Location: Kickapoo State Park is northeast of Oakwood and is 2,842 acres and provides 221 acres of water.

Description: The park has 22 lakes ranging in size from 0.2 of an acre to 57 acres. There are 13 launching ramps on nine of the lakes, but there are numerous locations to fish from shore. Most of the 31 strip-mined lakes were created in the early 1900's and obtained by the state in 1939 from United Electric Coal Company. The rest of the lakes were obtained by the state in 1979. Mining in this area of the park ceased in 1964. Due to the lower fertility of these lakes, they do not support a large standing stock of fish, but the lakes do provide good fishing.

History and Status of the Sport Fishery: Especially popular are the annual spring and fall stockings of rainbow trout into Clear Lake.

Only a few lakes are surveyed for fish community structure as the park contains too many lakes to list each and give a description. Two lakes are surveyed each year, and the lakes included in the survey rotation are Long Lake, High Lake, No. 6 Lake, Sportsmen Lake, Clear Lake, and Inland Sea Lake.

The overall objective for these lakes is to provide a good panfish fishery, while at the same time supplying a quality largemouth bass fishery. The majority of the lakes have good panfish fisheries while the bass populations are dominated by bass less than 15 inches.

Species requiring annual stocking are Channel Catfish and Rainbow Trout.

Additional Lake Information:

Fishing Regulations:
2 Pole and line fishing only.
Channel Catfish - daily limit of 6 per day.
Largemouth bass – 3 fish daily harvest limit of which no more than 1 fish may be greater than or equal to 15 inches and no more than 2 fish may be less than 15 inches.
Bluegill/Redear Sunfish - 10 per day harvest limit; no size limit.
Rainbow Trout (Clear Lake) - Spring catchable trout season opens at 5 a.m. on the first Saturday of April and the fall catchable trout season opens at 5 a.m. on the 3rd Saturday of October. To legally harvest Rainbow Trout from any waters which receive catchable trout or hatchery stockings of trout, licensed sport fishermen must have an inland trout stamp, unless they are under 16 years of age, blind or disabled, or Illinois residents on leave from the Armed Forces. A daily limit of five trout per angler is enforced.

Contact Information:
Kickapoo State Park
10906 Kickapoo Park Rd.
217-442-4915
IDNR Fisheries Biologist, Mike Garthaus
217-784-4730