Dale Bowman Anglers are particularly primed this winter for the opener Monday at Braidwood Lake. Some will even line up Sunday night. Braidwood, the cooling lake in southwestern Will County, should be ready, too. It was stocked with its usual largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass and blue catfish in 2020. “The lake has a standing annual request for all three species, so they’ll be stocked this year, and I haven’t requested any changes,” emailed Seth Love, district fisheries biologist. “For a few years, hybrid striped bass were not stocked due to a decline in the gizzard shad forage base. Braidwood will get surveyed this upcoming October [it’s on a biennial survey rotation with Heidecke Lake], so I’ll be keeping my eye on those gizzard shad numbers for the 2022 stocking season.”