Illinois’ statewide fishing report on May 8, 2026
Outdoor News
May 8, 2026
Smallmouth bass start spring cycle, crappies improve. Here’s the Illinois fishing report across the state on May 8, 2026.
Illinois
Jeremiah Haas: Lessons from a failed turkey hunt
Jeremiah Haas
May 2, 2026
We all enjoy telling stories about our great successes in the woods or on the water.
Those stories live on for your entire lifetime, and some folks have been known to maybe embellish them
Gretchen Steele: Spring migration a magical time in southern Illinois
Gretchen Steele
May 1, 2026
There’s a moment each spring in southern Illinois when the woods stop belonging to winter and start belonging to wings.
It doesn’t happen all at once. There’s no grand announcement, no clean turning of
Casting in the concrete jungle: Kayak fishing grows in downtown Chicago
Steve Beltran
April 30, 2026
Kayak fishing has exploded across the country over the past decade, but few places offer a more striking backdrop than downtown Chicago.
Where skyscrapers tower above historic bridges and the river’s surface reflects a
Steve Sarley: New ID law in Illinois has negative affect on fishing license sales
Steve Sarley
April 30, 2026
One reason that I love fishing more than any other sport is because fishing is free of entanglements with unions, attorneys, drug scandals and, most annoying of all, politics. Here at Outdoor News, we also
Commentary: Illinois recalibrates its fight against CWD
Gretchen Steele
April 29, 2026
There is a quiet that settles over the deer woods after the season. It is not silence, but a pause many of us trust – a familiar, brief stillness in the rhythm of the land.<br
State-threatened tiny fish reintroduced in Illinois for first time
Tim Bunton
April 29, 2026
The first project of its kind to take place in Illinois – and only the second in the country – placed 71 threatened freshwater fish in a small McHenry County stream.
It’s a huge
Panfish hit by kill, but Ramsey’s catfish and bass thrive in Fayette County, Ill.
Ralph Loos
April 28, 2026
A fish kill in 2024 dampened expectations that Ramsey Lake would soon become a “top tier” fishing lake in Illinois.
Dampened them, maybe – but it didn’t defeat them. Bass and catfish remain strong
Illinois’ Outdoor Calendar
Outdoor News
April 28, 2026
A look at upcoming outdoors-related events from across Illinois published in the May 1, 2026 edition of Outdoor News.
