Watercraft purchases by Illinois anglers indicate a clear pattern on the type of boat they bought, according to National Marine Manufacturer's Association data compiled in recent years.

NMMA demographics indicate a diagonal line across Illinois. Most fishing boats purchased north of Interstate 88 tend to be deep-V "walleye" boats, while south of Forest City in Mason County, the fishing boats tend to have lower gunnels associated with bass boats and johnboats. The landscape between these two areas has a mixture of boat types.

Although several of our state's premier walleye waters -- most notably Shabbona Lake and the Fox Chain-O-Lakes -- lie in the northern couple tiers of counties, marble-eyes and their bait-thieving cousins are found throughout the Prairie State. Saugers are a popular draw all the way down to the Smithland Pool on the Ohio River. Walleyes approaching state-record dimensions swim in Kinkaid Lake in the heart of southern Illinois' Shawnee National Forest. There are many other waters containing walleyes, but nobody fishes for them, thus nobody knows they're there!

Are all the walleye fanatics in this state launching their deep-Vs on the rivers and a few select northern Illinois lakes? Do they hook up the boat trailer and vector east toward Lake Erie? Or do they head for destinations in the Land of Cheese?

If you happen to be out on the Fox Chain on any summer weekend, you'll see quite a few "walleye" boats mixed in between the sailboats, yachts, personal watercraft, ski boats, pontoons, canoes, kayaks, bass boats and the occasional ark. But put a potential RCL contestant's dreamboat into Evergreen Lake north of Normal, Pittsfield Lake in western Illinois or East Fork Lake on the eastern side of the state, and you'll probably get more than one puzzled look.

You don't have to fish out of a "walleye boat" to catch 'eyes, of course -- just like you don't have to fish out of a "bass boat" to chase bass. But you don't see many folks wearing Harley-Davidson garb jumping on Suzuki motorcycles, now do you? The point is, a handful of downstate Illinois lakes with substantial walleye populations are target-rich environments for 'eye chasers because most fishing pressure on these waters focuses on other species.

Odds are good that if a walleye fanatic knows he has to sit behind the wheel of a truck for six hours after pulling out of a garage in northern Illinois, he would rather dunk the trailer tires in Upper Michigan's Bays de Noc than in Kinkaid Lake in southern Illinois. But while it is true these bays on northern Lake Michigan offer legendary walleye fishing, what do you suppose your status in the walleye world would be if you pulled the successor to Fred Goseline's 1961 Illinois state-record 'eye out of Kinkaid? According to Department of Natural Resources fisheries surveys, walleyes of these approximate dimensions swim in these southern Illinois waters.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt