Mill Creek

[sgt93]

It’s been ages since I have been to Mill Creek and would like to return. Has anyone been lately? How is the fishing?

[BDPIL]

I have a buddy that goes every now and then. Says its not like it used to be. I used to go until they raised the launch fee to $30 from $16 daily.

[sgt93]

$30 for a daily launch fee is ridiculous. Maybe this is their attempt at bringing down the traffic on the lake, who knows.

[illinoisbassfishin]

Mill Creek sucks unless you want to have a dink fest and the occasional decent fish. I have lived 25 minutes from the lake my whole life. It was arguably the best lake in the state. We fished a tournament once and had 23.99 lbs and only got 5th place. Prices go up every year. I remember when it was $60 a year for us and now it's $150 or $30 a day. I believe they are trying to make it a wealthy persons joy riding and hangout paradise.

[Junk Fisherman]

Mill Creek sucks unless you want to have a dink fest and the occasional decent fish. I have lived 25 minutes from the lake my whole life. It was arguably the best lake in the state. We fished a tournament once and had 23.99 lbs and only got 5th place. Prices go up every year. I remember when it was $60 a year for us and now it's $150 or $30 a day. I believe they are trying to make it a wealthy persons joy riding and hangout paradise.

Has these ramp fees affected the number of tournaments and overall fishing pressure? I recall at one point that it had more tournaments than any lake in the state. That would make me really think hard about wanting to go there for the weekend.

[sgt93]

Mill Creek sucks unless you want to have a dink fest and the occasional decent fish. I have lived 25 minutes from the lake my whole life. It was arguably the best lake in the state. We fished a tournament once and had 23.99 lbs and only got 5th place. Prices go up every year. I remember when it was $60 a year for us and now it's $150 or $30 a day. I believe they are trying to make it a wealthy persons joy riding and hangout paradise.

Thats too bad. My buddy introduced me to that lake years ago. He caught the first fish 10 minutes in and it was a 5.5 pounder. I was sold! It’s also a gorgeous area to fish and it doesn’t even feel like you are in Illinois. Maybe they wanted to drop the tournament pressure from out of area, who knows. I bet lake traffic has come down quite a bit now though.

[willwork4fish]

We showed up there this year for our first club tournament and couldn't believe they raised it to $30. Probably the last time we'll go there. You do catch a lot of small fish but there are still some nice ones in there. I think the 1 over 15" rule has improved the overall fishery though. This year we caught a pretty good number of overs. We do a team deal so we could have two over 15" and 3 under.

It was always a nice April tournament for us because you'd at least catch a good number of fish. Not worth the launch fee now though.

[sgt93]

That launch fee is ridiculous for sure.