A Century of Fishing in Illinois

In many regards, Illinois fishing regulations were just starting to emerge in 1925 when the Illinois Department of Conservation (IDOC) was formed. The creation of IDOC created a state agency related to the conservation, preservation, distribution, introduction, propagation and restoration of fish, mussels, frogs, turtles, game, wild animals, wild fowls and birds, and for the investigation of, and prevention of, pollution of rivers, lakes, streams and other waters in the state.

Published as the Game and Fish Codes of Illinois 1925-1926, the regulations fit into a book measuring 3.5 inches wide by 6 inches long, making it small enough for an angler to carry in their shirt pocket. The 106-page document contained 43 pages dedicated to fishing regulations; the remainder of the pages related to the game code. Today’s fishing regulations document is larger in size and more numerous in pages. Perhaps the listing of water bodies throughout the state where an angler is allowed to fish compensates for the increase in size? The regulations do, after all, still fit in your tackle box or the glove box of your vehicle, and if you’re so inclined, they fit into your shirt pocket as a downloadable file accessed via an electronic device.

For the past 100 years, the focus of IDOC’s (reorganized as the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, or IDNR, in July 1995) fishing regulations has been to improve sport fishing for the hundreds of thousands of people who annually participate today. Let’s take a look at how far fishing regulations have progressed in a century.

An Abbreviated History of Illinois Fish Laws

In 1871 the Illinois General Assembly passed the first act for the preservation of fish. This legislation forbid the interference of free fish passage by obstructing streams by dams, nets, seines or wire.

An Illinois Fish Commission was created in 1879, and in 1913 was combined with the Game Commission to become the Illinois Game and Fish Commission.

In 1907 a law was passed to require the purchase of a license before using a net for seining purposes. Non-resident hook-and-line fishing licenses were established by legislation in 1911. That same year, the Rivers, Lakes and Streams Act was passed, and was administered by the Rivers and Lakes Commission. Non-residents were first required to purchase a fishing license in 1919. The first resident hook-and-line fishing license was passed by the General Assembly in 1923, with monies deposited into a special Fish and Game Fund.

In 1915 the Commission purchased a State Fish Car to distribute fish from the hatcheries via the railway system.

Formation of the Illinois Department of Conservation

A chapter in the Illinois Blue Book 1925-1926 dedicated to the new Department of Conservation contained an overview of the duties of the new agency and powers granted to the agency by the 54th General Assembly. Among the fisheries actions were:

• Prohibition of the sale of bass, crappies, perch, sunfish, google eye or blue gills by commercial institutions, commission houses, restaurants or café keepers or fish dealers.
• Authorization of the Department to select and purchase or lease, receive in donation or acquire in accordance with the laws relative to eminent domain, suitable submerged or partially submerged lands for the breeding, hatching, propagation and conservation of fish, propagation of game and the establishment of public shooting grounds.
• Authorization of the Department to carry out a real constructive policy and the installation of hatcheries, bass ponds and preserves in various sections of the State, enlarging the work of propagation and distribution while reducing the cost of the transportation of fish stock. A brief history of the Illinois hatcheries is available here.
• A stipulation that all expenditures for lands and the equipment of hatcheries, as well as the maintenance of the same, are to be entirely met by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. Of note in this section was mention of several sites for hatcheries that had already been selected, work on most of them was complete and that the sites purchased had been selected for practical results with no show buildings constructed or scenic environments contemplated.

Wait, What? Google Eye?

If you paused in the section above when you read google eye you aren’t alone. It took a bit of research to determine that today this vernacular refers to either or both species of sunfish known as rock bass or warmouth. Confusing common names is one reason biologists often rely on scientific names rather than colloquial names. But that’s a story to be told another day.

Once commercially harvested year-round and sold at fish markets for food across the state, numbers of these fish declined. The 1925 Fish Code noted google eyes could not be kept if less than 6 inches in length. Today “google eyes” are listed as an Illinois sport fish and receive protections through daily harvest limits, and in some areas, minimum length limits.

Reactions to the First Fishing License

Two years had passed since the first resident hook-and-line fishing license was implemented. The Blue Book 1925-1926 noted that “since the law establishing the 50-cent license to fish with hook and line went into effect, practically all opposition to its enforcement has disappeared. Rarely anyone ‘goes fishing’ today without his or her license. The fee is so small that all can afford it, yet the total income amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars, all of which is expended to make better fishing for the owner of the license.” Every person, male or female, over the age of 21, was required to purchase the license before fishing by hook and line.

In reviewing the 1925-1926 Blue Book it becomes evident that the public was interested in a fishing license exemption process for certain persons. “Frequent inquiries reach the Department desiring to know if soldiers, sailors, service men, inmates of charitable institutions, etc. are required to secure the hook and line license.” License exemptions and reduced fees for senior citizens and first-time sport fishing licenses would come to realization over the next century.

Logging Fish

It seems that the 1925 Blue Book authors, Department of Conservation Director William J. Stratton and Chief Assistant S. B. Roach, had opinions on the practice of logging fish, also known as noodling, hogging, dogging, grabbling, tickling or catfishing.

“No matter how reprehensible the bait, there is no provision against ‘logging’ fish, but a 50-cent hook-and-line license is necessary to log with the hands.”

Today, if you possess a valid Illinois fishing license, unless you are exempt, you can head afield to wade into a stream, locate an underwater hole and slip your hands inside to try and capture a catfish. A word of advice: to hand fish for catfish requires a strong grip.

