William W. Powers State Recreation Area — Attraction in Hyde Park Township

I can't say a whole lot just yet about this park and the lake, as this evening was my first visit.

What I can say is this: the place is spotless, literally. Like as in not a single piece of any kind of trash anywhere in sight, which knowing the unfortunate way many people are, says a lot for the staff. Whomever is responsible for taking care of the grounds does an absolutely fantastic job!

The lake itself is gorgeous, with water as clear as what comes out of your faucet.

It appears to be full of fish. In 30 minutes time I missed 2 fish that I assume were large mouth bass, and caught (then released) a nice healthy 2lb large mouth. All 3 strikes came on a white chatter bait.

The only negative, which I'm sure has more to do with me being unfamiliar with the area than anything else, is there appeared to be no way into the park via car.

I assume it closes, which is cool, as the local authorities certainly have the right to maintain whatever hours they want, but I arrived right around 6:30pm and all the entrances I found were already closed.

I ended up parking in front of one of the closed gates, grabbed my pole, and walked in.

It's a short walk to the lake and there are lots of good spots along the bank which are totally accessible.

I'm in town for a few days and if my work schedule allows, I'll try to get there earlier and update this if I develope any additional information that's post worthy.

Bottom line: nice place, really clean, beautiful clear water lake with what appears to be an abundant large mouth bass population. Bring a white chatter bait and get there before they...

If only I could catch some fishes, then it would be perfect. But I love coming here with my family. Decided I wanted to do something different for my birthday June 4th. So I thought about going fishing since I've already bought 2 fishing rods about 2 years ago and never use them. Only.came here 2 times so far and both times I kinda had a good time. 1st time I spent 3 hours spooling thread... what a waste of an day. So next time I bought 2 extra rods both with the fishing line already done . What a relief that was to be able to enjoy yourself without spooling for 3 hours... didn't catch any fish but caught alot of seaweed or algae whichever it was. But I'm starting to enjoy myself there with family. So of 6 of us in our family now have fishing rods. Maybe I will make that an tradition to go out door more and do some nature activities. I think the next thing I want to do is learn how to shoot my composite bow and my arrows. But theose families looking for a nice quiet and relaxing good time. This is the place. Even though it was crowded it was still spacious and I definitely will be returning a few more times to fish this year before winter comes.

I will catch me a few fishes as well . Also walmart does sell fishing license for 1 year I paid 35 bucks for mines but its worth it because the park rangers do be sliding by talking about do u have fishing license....better be safe than sorry and ruin the fun and have family...

I like visiting the state park because it's an urban sanctuary within an urban environment within what nature has to offer. The biggest drawback is the park surrounded by all of that industrial activity on the far southeast side of Chicago and northwest Indiana, particularly Hammond and Whiting. The site used to be a missile factory before it was demolished almost 50 years ago. However, it's a great place to clear mind while your walking around, hunting and fishing on Wolf Lake. It opens until it gets dark 7 days a week. This is one of the nature parks in the city on any government-owned level, you should get out of our comfort zones if you appreciate...