All waters · Illinois · Rend Lake

Rend Lake, IL

Reservoir spanning Franklin/Jefferson counties, Illinois. An 18,900-acre USACE reservoir on the Big Muddy River in southern Illinois near Benton. Famous for crappie (both white and black) and a productive largemouth bass, white bass, bluegill, and channel/blue catfish fishery. Shallow, fertile and stained, with abundant standing timber and brush piles that hold crappie spring through fall.

43

Overall bite score

Scored 8 min ago · recomputed every 30 minutes

Water tempModeled21
Pressure trendNOAAsteady60
SolunarComputedmoon 45% lit44
Recent stockingState data50
Time of dayComputed50
WindNOAA50
Cloud coverNOAA35
PrecipitationNOAA50

Each instrument reads 0 to 100. The score is their weighted blend, tuned for lakes and reservoirs. No black box: every reading names its source.

What swims here

9 tracked species in Rend Lake, with the months each fishes best.

Black Crappieabundant
Bluegillabundant
Channel Catfishabundant
White Crappieabundant
Blue Catfishcommon
Largemouth Basscommon
Redear Sunfishcommon
White Basscommon
Flathead Catfishpresent

Water facts

TypeReservoir
CountyFranklin/Jefferson
StateIllinois
WaterFreshwater
USGS gauge05597000

USACE reservoir; no in-lake temp gauge. USGS 05597000 (Big Muddy River near Plumfield) is a live downstream flow proxy; lake temp uses the seasonal baseline. Special regs: largemouth 14 in min; crappie 25/day with no more than 10 fish >=10 in. Ramps: Rend Lake Marina, Sandusky Creek, North/South Sandusky, Gun Creek, Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park.

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