Locals Only Fishing

Anyone can book a flight to a major fishing destination, lodge at an all-inclusive resort, or hire a guide to put them on fish. We all tend to be more interested in showcasing these types of trips and experiences rather than share information about local adventures that are more practical and convenient. In the process, we often forget that great fishing is sometimes located not far away.

Wherever in the Midwest you live, and probably someplace nearby, big fish live close by. I’ve found a lot of local opportunity close by to where I live, in Lake County, Illinois.

Whether or not you live near known fisheries, you might be surprised by what some nearby waters contain. Not every water can contain unicorns and giants, but you’ll be surprised by what lurks in your local subdivision ponds, pits and drainages, and even in the little ditches along the highway.

Monster fish sometimes come from places you drive past frequently. You would never know of their existence or the potential of these local fisheries until you try.

Nowadays, I don’t get to fish my local northern IL waters as frequently or as hard as I used to. In between my Northwoods commutes and other travels, I still find that local fishing opportunities can be as productive and worthwhile as a fishing vacation several hundred miles away. No flights, hotels, or long drives are needed.

If unable to travel far due to time or financial limitations, you can always fish local. Catch bass, pike, muskies, walleyes, and other species without ever having to travel. Here’s what I catch locally to me, anyways.

Monster fish sometimes come from places you drive past frequently, and around here in urban settings. You would never know of their existence or the potential of these local fisheries until you try.

Largemouth Bass

No other sport fish is found in abundance and availability like the largemouth bass is. The small lakes and ponds dotting the landscapes throughout Southern Wisconsin, Northern and Central Illinois, and on the outskirts of the Chicagoland area continue to be chalk-full of them. Most up-and-comer bass anglers from this region continue to cut their teeth at them.

My home office in Lake Zurich, IL, overlooks a 3-acre private pond down in the backyard. Shortly after buying our home in 2020, the pond quickly revealed herself, giving up 6- and 7-pound largemouths within a month after move-in. Incredibly healthy fish. All of our neighbors remain in disbelief. Some of them had lived here several years before us, never knowing what kinds of big fish resided in there.

I’ve caught trophy largemouths in Wisconsin and Florida, and the ones residing in local ponds nearby me in Northern Illinois rival those specimens. Nowadays, I think twice about traveling far if it’s for largemouths.

Early spring, from ice-out through June month is my absolute favorite time.

Most of these fish are getting caught with lipless crankbaits early in the year. Then in summer I turn to swim jigs, jig & creatures, topwaters, and surface frogs. Although the average pond doesn’t see very many anglers per week, a single angler can educate and condition several fish quickly if not selective of peak fishing times. Don’t over-do it. Find a rotation of ponds that you can visit to best avoid pressuring.

The best ponds offer submergent and emergent vegetation, moderate visibility, undeveloped shorelines, depths of 8-10 ft or more which is necessary to prevent summer-kills and winter-kills, and a high forage base and corresponding adult population of large bluegills.

Just finding the good ones with healthy largemouth populations, and access to them by landowner permission and lack of signage, are the biggest challenges I face. Whether it’s a farm pond, subdivision pond, or ditch next to the shopping center, be aware of property zoning and boundaries. Many waters are managed and maintained by homeowner associations too, so you could run into an HOA Karen or two. Trespassing or feuding with grumpy neighbors can be the consequences. To get by I rely on the ReGrid and LandGlide Apps.

Ponds and lakes are capable of rearing monster bass. This lunker was captured out in my own backyard!

Smallmouth Bass

During my money-less and boat-less days of youth, rivers and streams were my only realistic and practical options for quality smallmouth fishing. Many of them were local, easy and moderate to access, untapped for the most part, and the gear requirements to effectively fish them didn’t cost much.

The network of rivers and streams extending from the northern half of Illinois into Wisconsin continues to be underutilized and underfished for smallmouths.

Sure, nearby Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes is far more appealing and exciting, but it’s too much danger, hassle, and can turn into expensive trips. On my own time and dime, I find much greater reward in catching and releasing local 18-inch river trophies from the river systems of northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin.

The typical adult river specimen runs 12 to 16 inches. Some pools can rear better size structures and much larger fish. We’ve caught fish pushing 20 inches from these systems. Few serious bass anglers will ever realize the potential of these fisheries and the quality smallmouths they can hold.

Whether your objective is fishing by foot (wading and bank fishing), or fishing by small watercraft if navigable (kayak, canoe or jon boat), there is no shortage of accessibility or fishing style. Each form of fishing can be done successfully and rather inexpensively, year-round.

