central Illinois body of water holds a new state record saugeye. The fact that the standing state record of 9.68 pounds was set in Evergreen 24 years

Crappies and muskies continue to boom at one of the state’s most scenic and productive lakes.
A 50-inch muskie hooked by an angler last May at Kinkaid Lake topped the list of fish on

Balancing and “beefing” – that’s DNR’s challenge when managing the Braidwood Lake fishery.
Catfish are still king, for the most part. And DNR continued its efforts last year, choosing to stock 23,000 blue catfish

Another 1,020 largemouth bass were stocked in Washington County Lake this summer, continuing the effort to make the “cozy” 250-acre body of water an attractive stopover fishing spot for anglers who explore larger southern Illinois

The effort to thin out Mill Creek Lake’s bass population in order to boost size structure in the species appears to be working – even if gradually so.
There have been no recent sampling

The effort to boost Du Quoin City Lake’s largemouth bass population continues, with a new regulation put in place last spring and 115 bass in the 8- to 10-inch range stocked during the 2024 stocking

Put aside all other fish data gathered by the Illinois DNR and consider the agency’s ongoing effort to monitor growth rates for muskies in Lake McMaster.
Muskies have been tagged in the Knox County

Two hybrid crappies and eight black crappies were collected by Illinois DNR in its 2024 fall survey of Citizens Lake. Meanwhile, the agency stocked 500 hybrids from the Banner Marsh Rearing Ponds in late October.<br

The fish in Wolf Lake that got the most attention this winter was not one of the northern pike, walleyes or largemouth bass ice anglers flock to the awkwardly-presented Cook County lake to (hopefully) catch.<br