Illinois changes little by rule over the winter: the stocked trout waters' fall season runs straight through it, licenses run to March 31, and the shelter rule tightens on March 1, after the quarter. Many crappie, bluegill and catfish limits are set lake by lake and posted at the launch, and the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash run on agreements with the neighbors.
What to fish for in early November
Illinois spends its winter on the rivers as much as on the ice. The Mississippi, the Illinois and the Ohio stay open below their dams, the power-plant lakes keep water open and fish feeding near their warm discharges, and the north's lakes and the Chicago harbors freeze when the cold holds. The fall trout season runs straight through the winter.
These notes cover the whole winter, the ice included. In early November, Fox Lake is usually still open water, at about 50F.
Walleye
Stacks up in the current below the locks and dams as the winter wears on, with sauger beside it.
Where. Below the Illinois River dams at Starved Rock, Marseilles, Peoria and Dresden, and below the Mississippi's locks from the Quad Cities down.
The walleye waters we forecast Water Forecast Illinois River at Starved Rock Best Sun, Nov 8, A+Today's forecast Mississippi River at Alton Today's forecast Crappie
Holds tight to deep cover and moves little until the water warms, and on the cooling lakes stays close to the warm water.
Where. Rend Lake, Lake Shelbyville and Carlyle Lake, the backwater lakes of the Illinois, and Clinton and the other power-plant lakes.
The crappie waters we forecast Water Usual water now Forecast Fox Lake about 50F Best Mon, Nov 9, AToday's forecast Lake Shelbyville about 58F Best Sun, Nov 8, A+Today's forecast Rend Lake about 61F Best Tue, Nov 10, A+Today's forecast Bluegill
Feeds under the ice in the north whenever there is ice to fish, in the green weed that survives the winter.
Where. The Fox Chain O'Lakes, Channel Lake and Lake Catherine among them, and the park ponds of the Chicago suburbs.
Yellow Perch
Gathers along the city's harbor walls and in the boat slips and comes day to day, through the ice when the harbors freeze, though harbor ice never deserves trust.
Where. Navy Pier and the Diversey, Montrose, Belmont and Burnham harbors, and the 87th Street slips.
The yellow perch waters we forecast Water Forecast Lake Michigan Best Sun, Nov 8, A+Today's forecast Rainbow Trout
Holds over in the stocked waters through the fall season, which runs all winter, and in a few lakes the fish carry on under the ice.
Where. The ponds and lakes stocked for the fall season, statewide.
Usual water now is that water's normal for this point in the season: a lake's modeled seasonal curve or a river gauge's long-run average, not this year's reading. The forecast link reads this week's.
What changes soon
Nothing on this report's calendar for Illinois in the next six weeks.
This week's fishing reports
This report covers the season. For what was caught this week, read the people who report on this water.
IDNR publishes no fishing report, and Chicago lost its newspaper outdoors column when Dale Bowman retired from the Sun-Times at the end of October 2025. Chicago's harbors are still reported in winter, by Mike Ratter's monthly column in MidWest Outdoors, and Outdoor News's statewide Illinois report runs every two weeks for subscribers. The Fox Chain, the Illinois River and the central and southern lakes had no free reporter last winter.
Where to fish in Illinois, area by area
Each water links to its live forecast. The engine outlook in these areas was generated November 3, 2026, for the 14 days from that date; good hours are the hours at or above a B+.
Chicago and the Lake Michigan shore
Lake Michigan · Navy Pier · Montrose Harbor · Diversey Harbor · Burnham Harbor
Illinois's short run of Lake Michigan, from North Point Marina at the Wisconsin line past Waukegan to the Chicago lakefront and the mouth of the Calumet River: a city shoreline of breakwalls, piers and boat basins with deep water close to the walls, fished from the bank as much as from boats.
Who reports here. Mike Ratter's Lake Michigan Corner in MidWest Outdoors gives Illinois a paragraph every month. Last January it had limits of perch at Navy Pier and in the Diversey, Montrose, Belmont and Burnham harbors; in February, brown trout and steelhead through the harbor ice, which it called risky, and perch coming day to day in the 87th Street slips.
