Return to southern Illinois: toothy gar, massive carp, and awesome micros

Last weekend I met up with some species fishing fanatics for a whirlwind tour of Illinois. Miciah and Bryce run the websites microfishing.com and speciesfishing.com, and Ken has the fishing blog muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.com. Keep an eye out for reports on their respective sites. Ken and I started in Chicago, driving south to the Kankakee River (Illinois River drainage) and tributaries of the Vermilion River (Wabash River drainage). We caught a lot of nice micros, racking up quite a new lifer count for Ken. The next day we drove down to Carlyle to fish below the dam with Miciah and Bryce. The water was high, but we were able to continue the species count by catching smaller fish near shore among the rocks. After Carlyle we drove further south to Rend Lake to fish below its dam. The gar there were spectacular. Finally, we drove back to some of the spots I fished earlier in the spring, a nice clear stream full of micros and Horseshoe Lake in Alexander County. With the water warmed up, the spillway was full of hungry fish. Finally, on the drive back to Chicago Ken and I hit up a few spots to take notes for future trips.

Carmine Shiner (Notropis percobromus)


Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)

Central Greenside Darter (Etheostoma blennioides pholidotum)


Stonecat (Noturus flavus) - netted, not hook & line


Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) - two hooks means you can catch two fish at once!


Shortnose Gar (Lepisosteus platostomus)


Shortnose Gar (Lepisosteus platostomus) - new personal best 33.5 inches


Orangethroat Darter (Etheostoma spectabile)

Ozark Logperch (Percina fulvitaenia) - new hook & line species #102




Bleeding Shiner (Luxilus zonatus) - the Fishes of Illinois does not have record of this species!




Bluntnose Minnow (Pimephales notatus)


Striped Fantail Darter (Etheostoma flabellare lineolatum) - new hook & line species #103




Slender Madtom (Noturus exilis) - new hook & line species #104




Pirate Perch (Aphredoderus sayanus) - netted, not hook & line


Weirdo micro fishermen looking for orangespotted sunfish and western mosquitofish


Shortnose Gar (Lepisosteus platostomus) - caught with the famous Lambo lure




Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus)




Bowfin (Amia calva) - Miciah and I caught these back to back


Bighead Carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) - new hook & line species #105