I decided to try to win a blind this year. Had no idea about the details and had a hard time trying to find info online about the details. So, now that I went to the draw, I figured I'd share some info for others that might need this info. The draw was Saturday, July 29th at 2pm. Sounds like all of the Illinois public land draws are at 2pm. When I called that morning to confirm a few things, I was misinformed that it was 1pm, so I needlessly scrambled to get there. So I was off to the Chain O' Lakes. When I got to the entrance, I was directed to drive all the way to the boat launch parking lot. Given the 20-25 mph range through most of the park, that was about a 10 minute drive. The parking lot is rather large and there were a ton of folks that must have gotten there when the park opened (6am?). The park Ranger suggested they expected 500-600 people for the draw. As I mentioned, info was scarce, but when I got there, I found out that you needed pick one of two draws. One was for one of 29 stakes on the combination of Grass Lake, Nippersink Lake, and one blind on what looks like the northwest corner of Fox Lake. The other drawing was for one of 5 stakes Redwing Slough and Deer Lake. When was said and done, more than half the folks put in for the drawing on Redwing where there were far fewer stakes. Entering the draw was very fast and easy. You filled out a form the side of an index card with you contact info. One of the organizers checked your past or current years waterfowl license/stamps, and placed your entry into the draw you wanted to enter. When they did the drawing however, it was interesting that 4-5 people from some parties, all won their own blinds. Not sure what to make of that. I wanted to post the results, as best that I could jot them down.

Here are the results:

Redwing Slough/Deer Lake
MAP: https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting...hHunterMap.pdf

1) Deer Lake #1
2) Redwing Slough #3
3) Deer Lake #2
4) Redwing Slough #2
5) Redwing Slough #1


Grass Lake/Nippersink Lake/Fox Lake
MAP: https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting...Waterfowl.aspx

1) #16
2) #15
3) #9
4) #7
5) #8
6) #20
7) #10
8) #14 (?)
9) #5
10) #28
11) #11
12) #12
13) #18
14) #17
15) #27
16) #2
17) #3
18) #19
19) #13
20) #24
21) #1
22) #4
23) #22
24) #26
25) #25
26) #6
27) #21
28) #23
29) #29