Sport Fishery — Illinois River 



The once great sport fishery along the middle reach of the Illinois 

 River has been adequately described elsewhere (Mills e_t _al. , 1966) . While 

 we did not locate any accounts of fishing in the lower reach of the 

 Illinois River, places such as Meredosia Lake (river mile 72-78) 

 probably offered sport fishing comparable to that in the lakes near 

 Havana (river mile 120) . The results of scientific surveys of the 

 fish populations in Meredosia Lake in 1931 and 1934 (Table 28) indicate 

 that black crappie, white crappie, bluegill, and yellow bass were abun- 

 dant, even though the successive droughts of 1929, 1930, and 1931 had 

 drastically reduced the fish populations in most lakes in Illinois 

 (Department of Registration and Education, 1932: 33). A comparison of 

 the 1942 catch of game fish from Meredosia Bay or Lake with the catch 

 from other locations in the main channel or side channels of the lower 

 Illinois River shows that 66.35 game fish per net-day were taken from 

 the Lake, while the most taken elsewhere was 26.02 game fish per net-day 

 at Kampsville (Table 29). Recent surveys by the Illinois Department of 

 Conservation show that the game fish remaining in Meredosia Lake are 

 concentrated in a deep hole where fill was removed for a levee and 

 where some groundwater may enter the lake. Lakeshore residents have 

 complained to state legislators and to the Illinois Department of 

 Conservation about the filling of the lake with sediment and the 

 decline in fishing. The Illinois State Water Survey reported that 

 Lake Meredosia has lost 46% of its capacity since 1903 (Lee e_t al. , 

 1976: 7). 



The sediment in Lake Meredosia adversely affects water quality 

 and aquatic life, including fish and the food upon which they feed. On 

 August 7 and 8, 1975, the Illinois State Water Survey found that the 

 dissolved oxygen concentration differed by 1.0 mg/1 between the surface 

 and the bottom water. This is surprising considering that the depth of 

 the water is only 5 feet and that the lake was being well mixed by wind 

 and wave action at the time the readings were taken. The oxygen 

 stratification was probably due to lessened photosynthetic activity 

 near the bottom and also to the extremely high oxygen demand exerted by 



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