Devils Kitchen Lake

All I can do is add to Jack Gaither's review. At the "Kitchen" you may only have one "hit" in the Day but, it could be a 10lb. hit. I have a 8lb. 14oz. mounted on my wall. The timber is still standing & the Redear are huge if you can get on them. My brother & I had a stringer of 90 & they were all in the 1lb. range, the largest was 1lb. 12oz. I hunted the bottoms while the lake was being built, (my father was working on the spill section) & the timber that was cut was pushed in piles & not burned. It has a 9.9hp. limit and watch the Stumps (trees that have been topped)as they are sharp & can rip a boat open. If you ever fish it you will love it, if your catch is good.

Like its neighbor just across the road, Devils Kitchen is a beautiful lake nestled in the hill country of Southern Illinois, not far from Giant City State park, a beautiful wonder in itself. This lake was built several years later than it's neighbor Little Grassy and had quite a different appearance when I last saw the two of them sometime in the 1970's Grassy's timber had mostly fallen while that of the Kitchen was still standing and not yet beginning to decay much. The Kitchen is considerably deeper also and the water,instead of looking green had a deep blue look. Of course both were very clear lakes. As in Grassy this lake looked very "bassy"to me and at times did produce some good fish. Both lakes are somewhat difficult to fish and are a real challenge but worth the effort when you do find fish. My late dad and I have taken several good strings of fish from both lakes but I believe the Kitchen has been the better producer of bigger fish. Both were very heavily fished lakes in the 60's but with the building of several other lakes in the vicinity may not be quite as popular now. Their other nearby neighbor, Crab Orchard Lake which is both larger and older I have never fished. Both Grassy and The Kitchen have very fine landing facilities and campgrounds which my family used often back then. Although I now live on one of the best bass lakes in the U.S. I certainly would enjoy going back and giving these two beautiful old lakes a revisit.