Imagine catching a rainbow trout almost every time you cast your line into the water no matter what kind of bait you’re using. That’s what thousands of anglers are anticipating when they show up at either Axehead Lake or Belleau Lake in Cook County Forest Preserves this Saturday for the official opening of trout season.
The two lakes will be teeming with more than 3,000 pounds of rainbow trout, or the equivalent of about 6,000 half-pound fish, after the lakes were restocked this week. Fish holding tanks are transported by truck to the lakes and Forest Preserve officers use a net to carry the fish to shore, where they’re released.
Forest Preserve officials are calling the event “unique” because many other lakes, particularly in the southern part of the region, had to cancel the stocking of trout. The water temperature has been too warm.
“It’s a pretty big event,” said Chris Merenowicz, fish biologist for the Forest Preserve District. He predicts the shorelines at both lakes will be packed “shoulder to shoulder” with fishermen out to catch the daily limit of five rainbow trout. Forest Preserve officials expect people to practice the “catch and release” fish management program after they reach their limit.
And fishing has never been easier. The rainbow trout are raised in an open tank, so when they’re released into a large body of water they tend to stay put. Since they have been living in a tank, the fish are used to feeding off the top of the water, which, according to Merenowicz, means the trout will go after most baits. “It’s a pretty easy catch,” he said.
Axehead Lake is located at Interstate Highway 294 and Touhy Avenue, Park Ridge, and Belleau Lake is west of Interstate 294 near Busse Highway in Des Plaines.
Both lakes also have other fish on the menu, such as largemouth bass, pike and walleye. Before heading out to the lakes, anglers need a valid fishing license and an inland trout stamp from the state of Illinois.
