Pollywog Slough Fishing near Willow Springs, Illinois

• Overview

  Pollywog Slough sits within Cook County in Illinois. Land around it is lake country bush. Small at around 6 acres: two anglers spread out cover most of it. Head to Willow Springs, 1.6 miles away, for anything you forgot. Chicago is the closest city, 14 miles away. More in the same country: Hogwash Slough 0.2 miles, Katydid Slough 0.3 miles away, Boomerang Slough 0.4 miles, Suttonbush Slough 0.5 miles away and Crawdad Slough 0.6 miles. Being near a boundary, it pays to know which side you are fishing.

• Where to Fish on Pollywog Slough

  Open data we checked carries no depth for this water. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Survey and observation records for Cook County include common carp, bluegill, green sunfish, gizzard shad and goldfish. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. At Pollywog Slough the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The seasonal spread runs 22°F to 74°F. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. Ice-out usually falls in mid March, and the weeks after it fish hardest. From about mid March to around mid December, expect open water on the long-run figures. September and October fish steadily right up to the freeze. Pollywog Slough fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. A car park lies half a mile away, so the walk in is short. There are picnic tables half a mile away. Spears Woods covers this ground, which means extra rules to check. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Fishing rules and camping rules are set separately here. If the gate is shut, Hogwash Slough at 0.2 miles is the nearest alternative. Treat Pollywog Slough as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.