Lake Centralia is a reservoir in
Marion County, Illinois.
Served by rural roads, it is 8 miles (13 km) east of the Illinois city of
Centralia.
The reservoir is 412 acres in size, has a shoreline length of 12.9 miles, and possesses an average water depth of 10 feet. The city, which owns the lake for water-supply purposes, works with the
Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to stock it with fish. The IDNR reports that lake fishing specializes in stocked bass, including
largemouth bass. The lake also offers
channel catfish
The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...
, white and black
crappies, and
bluegill
The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...
.
The marina is located on the north side of the lake,
and there are no restrictions on boat fishing.
The lake is mostly located in
Raccoon Township, with a small portion located in the adjacent
Salem Township.
Raccoon Township and Raccoon Creek, which feeds the nearby Raccoon Creek Reservoir, are a reminder of the area's wetland heritage from long ago. The city's contractors dammed a feeder of
Crooked Creek, a tributary of the
Kaskaskia River, to build the Lake Centralia reservoir in 1910.
The reservoir is served by Exit 116 on
Interstate 57 in Salem Township.
References
{{coord, 38.559, -88.994, type:waterbody_region:US-IL, display=title
Bodies of water of Marion County, Illinois
Reservoirs in Illinois