Lake Profile

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.

The 6-pound bass has reappeared at Glenn Shoals Lake.
Those who didn’t know such a fish ever existed – or those who never realize it had disappeared – may not take note. So let’s

A pair of fishermen wandering about in the wetlands just outside of Banner were among witnesses to a rare site almost four years ago.
In April 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was taking

DNR points out in its most recent report on Wolf Lake that “electrofishing is not a standard method to evaluate northern pike populations.”
But from an angler’s perspective, that line of the report should