Dekalb Turkey Hunting
 

Hi,

Anyone hunt in Dekalb - Kishwaukee River? I picked Dekalb for my first lottery choice because it's close to me. Now, I'm thinking that may not have been the best choice. Not a ton of options. Anyone hunted turkey there? Any other recommendations for Dekalb?

Thank you for your help!

Patrick

Tcanuth - I'm also a new hunter in Illinois. What area of the state are you looking to hunt? I'm in the Northwest area and looking at hunting in Dekalb. Any advice? Where are you looking?

Patrick

I've never hunted Kishwaukee, but have met hunters who have. I've been told that place gets pretty crowded. Generally speaking, all public land anywhere near the Chicago land area has way too many people. The farther away from Chicago, the better. I've tried some public land before, but have also gone to private land with buddies. With public land, NEVER hunt on weekends and pay attention to your surroundings. Good luck.

For almost all public land, you need a site-specific permit -- a county permit does you no good (there are a couple exceptions-none in DeKalb County, to my knowledge, and things may be different downstate). County permits are for private land. I live in DeKalb County, and I typically try to draw public-land tags west of I-39. There have been two lotteries already, so pickings are getting slim,but there are still some public land tags left. Next lottery deadline is early February (I think the 11th).
This link lists remaining tags:
http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/...y01DEC2011.pdf
Public lands are listed at the end, in abbreviations that are not always obvious. The abbreviations can be found on the paper application -- here:
http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/...PermitForm.pdf

Unless you can get access to private land, the DeKalb County tags may not do you much good. If you want to get out this year, check out the public land tags. It'll cost you an extra $15, but at least you'll be hunting (you can buy up to 3 tags).

I'm new to turkey hunting and just got the tag permit from the 2nd lottery for Lake county (was the last of my choices) - does anyone have experience with Lake county and best places to go?

In Illinois, most (almost all) public land requires a permit specific to the site. County tags are for private land (at least in the northern part of the state). I'm not sure if there's much public land in Lake County anyway. So I guess if I were trying to hunt turkeys there, I'd be trying to make contact with some land owners. In the future, you may want to look to southern Wisconsin since your right near the border anyway. Wisconsin isn't too hard on nonresidents in terms of fees, and I know there's public land between the border and Milwaukee.

I just got a permit for Lasalle Co 1st season. When I applied for the lottery I didnt realize that public land required specific permits. What should I do now?

Call Marseilles Fish & Wildlife Area, I think it's one of the exceptions to the rule and you can hunt there with a LaSalle County tag -- hours are very limited -- and people that hold site specific tags get preference (they only let out a limited number), you might be able to get on there, and I know they take some birds out of the place. I'm working off memory here, so check with the site, if no one answers at Marseille, try calling Illini State Park. Good luck.