Lake Charleston is managed by the City of Charleston. Boat launching is available, but the entire lake is no-wake. For more information, call Region 3 fisheries at (217) 935-6860. For lodging information, call the Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce at (217) 345-7041.

LAKE PITTSFIELD
One lake you can add to the "sleeper" striper category is Lake Pittsfield in Pike County. This small water-supply reservoir has really come on strong with numbers of big hybrids.

"Pittsfield has a tremendous population of healthy stripers," said DNR biologist Mike Jones. "In our last gill-net survey we caught 76 fish. A lot of these fish are in the 12- to 13-pound range, and the average fish of our survey was 10 pounds. There was a big striper in literally every 8 feet of our nets."

Jones alluded that most anglers pursue the bass and crappie populations on Pittsfield, and that few anglers actively pursued the big stripers. Word is spreading now, though.

"Last year, we had a couple of guys from Indiana trolling planer boards around the dam," Jones said. "They had three big stripers. This fall during our survey, an angler caught a 16-pounder from the shore. I know a lot of guys catch fish on jigs and minnows, spoons, crankbaits and spinners. And some of the best action comes from the open water near the dam."

At 240 acres, Lake Pittsfield is easy to fish. Boat launching is available, but motors are limited to 25 horsepower. For more information, call the City of Pittsfield at (217) 285-4484. For lodging information, call the Pike County Chamber of Commerce at (217) 285-2971.

OTTER LAKE
Just west of the town of Girard in Macoupin County is Otter Lake. This 765-acre water-supply reservoir has really been coming on strong in recent years with a noteworthy population of hybrids.

"We conducted our gill-netting sample on this impoundment in April 2006, and we captured 50 striped bass hybrids ranging from 16 inches to 29 inches, and weighing up to 14 pounds," DNR biologist Jeffery Pontnack said. "Otter Lake has always been good to excellent, data has been very impressive and anglers have been delighted with this population."

Peggy Roberts of Otter Lake Park said this year they are seeing some bigger fish.

"We're not seeing the numbers we have in years past, but we have been seeing lots of sizeable stripers," Roberts said.