Several baits excel in catching stream smallmouth. I like to carry a few baits that resemble their natural prey such as crayfish and minnow species that are natural to the stream that could include madtoms, sculpin, darters, chubs, shiners and suckers. Bring a combination of baits you can fish along bottom, and a selection you can fish above surface and near surface. All it takes is a couple of small Plano stowaways stuffed in a small fanny pack buckled around your waist, chest pack, backpack, or a satchel around your shoulders.

The best river locations tend to be sites you’ve likely driven over hundreds or thousands of times, or passed by along roadsides. Unless your earliest angling memories involve wading or shore fishing them from public access sites, parks, and dams, you might not have ever considered these little gems to be worthy of your time.

Peak seasons for me are always in spring (April and May), and early fall (September and October).

I give a lot of thanks and praise to organizations like The Conservation Foundation and Illinois Smallmouth Alliance for helping take care of our rivers and their fisheries. If it weren’t for their projects and efforts, we wouldn’t have as many smallmouths swimming locally.

The network of rivers and streams extending from the northern half of Illinois into Wisconsin continues to be underutilized and underfished for smallmouths. This 19-incher was caught from a SE Wisconsin river in November, 2022.

Walleyes

Countless destination waters have well-known reputations for producing big walleyes. Still, a good majority of the biggest fish ever documented from my region have come from stocked lakes loaded with shad (Busse, Tampier, Heidecke, Wolf, Fox Chain), strip mine lakes, and river systems containing both shad and fishable populations of migrant fishes.

Wading partners and I have caught the biggest walleyes of our lives from the Northern Illinois river systems.

These last two decades, walleyes have been my favorite local species to pursue. They are mysteriously fun. Due to low population density, finding them with any regularity and success is far more challenging than any other local species. The reason you’re not hearing much about them isn’t because they don’t exist or post about them, but because nobody is fishing the small fishable populations we do have.

Walleyes in our lakes and reservoirs do not spawn successfully, so the IDNR and region’s FPD’s continue to stock fingerling walleyes on an annual basis. These efforts just barely sustain their populations. On rivers however, fish do go through the spawning motions even though dams, heavy siltation, and turbidity limits egg survival. However, the few stocked fish that survive into adulthood have a realistic shot of achieving lunker status.

River wade fishing partner, Dan Sims, captured this 28-inch, 8 pounder from a local river system on a night trip – November, 2010.

8 to 10 pounders are realistic around here from lakes. 6 to 8 pounders are about top-end on the rivers. And 15 pounders, like the state record from the Pecatonica River in Northwest Illinois can happen as well.

For the biggest local walleyes, I rely on river fisheries. I feel these fisheries peaked 10 to 15 years ago, but they’re still worthy of our time.

The Illinois, Rock, Fox, Kankakee, and DesPlaines systems give anglers the best shot at a trophy. Since my high school days, I’ve spent an insane amount of time patterning and targeting walleyes from some of these local flows. Peak seasons revolve around spawning and feeding migrations coinciding with optimal current flow and water temperatures.

My big fish windows repeat themselves each year, from late February through April, and October through November. The spring and fall migrations create higher concentrations of schooling walleyes.

In spring, fish migrate upstream to dams and tributaries where they will spawn extremely shallow on gravel bars with current, under darkness. During daytime, they recover and feed in eddies and deeper pools with rock and wood cover. In fall, fish can migrate upstream into tailraces or downstream to deeper holes where all fishing is related to holes and current breaks.

No need to wade through the entire river. Hole hop near-shore instead. You will locate everything to fish during the daytime, anyways. Evening and nighttime fishing has always fared best. Nighttime fishing has safety risks and a high level of danger involved, but to really tap into trophies with consistency odds are greatly in your favor at night.

The few guys you might see fishing them work jig and plastics, and live bait rigs. Spring and fall, all of my monster walleyes get taken casting with swimbaits, crankbaits and 4 to 6 inch minnowbaits.

It’ll be a signature head-shaking strike.

Wading partners and I have caught the biggest walleyes of our lives from the Northern Illinois river systems. The author holds his personal-best fish, a 28-incher – April, 2018.

Northern Pike

Although most avid anglers choose to spend hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars to travel to the best pike fishing destinations in throughout Canada and Europe, there are other good alternatives for fishing success. If you happen to be a resident of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, you are in luck.

A number of smaller lakes and river systems meander their way through this region. Longer growing seasons at these highly fertile fisheries, with very successful spawning and forage abundances, have helped create excellent year-round pike fishing opportunities for larger caliber fish.

Some personal favorites are the local river systems and their tributaries. These fisheries contain some of the finest pike fishing this entire region has to offer, for numbers and trophy potential.

Much of the high population density is comprised of small snakes to mature 20 to 30-inch fish that keep everyone interested. Understanding that there is always a good chance for a serious gator approaching the 40-inch mark often brings anglers back to the river for another try.