Engine outlook
- Best: Sun, Nov 8, A+10 good hours60F read by satellite from this water's surfacebest run 10h
The Fox Chain O'Lakes
Fox Lake · Channel Lake · Lake Catherine · Pistakee Lake · Grass Lake
A chain of glacial lakes strung along the Fox River in Lake and McHenry counties, just below the Wisconsin line, joined by channels and backwater bays: crowded with boats all summer, and fished through the ice in winter for crappie, bluegill, white bass and walleye.
Who reports here. Phil Piscitello's Fox Chain Report in MidWest Outdoors is the one column on these lakes, and it reaches the magazine's website only now and then: the newest winter edition there is from February 2025, on crappies and bluegills in green weed on Channel Lake and Lake Catherine. Nothing from last winter was posted.
Engine outlook
- Best: Mon, Nov 9, A9 good hours54F modeled from this lake's own seasonal curvebest run 5h
The Illinois River
Starved Rock Lock and Dam · Marseilles Lock and Dam · Dresden Island Lock and Dam · Peoria Lake · Peoria Lock and Dam
The river across the middle of the state, from the meeting of the Des Plaines and the Kankakee to the Mississippi at Grafton, held in pools by the locks and dams at Dresden Island, Marseilles, Starved Rock, Peoria and La Grange, with Peoria Lake a wide reach of the river and backwater lakes along its floodplain. The current below each dam stays open when the backwaters freeze.
Who reports here. No reporter for the river could be found for last winter, after searches below the Starved Rock, Marseilles and Peoria dams and of the Ottawa and Peoria outdoors pages. Anglers post about it on an online forum, filed by stretch of river, which is a lead rather than a report, and Outdoor News's statewide Illinois report runs all winter for subscribers.
Engine outlook
- Best: Sun, Nov 8, A+12 good hours61F projected from a readingbest run 7h
Central Illinois's lakes
Lake Shelbyville · Carlyle Lake · Clinton Lake · Lake Springfield · Evergreen Lake
The two Corps reservoirs on the Kaskaskia, Lake Shelbyville and Carlyle Lake, and the city and power-plant lakes of the prairie around them. Several of those were built to cool a power station, and while a plant runs, its warm discharge keeps water open and fish feeding near it when the lakes around them freeze.
Who reports here. Mary Satterfield, a former guide, writes a Lake Shelbyville report for MidWest Outdoors, but only its spring edition is online, saying the lake thawed around the third week of February. No winter reporter could be found for Carlyle, Clinton or the power-plant lakes.
Engine outlook
- Best: Sun, Nov 8, A+7 good hours63F modeled from this lake's own seasonal curvebest run 4h
Southern Illinois's lakes
Rend Lake · Crab Orchard Lake · Lake of Egypt · Kinkaid Lake · Cedar Lake
The reservoirs of the far south: Rend Lake on the Big Muddy, Crab Orchard, Little Grassy and Devils Kitchen inside the wildlife refuge, and Lake of Egypt, Kinkaid and Cedar in the Shawnee hills. Crappie and bass water where ice is rare and most winters are fished from a boat.
Who reports here. No free winter reporter could be found for Rend Lake, Crab Orchard or Lake of Egypt, after searches of the area paper, the guides and the marinas. A website that once carried Rend Lake reports now serves an unrelated page, and Outdoor News's statewide Illinois report, for subscribers, is the only one that runs all winter.
Engine outlook
- Best: Tue, Nov 10, A+13 good hours66F modeled from this lake's own seasonal curvebest run 13h
The Mississippi and the Rock River
Mississippi River at the Quad Cities · Pools 13 to 19 · Pools 20 to 26 · Rock River · Mel Price Locks and Dam
Illinois's side of the Mississippi from Galena down past the Quad Cities, Quincy and Alton, pool after pool behind the locks and dams, with sauger and walleye in the tailwaters through the cold months, shared with Iowa above Keokuk and with Missouri below, and the Rock River joining at Rock Island.
Who reports here. Iowa's DNR report carries every pool the two states share, each week of the winter, with its ice rating, water temperature and ramps; on January 22 last winter the ramps from Davenport down were frozen in. Below those pools, and on the Rock, no dated winter report could be found.
Engine outlook
- Its best day in this outlook has passed.
The rules from November to February
Licenses, and which state's rules apply
- A license goes on sale on March 1 and expires on March 31 a year later, so one bought since March 1 covers the whole winter. Residents pay $15 a year or $5.50 a day ($7.75 at 65 to 74, $1.50 at 75 and older); nonresidents $31.50 a year, $15.50 for three days or $10.50 a day. Anglers under 16 need no license.
