July 13th

Went out to check out the condition of some rearing ponds in the morning and see one in the process of being built. Most of the ponds contained Black nosed crappies, and some very large ones going over 3lbs at that.




Random shot of a flower I took.


The rearing pond being constructed. We are hoping it to be in operation by next spring.


This will be the site the water is run through when the young fish are collected to be stocked into Clinton Lake.


There is quite a bit that goes into building these structures. There is actually a heavy equipment crew that is a part of the DNR that does projects like this.


Around noon we shot over to the lake to watch the power company stock 18,400 hybrid striped bass into the lake. They are good about stocking fish into the lake to replace the fish that are killed when they shut the plant down every other year to do maintenance work.




These fish will be going 14-16″ in a couple years because the growth rates are pretty good in the lake for fish because of the enormous baitfish population composed mainly of gizzard shad. Also the warmer water temperatures due warm water inflow have a small effect as well.



July 14th
Today was the musky rescue out at the Evergreen Lake spillway. Unfortunately when we arrived there was not much a rescue to be done because the musky had all died due to hypoxic conditions. The biomass was so great beneath the spillway because thousands of asian carp made there way to the reservoir right below the spillway. There was originally a fence set up below a little ways to keep the gamefish from escaping to the Mackinaw, but due to severe floods, it was blown over this spring and many musky escaped into the Mackinaw, but unfortunately, asian carp were able to migrate the opposite way toward the lake.
The biggest fish was going just below 48″


We still did attempt an electrofishing run to see if there were any live musky left but there was still nothing alive other than asian carp, and some other random fish including buffalo, gar, and a few panfish.


I just ended up getting pelted with asian carp.




Asian carp shot bowfishing by one of the park directors while we were electrofishing.


They all sat toward the surface after our electrofishing runs.


The following week we went up to the Chicago area and did sampling for asian carp at three sites in three days. The first day was on the I&M Canal in the area below the electric barrier where the first rotenone job was done last December. Nothing was found there, literally except some shad, native species and some stocked largemouth.

Next up was a site on the Des Plaines river off of Big Basin Marina by Joliet. There were more fish here and it was a bit more interesting, but at the end of the day, still no Asian carp spotted, at least electrofishing.
Some of the random fish we got.
Young of the year spotted bass.


Giant grass carp probably going at least 30lbs




Duck blinds in some of the backwater areas.




Really cool looking male orange-spotted sunfish


Wild goldfish


However the commercial fisherman did locate some


The following day we went to a site on the Illinois River by Morris. The first couple stations we did runs at were clean and plenty of gamefish found, including some nice smallmouth and crappie. The third run we ran into a pod of asian carp and I did manage to net one of them. The fourth run, all hell broke loose, as we ran into thousands of them in a little sandpit/backwater area where there were all sorts of phytoplankton blooms. Didn’t pictures of all the asian carp we netted up because my camera was buried underneath the bow because our boat was literally filled and really sagging into the water because we had so many fish. I was completely worn out after that run after repeatedly netting up 15lb fish.

That is all for now. This week is going to be main branch stream basin surveys on the Iroquois.

I have been keeping busy lately and not been able to update my blog. Have not even done much fishing lately I have been keeping so busy.
Went out hybrid fishing on Lake Bloomington last month, it was a great time chasing around the shad blowups around the lake.






Underwater picture of my first bass on my new Tour KVD/Avid combo.


Solid 17-18″ish fish.


18.5″ bass caught night fishing early this month, forgot bumpboard and tournament patch, whoops.


Went back home and managed to get in like an hour of fishing, managed this nice one.


Not much of a story behind any of these fish. Frank came down for the weekend on Saturday and we didn’t do any fishing until Sunday. I managed this 15″ fish and then lost a 19″ fish on a jump and thrown hook.


Been doing a variety of stuff for the internship. We have done vegetation surveys at Sunset Lake in Mahomet and electroshocking at various locations. Tilton City lake was cool, great bass population there, biggest was a 6lber and we also shocked up a large bowfin, but I forgot the camera that day unfortunately. We have also done some stocking as well, putting in 115,000 sauger into Lake Shelbyville.

Gathering the fish at the rearing pond


Some went over the top of this wheel into our dipnets which is where I was stationed during the procedure.


Hatchery truck


Baby snapping turtle that found his way to my dip net.


Dumping the fish in.






Afterwards, we went and fished out a rearing pond that contained 16 adult smallmouth that reproduced in the pond. We fished them out so that wouldn’t go cannibalistic on their young.
Biologist Mike Mounce with the biggest one going 20″ and 4.5lbs


I got the second biggest one going 18.5″ and a bit over 3lbs

It was incredibly easy and fun, I was going my work burning spinnerbaits and watching them come up and hit them.

We also placed biomarkers in the fish for future identification of the fish if they happen to be recaptured, then they were placed back into the Kaskaskia River.


Two weeks ago we shocked some ponds in Bloomington Normal and that was exciting to see what was in the ponds that I fish. First we did White Oak and I was eager to prove my point that the place is a dump, and the electroshocking survey did confirm my belief. We did shock up a Yellow Perch, which were shocked in there at one time, but haven’t done well because they require good vegetation and there is a lack of it in this pond. The bass population also sucks in there too, which is what I had concluded a while ago. Next we did the Miller Park Zoo pond which I always thought had potential and have heard good things about, but just haven’t gotten around to trying too much. We did shock up quite a few nice bass going around 2-4lbs, and I missed netting one going at least 6. I did manage to net up a flathead going nearly 20lbs and some large carp going over 10lbs. We also shocked up a release pet, an African cichlid.

Last week we started stream basin surveys on the Mackinaw River watershed. We managed this guy in the upstream net. He went at least 25lbs.


This is as close as I got to it, I really did not feel like pushing my luck and getting much close to a pissed off snapping turtle.


A much braver person that myself placed it back in its home


And that is a summary of my last month or so. This week will be a busy one, I will try and put up a post on Friday with this weeks adventures that include hybrid striped bass stocking in Clinton Lake tomorrow, Musky rescue below Evergreen Lake on Wednesday, vegetation survey on Dawson Lake on Thursday, and Iroquois Stream Basin survey on Friday, before going up to Chicago on various locations on the Calumet River looking for Asian carp Tuesday through Thursday next week.