Otter is one of just a dozen Illinois lakes with reputations for giving up a beast. When you figure the number of days when it's possible to fish this lake in a calendar year, the 335 fish indicated in the October 2005 creel survey make this water the place to be when it all comes together.

THE BIG PICTURE
There is no such thing as an easy muskie. My nephew, Darrin Marcure, caught his first muskie, a 40-incher, in just four casts on Apple Canyon Lake in Jo Daviess County. He's made thousands of casts since, and he's only had a couple of follows.

One of the state's oldest muskie lakes, Lake Carlton in Morrison-Rockwood State Park, is still stocked at one muskie per surface acre every year. Since 1987, anglers have reported 820 muskies caught on these 77 acres, by far exceeding the 744 fish noted on 11,000-acre Shelbyville. But the creel survey indicates it takes over 22 hours to catch a muskie on tiny Carlton, with hooking up in Shelbyville only taking half as long, and fishing the Kaskaskia River below the Shelbyville dam even more productive.

Muskie success is all about intelligent time on the water. June is a much more productive time for Illinois muskies than July. But your chances of hooking up are much better an hour ahead of an approaching weather system in July than putting in workmanlike eight-hour days in the middle of June.

When the time is right, Loon Lake near Antioch in northeastern Illinois is a great place to fish, even though it's close to a large segment of Illinois' population. Ditto Lake George in Rock Island County, which receives an average of 300 hours per acre of muskie fishing pressure each year because of the lake's proximity to the Quad Cities. Lake Storey just down the road near Galesburg is about the same size but receives twice this much fishing pressure. However, DNR biologists say Storey still "has the potential to produce 30-plus-pound muskies."

A barrier net placed in Pierce Lake near Rockford in 2002 is keeping muskies in this 162-acre state park lake. Before placement of this barrier, 39 muskies were recaptured below the dam and returned to the lake from 1997-2001. Where are these fish today? Many of the escapees are probably still in the lake, and are considerably larger now.

Every single muskie is a valuable natural resource. Once these fish grow beyond 36 inches, their actual cash value is in the hundreds of dollars, or to paraphrase a charge card commercial, "priceless." With a catch-and-release rate at 92 percent statewide, Illinois muskie chasers are certainly on the right track. Catch-and-release is only part of the program. You can do more for this valuable resource by not overplaying or overstressing fish, and using a cradle for capture and an in-the-water photo before release.

Illinois has arrived as a muskie fishing destination of national merit. The future of this fishery is entirely in your hands.