SubCommittees

Deer Committee

Dredging

Fish/Wildlife

Flora Land/Aquatic

Lake Monitoring Committee

Paths/Greenways Lake

Trails

Mailing Address

Apple Canyon Lake Property Owners’ Association
14A157 Canyon Club Drive
Apple River, Illinois 61001
Phone (815) 492-2238
Fax (815) 492-2160

http://www.applecanyonlake.org/

Fish and Wildlife

The Bass club does a great job every year evaluating how many fish and what types of fish are typically caught in our lake. Apple Canyon Lake has a great reputation as one of the Best Bass fishing lakes in Illinois.

2006 Apple Canyon Bass Club Results

Stocking our Fish

Annual Fish stocking

Every year ACLPOA stocks the lake with fish. Each year different fish are picked in order to create a balance of the desired fish in the lake.



This year approximately 2200 Black Crappies were stocked in Apple Canyon Lake on November 9 by Richmond Fisheries. The crappies, generally about six to eight inches in size, were dumped at three separate locations;


with one-third relocated to the Marina area...
 

...one-third near Nixon Beach,

and one-third in North Bay.

Earlier this year 1,000 Channel Catfish, 3,500 Walleye and 125 Northern were stocked.

Apple Canyon Lake Ice Fishing and limits

There are limits as to the amount of Blue Gills you can catch in the winter for ice Fishing. Also no one but Apple Canyon Lake property owners can fish on our lake. It is a private lake. If you spot people out fishing on the lake with stickers on the cars, or you know they are not property owners, please call security. There have been some safety and liability concerns with non property owners fishing on the lake.

Bluegill  fishing should be limited in wintertime in order to allow for growth of larger fish in the spring time.

Winter Limits would be in effect from ice start until ice out limiting to 25 blue gills and 5 crappies per day. Too many blue gills have been taken out during winter and this cuts down on breeding stock for spring spawning. The main reason for this problem has been that non-members have been ice fishing during the winter. The General Manager will create a system that when a permit is presented, a flag will be given. If you have an ice house you  have to have your name and lot number on it.

Still waiting for this info to be verified- it is coming have patience!

Cribs dropped for Fish Habitat
By Cynthia Carton
Apple Core
Property owners Ken Pickel, Larry Loete, and Larry Burbach recently volunteered their time for a conservation project that would provide smaller fish in Apple Canyon Lake with safe haven protecting them from larger predatory fish.
On Wednesday, November 7 the volunteers were joined by Maintenance Supervisor Tim O'Connor, and Wayne Noller of the maintenance staff, to drop fish cribs at strategic locations around the lake.
Nine cribs, built by Erin Winter, Pickel, and Burbach, were dropped in water 16 to 18 feet deep in four different locations. The cribs serve as an attractor for bigger fish who seek out the smaller fish who use the a crib to get tout of the way of their predators in much the same way that larger fallen trees do in other lakes and waterways. Fish cribs, whether occurring naturally or man-made, are important to any fishery in that they provide good habitat for all levels of the water food chain. Often they are excellent places to angle for fish.
The cribs are constructed of oak staves approximately four feet in height which are attached to plastic pallets with a five gallon bucket of cement for weight.
"Maintenance did a super job of helping us put the cribs in the lake," Pickel says. "It only took about two hours to get it done.




Tim O'Connor, Wayne Noller, and Ken Pickel (photo above) board the maintenance barge to drop the fish cribs around the lake.


Larry Loete and Larry Burbach stay ahead of the barge and use a fish depth finder to find the correct depth for dropping the cribs. All cribs are GPS mapped, so that they can be found and will not interfere with any dredging processes.

** The lake is considered greenway and requires an indemnity agreement approved by the board and/or signed by the General Manager in order to do anything in the lake

The Bass Club

The Apple Canyon Bass Club is made up of 17 members, with a common goal of conservation, friendship and the exchange of ideas. We are currently involved with projects such as road clean-up, lake pick-up, walleye rescue, and enhancing the fishing by adding structure to the lake. We fish 10 club week-end tournaments each season which include 3 outings at the Mississippi river, 2 night outings at ACL, and 5 at various times during the day. In addition to the club outings, we host 6 Buddy Tournaments during the summer that are open to all ACL property owners and their guests. We meet at the ACL clubhouse on the first Wednesday of each month at 6:30 P.M. If you are interested, come to one of our meetings, or contact Larry Loete (club president) at 1 (815) 492-2302 or by e-mail at larloete@jisp.net .
 

This new family of baby ducks swam right by our boat in Presidents cove                        The squirrel family can be found on the 8th hole of the golf course

Geese Control

Apple Canyon Lake does have a Geese Control permit.

In early spring, please contact us if you  see nesting geese.