The Price of Fishing

In 1925, a resident hook and line license cost $0.50. A variable price scale exists today, with the basic license costing $15 (30 times increase over 2025), although residents 65 to 74 years of age pay only $7.75 and a license for those 75 years of age or older is only $1.50. Non-resident fishing licenses went from $1.25 in 1925 to $31.50 (25.2 times increase) in 2025.

Residents laid out $1.25 for a license to harvest mussels in 1925. Today that license costs $50.50 (40.4 times increase). By comparison, a 1-pound loaf of white bread cost $0.05 when the first Illinois fishing licenses were required, and that loaf now costs $1.81 on average, a 36.2 times increase of over the century.

Since 1925, the number of people served and level of scientific rigor, management complexity and regulation enforcement required to maintain quality fisheries has increased substantially. Staffing levels for the Division of Fisheries as well as the number of Conservation Police Officers detailed throughout the state have increased over the years to manage the resources and enforce the laws. Through a century of license purchases, the angling community has, in large part, supplied the funding to manage Illinois’ aquatic resource for the benefit of those natural resources and the angling community.

Volunteers Played a Role in 1925…and Still Do Today

According to the 1925 Blue Book, volunteers had a significant role in reclaiming millions of fish from lands subject to drought throughout the state. More than 100 train carloads of rescued game fish were distributed to waters throughout Illinois. Commercial fish were returned to adjacent rivers and suitable streams. Volunteers worked under the supervision of an employee of the Department and expenses were covered by the Game and Fish Fund.

Today, volunteers continue to provide valuable services to the IDNR Division of Fisheries, including assisting with Urban and Community Fishing Program Clinics, fish population surveys and the annual fin-clipping of salmon destined for release in Lake Michigan.

Fish Missing from Today’s Regulations

Fish species mentioned in the 1925 Fish Code provides a look back at what was once here but lost over the years. For example, the black fin cisco and long jaw cisco were once important commercial fish species in Lake Michigan. Both species are no longer present Lake Michigan due to overfishing and with the impacts of invasive species such as sea lamprey, alewife and rainbow smelt. Sadly, and despite the onset of harvest regulations a century ago, both the long jaw cisco and black fin cisco are now classified as extinct.

How Have Regulations Changed

Comparing the 1925 fishing regulations with those in place today provides a glimpse into how fisheries science and management evolved over the years. Early regulations were largely statewide and included seasonal closures and protection for younger, smaller individuals of many sport and commercial fish species. As research provided a better understanding of fish species biology and fish community interactions, and as staffing increased at IDNR, more specialized harvest regulations (e.g., protected slot and over-under harvest limits) were developed and implemented at individual waterbodies. Closed seasons and statewide minimum size limits are still in use, but the majority of IDNR managed lakes, streams and rivers have a combination of species-specific bag (harvest) limits and specialized size limits tailored to each waterbody based on scientific data from annual or periodic fish population surveys. These site-specific regulations are used to sustain fisheries, ensure equitable harvest among anglers and achieve desirable fish population abundance and size structure in today’s highly utilized fisheries. Some specific examples of how things have changed over the century are included below.

In 1925, it was legal to take carp larger than 15 inches in length and only between July 15 and April 15. At the time, a season on common carp addressed the demand and value of carp as a food fish and the need to not over harvest. The Illinois Fish Commission even shared recipes with anglers on how to prepare and cook their carp catch.

The hook and line season for bass was from June 15 to March 1 in 1925, with a daily limit of 10. At that time, black bass—today commonly known as the largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass—were managed like various other species as an emerging, and highly prized, sport species. While you can fish for bass year-round in Illinois now, some states still prohibit angling for bass during the spawning season to protect adults guarding the nest. The statewide daily harvest limit for largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass, either singly or in aggregate, is now six fish, except when set at less than six fish where site specific regulations are in place. Many anglers today practice catch-and-release bass angling, which is a positive conservation practice but sometimes a challenge to managing smaller lakes with good natural reproduction and too many small bass.

Bullheads—black, yellow and brown—were once a prized catch, with the season from July 15 to April 15 in 1925 when a length requirement of not less than 6 inches was in place. Over the past century, the additions of locks and dams on large rivers has changed habitats and the bullhead is not nearly as prevalent. Many anglers still enjoy a meal of bullhead, though it has become less of a targeted sport fish today being largely replaced by the highly popular channel catfish.

“I believe regulations and fisheries management in general have shifted in large part to more scientifically based and conservation-minded programs,” recently retired Assistant Fisheries Chief Kevin Irons said. “While protecting the smallest fish initially ensured adequate reproduction, adult and breeding populations were still impacted. Length and daily harvest limits, limiting how many adults can be harvested and establishing seasons are established with one goal in mind—to protect breeding populations for sustainable harvest and for all licensed anglers to enjoy.”

The North American Model

“Fisheries biologists and researchers recognized early on that some management is necessary to protect resources that we love,” explained Mike McClelland, Chief of the IDNR Division of Fisheries. “By the turn of the 19th-20th century, scores of species of waterfowl, upland birds, mammals and fish were decimated. Thankfully, numerous legislative protections and provisions evolved and collectively became known as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.”

This system of policies and laws has been summarized into seven principles, including that every person has an equal opportunity under the law to participate in hunting and fishing, and that scientific management is the proper means for fish and wildlife conservation.

“Many things have changed over the past century and thanks to the support of our constituents, Illinois’ aquatic resources are protected to benefit the organisms, their habitats and the angler,” McClelland continued. “Each of us working in Division of Fisheries are grateful to everyone who has purchased a fishing license over the past 100 years as these are the people who have nearly exclusively funded this work.”