Boating the Illinois and Kankakee River
 

How big of a boat can you run with?
What are the water depths like?
In the Morris & Ottawa pool do you have to worry about hitting anything at all?
Would I need to worry about hitting anything in the Kankakee River?
How far could I boat on the Kankakee?
Are the channels well marked?
Boating in May would I need to worry about hitting any debris at all?

I don't know the answer to any of those questions...except the last one. And the answer to that one is YES. Especially after rains.

Don't worry about it. That's good to know about watching out for the heavy rain which can cause debris.

The Kankakee is not marked well... There some islands out there that if you go between at he wrong place you will be in trouble. After heavy rans I have seen refrigerators float by. The Illinois is a navigable shipping way. It is marked well with red and green bouys. After rans there is stuff floating down it to.... To be honest there is always a chance to hit stuff. It's a flowing body of water so it's good practice to always be mindfull of that.

How good is boating on the Kankakee? I have a friend that slips his boat next to mine on a dock on Clinton Lake that lives in Bourbonnais and is a member of the Kankake Boat Club. He'd rather drive an hour and a half than boat on the Kankakee. I don't boat the Illinois North of Starved Rock but from there South to LaGrange I boat all the time and never have an issue. I've hit more crap on LOTO than the Illinois. You've just got to monitor the river level closely.

The part by Bourbonnais is not good at all... The part that connects to the des plains and Illinois is a lot of fun.

Wow you guys got 1 like already :lolhit: fwiw We used to run our drag boats at sanctioned cirlce boat races years ago in Kankakee. It was a blast . We ran every year, So it must have some clean spots

I'm sorry I should of been more clear. The area of the Kankakee River that connects to the Des Planes River.

Mptrimshop, thank you for giving me the heads up on what to look out for.

You can run as big of boat you want. There are 42 ft fountain's on there sometimes, I used to run my 36 outlaw there some. Although either is way to big if you want to stop at a beach.
Il river is typically 15-20 ft as it's barge traffic, and decently marked. Kankakee is 10-15 ft in the main channels but the "side" channels can get pretty shallow. There's an area known as "lilly pads" that isn't very deep in and out. Bottom line both are a river and river's have typical shallow spots in them. Most notably the turn from il river south onto the Kankakee -gotta go west almost past it then turn back in.
You can only go about 5-10 minutes south on Kankakee, but there are a few spots to stop, not really beaches though. Il river in morris pool has several beaches.
An yes again being a river, it floods with rain and thus gets a lot of debris. check again when you are ready to go.
if you still have your 25, that's the most common size boat out there on either. no worries.