See every public fishing venue in Illinois on the map, with boat ramps, camping, parking and full rules for each one.
Wabash River is a public river in Wabash County, White County, Crawford County, Clark County, Lawrence County and Gallatin County, Illinois, managed by State of Illinois (public / navigable water). You can fish it on an Illinois licence; bank access is at road crossings, parks, IDNR sites and other public land, and riparian owners control the bank on non-navigable reaches. Public access confirmed via marquee water.
The Wabash River on the Illinois-Indiana line — smallmouth bass through the upper and middle reaches, sauger and walleye, white bass, channel and flathead catfish, and drum. A genuinely good, underrated river.
It runs roughly 208 miles through the Southern Illinois region. Anglers here mostly fish for smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, sauger, walleye; white bass, channel catfish, flathead catfish, freshwater drum are also on record. Live flow and gauge height come from the Wabash River At Riverton, In USGS station shown below. The nearest other mapped waters on PiscaMaps are Brushy Creek and Lake Lawrence.
Species from IDNR fishery-management data.
Night fishing: No statewide night-fishing closure in Illinois. Some IDNR site lakes post hours or gate at dark, and a handful of urban lakes are day-use only. Trotlines, throwlines and set hooks are legal on most rivers and reservoirs (not on IDNR-managed quality lakes) with the gear tagged; bowfishing for carp, gar and buffalo is popular after dark on the big rivers.
Boats: Rend, Carlyle, Shelbyville, Clinton, the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio rivers have no horsepower limit; idle / no-wake zones are marked near ramps, dams and marinas. Many IDNR site lakes are electric-motor-only or have a horsepower cap posted at the ramp, and several Chain O'Lakes waters have summer speed-zone rules. Illinois requires a boater-safety certificate for operators born after 1 Jan 1998.
Bank & bivvy camping: Camp at Illinois state parks and recreation areas on the big reservoirs (Rend Lake, Carlyle, Shelbyville, Clinton, Kinkaid, Crab Orchard), the Shawnee National Forest in the south, and IDNR site campgrounds on many of the managed lakes. The Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio rivers have Corps campgrounds and river-access parks.
Tackle: Statewide black-bass daily limit is 6 (14-inch minimum on most water, with special slot or catch-and-release rules on IDNR quality lakes); crappie 25 on most reservoirs; muskellunge 1 (36-inch minimum, higher on trophy waters); walleye/sauger limits vary; catfish generous. Check the current IDNR digest of fishing regulations for this water.
Boat ramps: 20 mapped — Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp and others nearby.
Camping: 2 sites mapped nearby — Campsite, Camping at Baell Woods.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Loading live flow & gauge height…
Live from USGS gauge 03342000 — Wabash River At Riverton, In. Full gauge data →
Anyone 16-64 needs an Illinois Department of Natural Resources fishing licence — the resident annual is about $16 (a resident Sportsmen's Combination that adds hunting is more), the non-resident annual about $32, and non-resident 1-day/5-day licences are sold. Illinois has no trout stamp requirement for most water (a small number of put-and-take trout ponds may need a separate stamp — check locally); Illinois residents 65 and older, and anyone under 16, do not need a licence. A single licence covers the state's Corps and IDNR reservoirs. Buy from IDNR at dnr.illinois.gov. An Illinois fishing licence covers navigable rivers. The Mississippi is fished on an Illinois, Iowa or Missouri licence in the border reaches; the Ohio on an Illinois, Kentucky or Indiana licence; the Wabash on an Illinois or Indiana licence.
Every water carries species, bank & boat access, current regulations and live water conditions — and members get Swim Mapper, Catch Logger and Trip Planner. It's the only US map with a dedicated carp-water layer.
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