Aidan Kay specializes in wade fishing for river monsters. This 40-inch-plus northern pike was caught and released from a deep pool of a small river. Follow Aidan on Instagram @midwest_esox

This past November (2022), a 42 to 44 incher from this region was captured by local angler, Aidan Kay (Instagram: midwest_esox). “I caught this fish working a 4-inch Phantom Softail glider through a deep pool of a small river. Got to watch her follow up and eat right in front of me. A couple quick pictures and she was off to grow even bigger,” he shared.

Pike fishing is a year-round pursuit around here, but cooler weather leads to better bites and the biggest fish. Small pike can tolerate warm weather and hot water. Large pike cannot. Late February through May, and November are peak times. Pay attention to other windows including moon phase, weather changes, and low-light conditions.  

Work the backwaters, ditches, and heavily vegetated areas from spawn through spring. In fall, find the deeper channels and wood cover, and holes. Wade fishing and kayaking gets you to the best locations.

Healthy populations of suckers, minnow species, and shad keeps their fisheries well fed.

A lot of the biggest fish get caught with muskie gear that includes swimbaits, 4 to 6-inch glide baits, bucktails, topwaters, crankbaits, and jerkbaits. Handle the big fish with care to minimize injury and stress, and always carry release tools and hook cutters.

Besides the river systems, the Lake Michigan harbors from Chicago to Milwaukee grow monsters. This is a new-to-me local venue I have begun exploring.

Northern Pike are found in a number of smaller lakes and ponds. In this region, the growing season is year-round. Pictured is the author’s friend and guide customer, Jason Norris, of Niles IL with a 40-inch fish from a SE Wisconsin small lake.

Muskies

Muskie fishing used to be a sport that mainly required a boat, and extensive and expensive travels for a quality experience to far away destinations. Muskie fishing is more accessible now than ever before.

Muskies locally around Chicagoland are now a thing!

Thanks to new fisheries being created throughout the Midwest, few would argue that we don’t have better muskie fishing than at any time in history. It’s rewarding catching them locally within 5 minutes out the door.

These fisheries are comprised of clean rivers, impaired streams, ponds, man-made pits, public lakes, and private waters. Some of these fisheries are intensely managed and have been maintained by public and private stocking for several years, while others currently don’t receive any support.

Locally, Shabbona Lake and the Fox Chain have always been the headliners, and receive the most pressure. In recent years, muskie fever has led to the introduction of several new fisheries and increased stocking programs, most notably at the Cook and DuPage County Forest Preserve districts where every year a few hundred extended-growth fingerlings are stocked on an alternate-year basis.

In recent years, muskie fever has led to the introduction of several new fisheries and increased stocking programs, most notably at Forest Preserve fisheries. When given the chance to grow, and not killed, a handful of these regional fisheries can grow large fish. Jason Norris with a 42-incher.

When given the chance to grow, and not killed, a handful of these regional fisheries have now produced 50 inchers.

Besides the local lakes, the local rivers and streams are home to migratory muskies. Through stocking efforts and extensive migrations from our region’s network of inter-connected streams, muskies have made their way into local rivers that includes the Fox, Rock, DesPlaines and their tributaries. They are fishable populations, but a rat-race to catch due to frequent migrations. With muskies taking up residence in many of our river holes, it’s hard for many anglers to believe they thrive in such underrated fisheries within a major metropolitan region.

River muskies continue to receive the least pressure and angler exploitation, and are the easiest in which to encounter muskies throughout their range. High populations of shad, carp, and suckers feed these fisheries.

Most of our river fish are scrappy, in the 30 to 40 inch range. The colder weather months produce the best fishing with glide baits, crankbaits, pull baits, and swimbaits.

With natural reproduction nonexistent for muskies in Illinois due to high siltation and poor habitat, stocking assistance is required to maintain these populations to fishable levels. ALL muskie streams are exceptionally fragile fisheries and must be treated by pursuing anglers with care and 100% catch and release intentions. These delicate fish are not meant for overhandling, vertically hanging on digital scales, or pursuit in hot summertime water temps.

Grab a Rod and Go

Fishing is accessible to all, is limitless, and non-discriminatory. Wherever you live, localized quality fishing with trophy potential exists in every which direction. Get there with vehicle, by bike, or on foot. Identify some prospects, regardless of how unsuspecting they all appear on map or in person. You never know what they’re all capable of until you try!

There’s a big fish swimming in that subdivision pond down the block, in that river you drive over every day, in that forest preserve lake, and in that ditch along the expressway.

Great fishing can be located not far away.

Andrew Ragas splits time between the Chicago area and Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Based in Minocqua, WI, he specializes in trophy bass fishing and offers guided trips from May thru October. While big bass is the passion, he dabbles in multi-species as well. He may be visited online at www.northwoodsbass.com