what is the vegetation situation at sang chris now?

[jkirch]

I saw that a couple years ago the dnr or somebody tried to reestablish some vegetation in the lake . I was curious how that is going . Are they trying for pads again or some other greenery ? I might go there this weekend and was wondering what to expect . How is the lake and fishing in general now ,temps , levels,ect. I would be aiming for largemouth but if there are any stripers left I would accept those too .

[ILbassin]

The lake flooded a couple times this year so I’m not sure if their temporary habitats for those lilies were washed out. Temps have been around 80 - 82 the last couple weeks and fishing was slow for me atleast. There’s still some stripers that you’ll find up by the dam but the population and size are nowhere near what they used to be.

[jkirch]

We went saturday with mixed results . We caught 50-60 fish but they were all less than 15 inches and most were much smaller than that . Two different schools doing the same thing ,points in 12 feet or so. I didn't realize how low on gas we were so travel was somewhat limited . It had been ten years since I had last fished there and have only fished it in febuary and march. Having zero experience looking for offshore fish there made it difficult . We talked to someone who said there was some form of grass farther down the west arm but we didn't make it that far . I don't remember fishing water willow in the past . Is it new or did the pads hide it from me? During the duck hunting season can you fish the off limits area after 1:00 like Newton and Coffeen ? I don't know where the bouy lines are at that time to know where to fish. How far out side of the hot water are the bouys ?

[ILbassin]

Water willow has been there since I moved over here and started fishing it around 2011. During waterfowl season, you are restricted to middle arm and buoy cutoffs all season. I wish they would do the 1pm deal like Newton and Coffeen. They put the buoys at the north end of the east arm in front of the dam and here recently also in the middle of the east arm where the east arm and middle arm meet.