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Lake Bloomington Crappies

by Kevin Patton

Our crappies from Lake Bloomington averaged nine to nine and one-half inches.

Lake Bloomington is a few miles north of the Bloomington-Normal area, just east of Interstate 39. It offers anglers a variety of sport fish, including largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike, hybrid striped bass, crappie, and bluegill.

Dee Dee Kumpf and I were hoping to find some crappies there on May 4, after a quick stop for minnows at the Evergreen Lake boat ramp.

Bloomington is a 635-acre lake that has numerous homes along it's shore, especially on the west and north sides of the lake.

There are special regulations for homeowners, such as no fishing around boat docks when swimmers are present and between sunset and sunrise.

At 9 a.m. we were at the launch, where we found the water temperature to be 59 degrees and murky. We couldn't see a white lure underwater more than one to two feet.

We also caught a good number of crappies that were 10-11 inches in length.

Since the areas with homes have seawalls with no downed trees, we headed for the undeveloped areas of the lake to scout out some trees that might hold spawning crappies.

We soon found some fish holding in the brush and trees along the west side of the lake, just south of the lake patrol boat dock and Davis Lodge.

We caught caught crappies, bluegills, and small bass by using minnows and slip bobber rigs. They were suspended two to four feet deep in trees that lay in four to seven feet of water.

Before the day was done we would also catch white perch (drum) and hybrid stripers on the minnow rigs.

We moved to the east side of the creek that flows south on the western half of the lake. Several more trees along this bank held numbers of nice crappies.

Just as during our Lake Storey trip last month, we found some trees had more and larger fish than others. The newer, brushier trees were the best.

This 14-inch hybrid striper was also hungry for some minnows.

We followed the undeveloped shoreline around the south side of the lake, looking for more downed trees in pockets and along bluff banks.

The sunny day helped the water temperature climb to 62 degrees and we continued to catch fish until leaving for home at 3:30 p.m.

We finished with two limits of crappies that averaged 9-9 1/2 inches in length, with a good number of 10-11 inch fish.

This is a fee lake with various charges based on the type of watercraft and outboard motor size. My 25 h.p. fishing boat cost $45 for a yearly permit, but you must also have $100,000 of watercraft liability insurance.

Other regulations at Lake Bloomington include a 40 horsepower motor limit in addition to a 25 mph speed limit.

There are no wake areas and the entire lake is no wake from one-half hour past sunset to 7 a.m.

Skiing is allowed in designated areas of the lake, but trolling is prohibited. Also, save the celebration for home, as alcohol is banned from all areas of the lake.

Fish limits are as follows: largemouth and smallmouth bass, 15 inches and 6 per person; walleyes, 14 inches and 6 per person; northern pike, 24 inches and 3 per angler.

Crappies have no size limit and you may keep 25 fish; hybrid stripers, 17 inches and 3 per person; and you may keep 10 bluegills that are a minimum of 8 inches.

The Lake Ranger station is located at 25421 Davis Lodge Road, Hudson, IL 61748 and can be contacted by calling 309-747-2615.

More information about Lake Bloomington can be seen at: www.cityblm.org.  or at:  www.ifishillinois.org.