Live minnows, jigging spoons and jigs tipped with a minnow or two can produce nicely.

Crappies and white bass provide some good under-the-ice action, as well.

When the crappies aren’t biting on Lake Shelbyville, Mounce said, ice-fishermen do well to target the bluegills on Walnut Point Lake, north of Oakland, and Lincoln Trail Lake, south of Marshall.

Lake Shelbyville covers 1,100 acres of water east of Shelbyville, in Shelby and Moultrie counties.

Contact the IDNR’s Region 3 office at (217) 345-2420 for more information.

Jim Edgar-Panther Creek
Fish and WildlifeArea Lakes Fisheries biologist Dan Stephenson of the IDNR manages the ponds and lakes in the wildlife area. He reported there’s plenty of water for ice-fishermen to try for winter panfishing on the lakes of Jim Edgar-Panther Creek Fish and Wildlife Area.

“The Gridley and Drake lakes are pretty good, as are several of the smaller ponds on the area,” Stephenson said.

Gridley Lake covers 25 acres, and Drake Lake covers 35 acres, but both are dwarfed by the 210-acre Prairie Lake. The smaller bodies of water are probably the best panfish lakes on the area. Bluegills and crappies are pulled up through the ice regularly. The sizes aren’t huge, but there are plenty of them.

Prairie Lake provides the most elbow room for visiting anglers and can yield good catches of bluegills on its own, but the fish will be a little tougher to locate.

Stephenson also recommends trying central Illinois’ village water supply lakes, particularly Lake Williamsville and the Ashland reservoirs. Bluegill and redear-sunfish angling can be fair to good if the ice is thick enough to venture out on.

Jim Edgar-Panther Creek FWA is located in Cass County, 25 miles northwest of Springfield off Route 125. Contact the area office at (217) 452-7741 for directions to the lakes and ponds. Or, check in with the IDNR’s Region 4 office at (618) 462-1181 for more information.

Staunton City Lake
“Staunton City Lake is an 85-acre impoundment in Macoupin County with a good population of bluegills and excellent fish habitat,” said IDNR fisheries biologist Jeffrey Pontnack. “This one’s a nice ice-fishing location when good ice conditions are present. The density of the bluegills is pretty good, but the sizes of the fish have been even more impressive over the last few years. The bluegills have been running from 6 to 9 inches.”

According to Pontnack, the eastern shoreline and the far end of the watershed drainage have the best habitat. The ‘gills will hang close to the green vegetation and other submerged cover and can be light biters.

Larval baits top the list of bluegill baits on Staunton, along with ice jigs tipped with a maggot.

Pontnack also recommended ice-anglers in his region try for bluegills on Roodhouse Park Lake, a 10-acre impoundment near Roodhouse, in Greene County. Bunker Hill City Lake is about the same size, located near the town of Bunker Hill. At 31 acres big, Mt. Olive Old City Lake, near the town of Mt. Olive in Macoupin County, holds plenty of scrappy bluegills, too, with a diverse submerged habitat that allows anglers to find concentrated schools of fish.

Additional information is available from the IDNR’s regional office at (217) 833-2811, or the Staunton city clerk’s office at (618) 635-2233.

Fox Chain O’Lakes
No discussion on ice-fishing in Illinois is complete without mentioning the Fox Chain O’Lakes. For those not familiar with this popular destination in northeast Illinois, the chain is a series of interconnected lakes on the Fox River, totaling 7,110 acres in Lake and McHenry counties. The chain is well-known in ice-fishing circles, and the great bite has been a poorly kept secret in Chicago for years.

The fishing pressure is high, thanks to the chain’s location near Chicago, Depending on what you’re chasing, you can have plenty of competition. The bluegills and crappies are the draw for lakes Bluff, Catherine and Pistakee in the chain.