Starting last Monday, Illinois Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists fanned out at a variety of locations, including Lake Springfield, to collect live fish for display at Conservation World at the Illinois State Fair.

Conservation World, located on the northwest corner of the fairgrounds, is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Aug. 21.

DNR personnel use specially equipped boats that stun fish using electric current. The temporarily woozy fish float to the surface, where they are more easily netted. Biologists use the same technology when they sample fish populations in area lakes each fall.

"I have a bunch of volunteer dippers I'll be using over the four-day period," said Dan Stephenson, regional fisheries biologist who collected fish from Lake Springfield on Monday morning. "It seems everyone wants to go out when I collect fish for the fair."

Fish captured are now on display in the DNR fisheries tent and the Bass Tub, both in Conservation World. Some also will be in Watershed Park in Happy Hollow, Stephenson says.

Dippers have the seemingly enviable job of scooping up trophy-sized fish with long-handled nets.

Stephenson, Richard Walters and intern Brett Feger even found themselves tailed by fishermen apparently curious to see where the biggest fish were being "shocked up."

"Lake Springfield is noted for big channel catfish and flatheads," Stephenson said.

But the team had a tough time finding big fish, even after hitting a bunch of Stephenson's favorite hot spots.

Running the boat over some of the same ground for a second time finally yielded a respectable largemouth bass and some other species to lend diversity to the DNR display. Other teams collected fish this week along the Mississippi River, Clinton Lake, Powerton Lake and Stephen A. Forbes State Recreation Area.

"That was terrible," Stephenson said, shaking his head after the first less-than-successful attempt to locate big fish.

One might think the lesson here is that even those with an unfair advantage can't escape the fact that fishing is part luck. However, Stephenson reported that a second trip to the lake in the afternoon finally produced big flathead catfish.

"Yesterday afternoon there were seven that came up together in an area about the size of my boat," he said. "Tuesday morning and then again this afternoon we got into them again. All together we got 15 big catfish (one of which weighed about 50 pounds).

With four trophy fish sent over from Clinton Lake, Stephenson says the flathead catfish display is shaping up well. "This is the best flathead display we've have in the 24 years I've worked on the fair."