The lake @ the cabin we stayed @ is pretty gunky. But, there are much better lakes to the south, esp. “Pounds Hollow”, which has a nice little beach and good water.
As it turned out, we spent most of our time skee-daddling from heavy t’storms. But, they did bring in noticeable relief!
More on the adventures later. We had stuff get blown around, etc., here at home, and I’m trying to take care of the worst of it B4 peak heating this afternoon... the 20 oz. of my Gatorade-lemonade mix I just downed should keep me ok for a bit longer... :-)
Arrgghh! I just found my 1st tomato hornworm caterpillar of 2025, on probably my strongest tomato plant — a Cherry Falls plant. I’ll have to go out with the big UV flashlight tonight.
The particular larvae is right at 2” long. I’m surprised there’s not more damage, but, this is a pretty vigorous plant. It may have been re-growing “plant” faster than it was being eaten... until now.
First I’ll give a bit of a lake(s) report from our camping trip:
On the way to Dolan Lake in IL, we first stopped by the Omaha, IL, City Reservoir, and the Omaha Township Reservoir. The Omaha City Reservoir (22 acres) looks quite promising, with plenty of good bank access on the west side of the lake, a small boat ramp, a small fishing “peninsula”(?) juts out into the lake, and there are shade trees scattered about in a sort of park like setting. Aquatic weed problems appeared minimal and the water looked good (clean). We did not try fishing here, but, the “Lake Profile” indicates potentially good fishing for bluegill and channel catfish:
Omaha City Lake Profile: https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=04856
Almost “next door” is the the Omaha Township Reservoir. We made the hop to it, and discovered essentially no bank access, unless one wants to do some serious work with a machete or heavy duty weed whacker. There is however a quite usable boat ramp, so, with a boat, canoe, or raft, one could fish the lake nicely. The Lake Profile indicates good fishing for bass, very good for bluegill (tho’ they may run a bit small), and excellent fishing for channel catfish:
Omaha Township Lake Profile: https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=52900
Next on the way to Dolan Lake was the Norris City Lake. This 28 acre lake has lots of bank access with large rip rap consisting mainly of chunks of concrete, other pieces of roadway, etc., right at the waters edge, but, it doesn’t generally force one to stand or sit on sharp rocks (tho’ one can in some areas, if desired!) Much of the shoreline looks like channel catfish heaven, with lots of shelter / habitat for juvenile catfish. Aquatic weed problems again appeared minimal and the water looked good (clean). Along the East side of the lake are a few strategically placed picnic tables. We returned to this lake on the way out of the area, but, I’d only fished for a few minutes before a heavy thunderstorm chased us away. :-(
Driving out, the lightning was pretty amazing, though!
The fishing profile looks good, and a local angler I spoke to confirmed that.
Norris City Lake Profile: https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=00498
We drove over to McCleansboro City Lake late Friday afternoon. This is a larger lake @ 75 acres, and is quite nice, with a playground, restroom, and several benches and picnic tables, again in a park-like setting. There is lots of great bank access that is mostly well kept (mowed) along the public part of the shoreline. I did not notice any aquatic weed problems. This lake even has a concrete reinforced dam face. There is a boat ramp, a fishing dock, a fishing “peninsula, a restroom, and some trees for shade. I fished briefly - just long enough to discover several water turtles / aka shelled bait thieves: Turtles can be quite a bit of a problem if you are using live or cut bait. We saw 3 quite friendly ducks who went back across the lake to a private residence when, you guessed it, after maybe 15 minutes of fishing, a storm came up. So, my attempt to fish was cut short by said storm, but a local angler who was there and fishes the area lakes often said the bass and channel catfish fishing in is quite good, bluegill ok, and the crappie are overpopulated and stunted. Once again, aquatic weed problems appeared minimal and the water looked good (clean) — not pristine, but, pretty decent.
The largemouth bass fishing profile looks good, and the channel catfish fishing profile looks very good, but panfish are evidently only “fair” due to overpopulation, particularly of the crappie. Apparently there are even a few flathead catfish, though breeding habitat for catfish looks mostly absent.
McCleansboro City Lake Profile: https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=04810
Dolan Lake: Well, the water near the campground @ Dolan was still weedy and “yucky”. Fishing was “fair”, but every time I tried, I got interrupted after a while by another thunderstorm! The waters by the dam area and esp. the bank just northwest of the dam look better, but both times I’d planned to drive back over there to fish, I got squelched by another t-storm / rain.
Dolan Lake Profile: https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=00238