I am planning on boating the Illinois River near Morris and Senaca this coming Saturday and would like some advice from the locals. Where is a good place to launch? Would prefer something convenient to I-39 without an aggressive DNR presence .
Thanks,
Steve

I've launched at Big Basin. Nice ramp and docks. Not a whole lot of room to run. I boat two pools down river between starved rock and pekin which is just under a 90 mile run. Rarely go up that direction due to the lack of river and excessive dnr/conservation.

I can't recall in the last 15 years of boating on the river a DNR boat North of Henry up to Starved Rock. I have seen them a handful of times between the Rt. 74 bridge and Chillicothe Been boarded on Peoria Lake before and have seen them at the ramp at Detwiller in Peoria. I have never seen DNR South of the Peoria lock. .

Big Basin is on the DesPlaines River under the I-55 bridge. You would have to go through locks to get to the Illinois River & get to Morris & Seneca.

I would launch in Spring valley, it close to Starved Rock and you can run down to Peoria. If you are set on the Morris/Seneca pool I would launch in either Marseilles or Seneca. Morris launch gets too busy for me

I have launched at Spring Valley and ran to Peoria many times. I just have never ran north and would like to check that out.

I saw the DNR at the Spring Valley ramp and they were like a hornets nest that just got beat with a stick. That is why I asked , and try and avoid them.

Brain fart. My bad. Not sure what i was thinking. But yes you can put in in senica. My buddy lives there south of the river by Spring Brook Marina. He said they have a pretty good ramp. If you come to Spring Valley , come across to the boat club. Public launch i doubt your boat would even float.

P.S. Revd Up... your inbox is full and the number you gave me doesnt work

Sorry about that. I have cleared out the old mesages. I am going to put in at Seneca on Saturday and run that pool. Like to check out new waters when ever I can. Hope to see you in a couple of weeks at the Henry Poker Run. I agree that Spring Valley public launch sucks.

You will see water cops .... 2-3 a year around there

Revd up,

Saw you floating in front of Boondocks later in the afternoon. I was in the Sunsation Aggressor idling by. Mentioned to my wife how nice your boat looked.

Paul