by Art Malm, Friend of the Fox River
June 11, 2025
On June 10th, I found the Illinois Department of Natural Resources doing another in a series of pre- and post-removal fish studies above the former dam site in Carpentersville.
This was electro-fishing from a big jon boat with an Evinrude outboard jet drive.The IDNR team would stun and net the fish, then put them in a large live well.
At the end of their “fishing” run they would identify, count and measure the catch.
Fishing had been good with four new native sucker species not seen before in the impoundment. These critters are clearwater, clean bottom baitfish and work with mussels to clean the riverbed. That’s not to mention the big flathead catfish and fine smallmouth bass they found.
It will take some months for the result of this work to be summarized and released but we thought the news was good enough to break early. The fish have voted and they like their new digs.
Photos by Art Malm
