Celebrating the upcoming kickoff of the 2025 Catchable Trout Season

You will see more fish caught and kept by anglers of all shapes and sizes on the weekend of April 5 than any other this year. That’s because this is the kickoff of the 2025 Catchable Trout Season.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources plants 80,000 beautiful rainbow trout, perfectly sized for eating, into 58 public waterways in Illinois with the majority going to the northern portion of our state. There is a catch-and-release season that begins on March 22, but that seems like a total waste of time to me. These trout are stocked for the direct purpose of ending up on a dinner plate. By the way, there is a second catchable trout season in the fall.

Yes, the trout can be fished for after the opening weekend, but the success numbers drop off dramatically after the first three weekends of the season. If the weather is good, the first weekend will give up as many fish as the next three weekends do, so plan on getting out early.

There is a limit of five trout per angler. Five fish is more than enough for a family dinner, so please don’t be a meathog and take more than you can use. I get outraged when I see people leaving a local lake with a pail full of five trout and then coming back an hour later with an empty pail to fill up again. Come on, folks. Let’s be good citizens here.

Warning — you need to have a valid Illinois Fishing License and also a valid Illinois Trout Stamp. Licenses and stamps can be purchased online with a credit card.

My only warning for you is that the trout season is met with such anticipation that the lakes are swamped with fishermen. On a great weather day, you may find fishermen lining the banks of the stocked lakes absolutely elbow to elbow. It can be annoying, but it is what it is.

These trout are rather easy to catch, even for novice fishermen. The lakes are closed to fishing to let the trout acclimate to their new surroundings. On opening day, they are hungry and ready to eat dinner.

The fish farms feed the trout with pellets. Unless they’ve changed their methods, the pellets are beige or yellow and round in shape. Berkley makes a product that works like magic on these tasty trout. Berkley PowerBait comes in a paste that can be rolled in your fingers and impaled on a tiny hook. Of course, beige and yellow are the best colors to choose.

Light and tiny are the watchwords to follow in your trout fishing. Don’t buy new equipment. Use your lightest weight rods and reels that you already own. Light line is the key. The kind of line that the manufacturers put on kids’ fishing rods is far too heavy for trout.

Replace it so your children don’t get disappointed because they don’t catch anything. Two or 4-pound monofilament works best and 6-pound is the absolute maximum. No leaders of any kind should be used. Plain long-shank hooks in size 8 are perfect. You are better off using multiple small split-shot sinkers than one large one.

Don’t use traditional red-and-white bobbers. Try using tiny European balsa floats. They are harder for the fish to feel when they are biting. You want to make it as easy as possible for the trout to swallow your offerings.

There are so many people out there fishing on trout season opener, you may not have the chance to pick your spot. The trout move around and they’ll come to you eventually. They remain in the shallows unless a storm moves in. They are not all that hard to find.

When you get them home, sauté them quickly in melted butter and sprinkle with a little dill. Whatever you do, don’t overcook them. When the meat turns white, it is done. It happens fast so don’t let it get away from you. I can’t wait.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.