Pistakee Lake fishing: Largemouth Bass, Walleye, Channel Catfish
Target species: Largemouth Bass, Walleye, Channel Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Pumpkinseed
Boat: 1 ramp or launch on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at a marina.
The lake
Pistakee Lake covers 1,795 acres in Illinois, across 2 counties: Lake and McHenry. It is a lake: the deepest figure on record is 30 feet (9.1 m), as published by Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI), a figure without a map of the bottom. Our records hold 14 species for this water.
7 target fish, led by Largemouth Bass
- Largemouth Bass — Feeding water: 65–85°F.
- Walleye — Feeding water: 50–75°F.
- Channel Catfish — Feeding water: 70–85°F.
- Freshwater Drum — Feeding water: 60–75°F.
- Bluegill — Feeding water: 70–85°F.
- Green Sunfish — Feeding water: 65–80°F.
- Pumpkinseed — Feeding water: 65–80°F.
Also recorded here: Orangespotted Sunfish, Longnose Gar, Tadpole Madtom, Emerald Shiner, Spottail Shiner, Golden Shiner, Brook Silverside.
Water and conditions
Our water temperature readings average 68°F; they do not cover the whole year, so this is not a yearly average. pH averages 8.2. These readings span 2017–2022. The latest reading is from 2022, more than three years ago: read these numbers as history, not as the water today.
Depth and bottom
Deepest figure on record: 30 ft (9.1 m), as published by Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI). We hold no survey map of this bottom, so we show no depth bands. We hold 6 depth contour lines for this water.
1 ramp or launch on this water
On this water we hold 1 boat ramp.
- a marina — Fox Lake. 116 Route 12, Fox Lake 60020 · phone +1-847-587-0211
The place listed has no fee or opening hours on file: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.
What is hard here
Only 1 public ramp is on file, so the launch decides where you fish.
Where this data comes from
- Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Illinois Department of Natural Resources: depth contours: class A, a survey of the bottom.
- Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI) — LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0: Lake depth for 17,675 lakes in the conterminous U.S.: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.
