i cant seem to find the illinois fishing regulations like equipment restrictions, season dates and areas to hunt. i looked on the dnr website but i cant seem to find any info. thanks guys i am VERY interested in bowfishing and would like to get into it.
Hey Danny... welcome to the addiction!!!... There isn't any equipment regulations as it comes to bowfishing in Illinois.. However there are some body' s of water that does not allow bowfishing.. If you go to the DNR website for the fishing regs... http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/fishing/Documents/IllinoisFishingInformation.pdf look at the site specific regulations.. It will say two pole only.. those are the ones that are not open to bowfishing.. Enjoy!
That's the short answer. Illinois bowfishin regulations are very convoluted. "To find if a particular body of water is legal to bowfish, you must check in the "Site specific" regulations found in the fishing digest published by the ILDNR and found at most sporting goods stores and bait shops. First, locate the particular lake in in the regulations.Next, read down to see if it is listed with the "2 Pole and Line Fishing Only". If it does not have that restriction, it should be* legal to bowfish. If it does, look for any numbers in parenthesis ().You must then turn back to the start of the Site Specific Regs section where the exceptions are listed to see if they are one of the exceptions that allow bowfishing.At the time of this writing, these numbers are 5, 7, 13, 36, 46, 47. *You notice I said "should". On some bodies of water there are extra rules that limit bowfishing. (municipality rules, etc.) So before you go, be completely sure. While we have done the best we can to explain the Site Specific Regulations, We do not claim this FAQ is the last word on legality of any particular body of water. That responsibility is still yours." http://www.illinoisbowfishers.com/faq/ You can always ask about a particular body of water here too. We'll do our best to find out for you. :D