- Trout away from Lake Michigan need an inland trout stamp, and trout or salmon on Lake Michigan a salmon stamp, $6.50 each. Anglers who need no license need no stamp.
- On the boundary rivers Illinois honors its neighbors' licenses and they honor Illinois's: the Mississippi with Iowa and with Missouri, the Ohio main stem with Kentucky, the Wabash with Indiana. None of them covers the other state's tributaries. On the Mississippi and the Ohio the stricter of the two states' rules applies; on the Wabash, the rules of the state whose water it is.
Bait, gear and fish you cannot keep
- Two untagged lines at a time; any more, up to 50 hooks in all, carry the angler's name and mailing address. Trolling allows three poles with no more than two hooks or lures each, and waters posted Two Pole and Line Fishing Only allow two. Live injurious species, round goby and the invasive carps among them, may not be possessed.
Lakes, ponds and rivers
- Statewide daily limits: six walleye, sauger and saugeye combined, each of at least 14 inches (except on the Mississippi and Wabash); six black bass, with no statewide size limit; three northern pike of at least 24 inches (no size limit on the Mississippi); one muskellunge of at least 36 inches; five trout or salmon. Crappie, bluegill and catfish have no statewide limit, but many lakes set their own, posted at the launch.
- At the stocked trout waters the fall season, opened on the third Saturday of October, runs through the winter, and stocked trout can hold over at some sites. The next closed period starts on March 15 and runs to the spring opener.
- Lake Michigan: trout and salmon of at least 10 inches, five a day with no more than two lake trout; 15 yellow perch; black bass one a day of at least 21 inches. Every device must be attended at all times.
Through the ice
- Through the ice: no more than three poles or tip-ups, two on waters posted Two Pole and Line Fishing Only, each with no more than two hooks and all kept in sight; holes no wider than 12 inches. A shelter is portable and carries the owner's name and address; from March 1 it must be removed whenever it is not in use, and never left unattended.
- IDNR asks for at least 4 inches of ice to hold one angler, checked by the angler before fishing. Clear blue lake ice is strongest; river ice, cloudy ice and slush hold less.
Read on these agency pages: IDNR: 2026 Illinois Fishing Information (PDF), IDNR: Fishing Licenses, IDNR (ifishillinois.org): Ice Fishing.
The season at a glance
What these months usually do
Each lake's own seasonal curve, the one the engine scores the lake on: what these dates usually do, modeled rather than measured, and not a forecast for this year.
| Water | Nov 1 | Dec 1 | Jan 1 | Feb 1 | Feb 28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fox Lake | 51F | 42F | 36F | 35F | 36F |
| Lake Shelbyville | 59F | 48F | 42F | 39F | 41F |
| Rend Lake | 62F | 51F | 44F | 41F | 44F |
The moon from November to February
| Month | New moon | Full moon |
|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | Mon, Nov 9 | Tue, Nov 24 |
| December 2026 | Tue, Dec 8 | Wed, Dec 23 |
| January 2027 | Thu, Jan 7 | Fri, Jan 22 |
| February 2027 | Sat, Feb 6 | Sat, Feb 20 |
The U.S. Naval Observatory's dates, on local time.
Daylight in each area from November to February
Worked out for one place in each area, on its own clock.
| Area | Shortest day | Earliest sunset | Latest sunrise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago and the Lake Michigan shoreat Lake Michigan | 9h 7m, Dec 21 | 4:21pm, around Dec 9 | 7:19am, around Jan 3 |
| The Fox Chain O'Lakesat Fox Lake | 9h 4m, Dec 21 | 4:21pm, around Dec 9 | 7:23am, around Jan 3 |
| The Illinois Riverat Illinois River at Starved Rock | 9h 11m, Dec 21 | 4:28pm, around Dec 8 | 7:23am, around Jan 3 |
| Central Illinois's lakesat Lake Shelbyville | 9h 22m, Dec 21 | 4:32pm, around Dec 7 | 7:17am, around Jan 4 |
| Southern Illinois's lakesat Rend Lake | 9h 31m, Dec 21 | 4:37pm, around Dec 7 | 7:14am, around Jan 5 |
| The Mississippi and the Rock Riverat Mississippi River at Alton | 9h 26m, Dec 21 | 4:40pm, around Dec 7 | 7:21am, around Jan 5 |