Lake Profile

Word is still out on DNR’s recent Fall 2024 survey of Citizens Lake, a small body of water with a big fish population in Warren County.
Last fall’s sampling showed an impressive channel catfish

Few lakes in Illinois can boast of a solid and settled bluegill population, but tiny Bunker Hill Lake earns such recognition.
DNR’s 2023 survey of the 11-acre lake shows good size structure, with 19%

A 4½-pound crappie or an 8½-pound bass?
Given the choice of which fish they could catch, anglers would likely hem and haw, dance and dodge, and then dilly-dally before answering with an indecisive, “both?”<br

Lake Springfield’s catfish continue to attract anglers, aided by the fact there are three species – channel catfish, flathead catfish, and blue catfish – doing quite well in a body of water that sits just

It was only a matter of time before an 8-pound bass showed up at a tournament weigh-in at Newton Lake.
Three years ago, DNR’s annual report on the Jasper County water included a note

DNR’s efforts to improve the size of largemouth bass in Lake Sara have apparently paid off – biologists sampling the lake last year found bigger bass in good condition.
More telling, tournament weigh-ins on

It’s been described as “remote” and “difficult to access.”
Illinois DNR only occasionally samples the body of water bulging out of the Des Plaines River not coincidentally called Des Plaines Lake. If you can

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.