Fishing near Wilmette, Illinois

Wilmette sits in Cook County, Illinois. Some 27,413 people call it home. In the order you would reach them: Lake Mary Anne roughly 7.3 miles to the west, Beck Lake roughly 7.6 miles, Park Lake roughly 7.9 miles to the south-west with Murphy Lake roughly 8.0 miles. The rocky sides of Park Lake give a shelf worth working along. Some winters cap these and some do not. Treat any of it with suspicion. Few areas offer this much variety so close together. Points and bays outfish flat shoreline every time. The nearest of them, Lake Mary Anne, covers about 16 acres. Boats go in at Lake Mary Anne, going by the mapping. Ice generally clears near late March in an average year. Across Cook County, recorded fish include common carp, bluegill, green sunfish, gizzard shad and goldfish. Anything you fish here counts as Cook County water, so read the county rules first....