Illinois Walleye Fishing

Illinois is definitely not known for its excellent walleyelake to fish, but there are plenty of walleye in Lake
fishing. Most anglers that live in Illinois will plan theirShabbona. Your best bet is to fish mid-week during
fishing trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada or Lakelow light conditions.
Erie when they want to fill their coolers with walleye.The Fox Chain of Lakes is a popular boating and
There are some places that you can consistentlyfishing destination. The walleye fishing can very good
catch walleye and sauger and if you are within ahere in the spring and fall. Summers can be tough
short drive to these waters, you can catch somebecause the pleasure boaters are all over the lake
nice fish for the dinner table.and they seem to get up earlier and earlier every
When most people think of walleye, they typicallysummer. It is not uncommon to see someone on a
think of fishing lakes and rivers farther to the north,jet ski at 8 in the morning during the summer. There
but in Illinois, it seems like some of the best walleyeare plenty of lakes to fish in this chain and many of
waters are to the south. Some of the lakes in thethem produce healthy populations of keeper-size
southern part of the state that have plenty ofwalleye.
walleye in them are Lake Carlton, Clinton Lake,Another lake up north worth mentioning is Pierce
Kinkaid Lake and Evergreen Lake. Head out to theLake, which is located in the Rockford area. This lake
western Illinois area and you will find Pittsfield Cityis stocked regularly making it a good lake to catch
Lake, which is probably the best walleye lake in thesome walleye.
state for big fish.As far as the rivers go, experienced anglers can
Once you head up north, there are a few lakes tocatch walleye consistently in the Fox river and
focus on to go along with a few rivers. LakeKankakee river, but they don't even compare to the
Shabbona is located a couple of hours west ofwalleye and sauger fishing in the Illinois river. Fishing
Chicago and it is mostly known for its state recordtournaments get going in the early spring and many
muskies. People would talk more about the walleyetournament boats catch their limit on the Illinois river.
fishing if you were allowed to fish after dark on thisThere are lots of fish in the 3 to 5 pound range on
lake. There are plenty of walleye in the lake withthe Illinois river and if you want to get in on the
many trophy-sized fish, but the extremely heavyaction, head out the Starved Rock State Park.
fishing pressure here makes it difficult to land moreFor more information on the lakes listed above to go
than a couple of fish per outing and some anglersalong with some of the other places to fish in Illinois,
that fish out here never catch a walleye. It's a toughtake a look at our Illinois fishing page.