Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) The Bluegill is the Illinois State Fish, and rightly so. If an Illinoisan has only caught one fish in their life, there’s a good chance it was […]
Fish Friday with…. the Bluegill
Category: Atlas of Illinois Fishes
Fish Friday with… the Rainbow Smelt
Rainbow Smelt (Osmerus mordax) Netting buckets of Rainbow Smelt once provided Chicagoans and Lakefront suburbanites with an annual rite of near-spring. News that spawning smelt had begun to run sent […]
Fish Friday with… the Starhead Topminnow
Starhead Topminnow (Fundulus dispar) At just three inches long, the Starhead Topminnow invites predation. But as they say at the Charles Darwin School of Business, predation spurs innovation. “Starhead Topminnows […]
Fish Friday with… the Walleye
Walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) The Walleye can reach 36 inches in length. As you might guess, a yard-long sport fish offers sport indeed. The range map above, courtesy of the Atlas […]
Fish Friday with… the Chinook or King Salmon
Chinook or King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) The largest North American salmon, the Chinook or King Salmon grows to 58 inches and can weigh over 30 lbs. The Chinook, like the […]
Fish Friday with… the Northern Pike
Northern Pike (Esox lucius) In middle school, I knew a kid with one of those dads who spent every spare moment fishing. This man went straight from work to the […]
Fish Friday with… the Northern Brook Lamprey
Northern Brook Lamprey (Ichthyomyzon fossor) A poll on Favorite Fish of Illinois would presumably return zero votes for any lamprey. Granted, most of us do not consider the lamprey a […]