More than 100 years ago, Naperville businessmen formed a committee to improve the DuPage River as it flowed through Naperville. In 1907, the DuPage River Bait and Casting Club boasted a membership of nearly 300 Naperville residents. Members once enjoyed the “fishing, boating and bathing glories of the days of the big dam…[but] For many years [the DuPage River] has been a little less than a nuisance.”
Fred von Oven, the president of the club, was a graduate of the School of Engineering of the University of Illinois. Von Oven measured levels of the river and determined that if the City Dam built in 1895 or 1896 during Willard Scott, Jr.’s mayoral term was rebuilt, and additional side dams were built at strategic locations, the DuPage River could once again be used for boating and fishing.
The club calculated that the cost of the concrete dams and improvements would be around $1,500. A finance committee of local businessmen and club members was created to raise subscriptions for the project that would not only improve recreational activities, but also help the farmers upstream have sufficient water to water their stock. The committee included William Goodwin, Dr. James Bell, Peter Kroehler, Valentine Dieter and Andy Kochly.
Apparently, other things took precedent as the great DuPage River improvements at Naperville did not take place until the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived in the 1930s.
The Potawatomie people and early settlers enjoyed the rich bounty of the river using the hook and line method of catching fish one at a time. Someone must have been overfishing, however. In May of 1861, the Village board passed an ordinance that outlawed seine, kick or gill net fishing. A hefty $5-$10 would be imposed for breaking the law.
Hardware stores like Hillegas, Scherer & Yost or Hunt & Son used to sell hooks, lures, poles and lines to Naperville anglers. In 1886, Jacob Keller, Jr. was the local source for fresh fish.
Don Wehrli once told me he once used to catch catfish where the cheese factory water pipe used to empty into the river. “Cheap bait!” he said.
Today, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources stocks the DuPage River with small fish called fry or fingerlings, mostly Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike.
Happy fishing, Naperville!
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