The silt and sand bottom is mostly clean and has practically no structure. The west end usually has some weedy structure by July and August, but is quite shallow. The lake gets a little deeper in the central part, with the greatest depth being in the northeast center of the lake.

Bottom-fishing with traditional catfish baits, such as night crawlers, chicken livers and commercial stink baits or dip baits, can all work well at times. Because of the lake being so shallow, fishing with a slip-bobber is also very practical.

Anglers traveling to the area may want to call the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce at (815) 385-4300 for local information. The best source for fishing and lake information is the McHenry Parks & Recreation Department at (815) 363-2160.

REGION III DAWSON LAKE
About four miles north of Leroy in McLean County is the 158-acre Dawson Lake. This lake is very popular with area catfish anglers, and it also draws many anglers from other areas. This makes fishing pressure high, but there are plenty of catfish to go around.

DNR fisheries biologist Mike Garthaus said the population of catfish at Dawson Lake is very dense. The DNR stocks several thousand non-vulnerable size catfish there each year. This creates a fishery dominated mainly by catfish in the 12- to 24-inch range, with an average harvest size being nearly 2 1/2 pounds. Numerous larger fish are also caught there each year. The lake is quite shallow in the northern section. In fact, north of the boat ramp, the lake probably averages less than 10 feet deep. The northernmost end averages around 3 feet deep and develops a lot of vegetation in the summer months, which makes angling there impractical.

Most of the catfish will concentrate toward the end of the lake near the dam. About halfway to the dam is a place known as Catfish Point, which is very good. Fish can be caught there in about 15 to 17 feet of water.

The maximum depth of Dawson Lake reaches around 25 feet near the dam, but the lake does stratify during the summer, so anglers shouldn’t fish too deep. Boat anglers can use depthfinders to locate ledges and dropoffs from shallow water to deeper. Catfish will often congregate on the edges of these drops and along the old creek channel.

Leon Gibson has been running a concession on the lake for several years, and he highly recommends the lake for catfishing. He said last summer was excellent, with many channel cats caught in the 3- to 5-pound range. This year should be just as good. Gibson said most people bottom-fish at the lake, but there is a lot of bobber-fishing done as well. Some of the most popular baits are stink bait and shrimp. Shrimp can be especially good at certain times. According to Gibson, one angler from the Champaign area does exceedingly well using shrimp. He comes to the lake quite frequently and fishes the middle near the channel. Gibson said he’s never seen him leave without taking home a limit of catfish.

The McLean County Chamber of Commerce can be reached at (309) 829-6344. For more information about Dawson Lake, call the Moraine View State Park site office at (309) 724-8032.