Thread: The Best Crappie Lake in Illinois

I'm going to have to agree with fingerlicken on lake of Egypt. If the crappie are having a good year, you can catch alot of slabs bumping the one pound mark or bigger!! I hope rend lake proves me wrong this year because I plan on spending alot more time on it!!

kinkaid lake, abundant crappie, easy to fish for beginners, produces numerous two pounders each year and a few three pounders, when the crappie go to the banks its like loz, we cast jigs and tear them up.

Its hard to pick one. And im sure everyone is going to favor their own area lakes because thats what they know. For the southern illinois area I would never pick any lake above Crab Orchard even though it never gets talked about here much. In a way, Crab is like Rend minus the goofy creel limit and about 10,000 acres of wide open windy water. Thats why I much prefer it. But really, whatever lake im on is my favorite for the day. They are all special. Kinkaid and Egypt, Cedar and Little Grassy can all kick out a giant once in awhile along with some quality fish. And you cant forget Smithland Pool with its endless stump filled creeks. Im just thankful for all of them.

Being fairly new to crappie fishing myself and shore bound I have nothing to bring to the table.:o

I do appreciate your experience and have hopes to fish them all with a boat some day.

Hard to beat Kinkaid:

Originally Posted by angler73

I've never fished Rend,but i've heard a lot about it.As far as sheer numbers of crappie and knowing when you go,you'll catch fish,i'd have to say Clinton lake.The numbers of crappie at Clinton are just astonishing.Not much quality,but sometimes you'll get ahold of a biggun.Shelbyville is alright,but in the late fall i've caught some hawgs there.I caught alot of 13 and 14 inchers there.I know one of the most overlooked lakes in this state is Lake Decatur.There are huge crappie in there and good numbers of em.There isn't to much visible cover,but docks and bridges produce quite well and there are quite a few brush piles and stumps out there if you know where to look.

weird i usually catch quality at clinton but not a ton of numbers except for certain timesof the year. i think all the big lakes are good, lake springfield rocks and them blacknosed crappie they have there are thick as all heck.... but honestly there is a few ponds id rather fish for crappie for sheer numbers and average size usually beat some of the big lakes hands down

I Have fished Rend Egypt and Crab over the years. I think as of right now Rend is the best, it is great for numbers, and at certain times you can catch big ones and lots of them. Egypt used to be real good but the last three years it has droped way off still some big crappie there you just can't catch very many at least I can't.

Originally Posted by crappie5

kinkaid lake, abundant crappie, easy to fish for beginners, produces numerous two pounders each year and a few three pounders, when the crappie go to the banks its like loz, we cast jigs and tear them up.

After reading all these posts I would say that everyone has their favorite.
I love fishn Rend and still think it is one of the best and I can catch huge fish out of there year round. But after fishn Kinkaid for a while now I would say it is right up there with the best. There are several great lakes in IL and a lot that most of us don't even know about I'm sure. Smithland is not a lake so I really don't count that. But it is a great place to catch huge fish. I have buddys that know it very well and have caught huge fish from there. But it is a river not a lake so you can count it if you want.
We have some great lakes in IL for crappie fishn and should keep them that way.

Just my 2 cents.

CX.