Wisconsin's Best Bets For Fishing

By Ted Peck

If you're seeking closure, don't fish Wisconsin. Take it from a guy who is on the water over 220 days a year. You just can't fish it all - not in a year, maybe not in a lifetime.

Two Great Lakes, over 26,000 miles of rivers and a million surface acres of lakes beckon in America's Dairyland. Following is a look at just 36 trips where you can sample the best fishing Wisconsin offers.

There is a tremendous year-class of walleyes measuring 26 to 28 inches swimming in this 10,400-acre lake straddling the Jefferson/Rock county line, with several more big year-classes of legal dimensions.

Set tip-ups over at least 5 feet of water in a triangular pattern, with a fathead or shiner just off the bottom. Using "hole covers" is a good idea to keep out sunlight. This lake has a faceless bottom with a maximum depth of just 6 feet.

Contact: U-Catch Em Bait, (608) 754-7976.

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The great-grandpike of our state-record northern still call these weedbeds home. Set tip-ups in between weed patches baited with half-squished smelt to provide scent. Be sure the smelt hangs level and natural about a foot below the ice. Quick-strike rigs are a good idea.

Remember where you found 'em last fall? Smallmouths have moved just a little deeper to the first deep breakline in bays of both lakes Superior and Michigan. Poke a bunch of holes along this contour and go after them with a jigging spoon. These bronzebacks like to cruise. When the bite slows, it's time to go looking. Just be sure to let them all go.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Backwaters of our lower Mississippi River pools offer some outstanding panfish action if we see any kind of January thaw.

Most anglers target crappies and bluegills with a black or purple No. 2 Rembrandt willowspoon suspended about 18 inches below a small float. Raise the float a few inches out of the hole, wiggle the rod and let the float plop into the hole. When it moves to one side, set the hook.

Contact: Schleicher's Landing, (608) 725-5216.

Target weed edges in this Michigan-Wisconsin boundary water, moving until you hit fish. The Rembrandt works well here, too. Red was a killer color last year. This is perhaps our best multi-species lake, so don't forget the tip-ups!

Set tip-ups baited with smelt or golden roaches along the weed edges on the east side of this fertile lake at the lower end of the Madison Chain. The area from north of Rockford Heights to south of the Bible camp holds pike all winter long - and the south end off of access at Goodland Park is even better.

This heavily pressured Walworth County lake continues to produce some whopping big slabs.

Target the deep weeds off of Lake Lawn Lodge along the big bar during periods of low light. There is often a lull between sunset and an hour after dark. Don't leave the ice. Crappies will get active again on a small minnow on a plain hook with a split shot once serious dark arrives.

The late-ice bite here is nothing short of incredible. Don't forget to wear a PFD and carry picks for self-rescue.

Contact: Geneva Lake Bait & Tackle, (262) 245-6150.

Those beautiful rainbows are on their way inland with the first gush of melting water, with the first action seen on Pike and Root rivers in the south, and the run progressing up the coast. Spawn sacs or a single salmon egg are the hands-down best way to get hooked up. A stealthy approach is a must. These fish are wary.

Clement's fishing barge opens midmonth, enabling folks to fish the open Mississippi River with good expectations for success without the need for a boat. If the bite is slow, you can always go inside for a cheeseburger and a hot cup of coffee.

These brook trout/lake trout hybrids stage off the mouth of the Oconto River - along with pike and walleyes - waiting for smelt to arrive.

Most years there is a good two-week window during April when you can have consistent success pulling crankbaits behind planer boards. For some reason, following the 8-foot contour seems to be most productive, trolling with the wind at about 2.5 mph from the boat launch at the county park to the north.

If you hit things right, the potential for a trophy walleye is even greater than the next two outstanding walleye spots to be mentioned.

Contact: Guide Karl Plog, (920) 336-9860.

The bite begins early in April, vertical jigging Mr. Zips along the channel edges several miles below the dam at De Pere. By midmonth, it's an entirely night-bite operation within a quarter-mile below the refuge line at the dam with a 3-inch chartreuse twistertail on a 1/4-ounce jighead.

When the bite slows on the Fox, it's time to head north to the Menominee River at Marinette. The bite starts with blade baits in the bay and along the seawall on the Wisconsin side, with the fish moving upstream around Stephenson Island at night with warming water on a rising river. Last year there were only three of us standing in the rain near the visitor's center when fish started making a good push about 3 a.m. Having big walleyes bumping into your waders is a thrill, but catching and releasing 22 'eyes on fire-tiger Rogues between 25 and 30 inches was more fun.

Contact: Brian Clairmont, (715) 735-7346.

The warmwater discharge out from the Convention Center draws a number of big fish around opening day.

From one vantage point, guide Ron Barefield and I counted 22 legal fish within casting distance. "Sunning" muskies are notorious for not biting. The key is to wait until they move out to newly developing weed edges around the lake as waters warm. Monona isn't a big lake when you're targeting weed edges and points in less than 7 feet of water. The bite is pretty consistent until almost June.

Contact: Guide Ron Barefield, (608) 838-8756.

The bite for these silvery salmon is consistent close to shore pretty much all month from the state line up past Wind Point north of Racine. Fish are high in the water column and wary, making planer boards the only way to go. An assortment of Yo-Zuri Minnows, Rebel FasTraks and spoons will usually net a quick limit.

If you could fish just one lake, this boundary water would be at the top of most savvy anglers' short list. Fluorescent lures work best. Throw a Burt and a Top Raider along weed edges. Forget the net; bring a muskie cradle and camera. It's whopper time.

Most folks launch the boat in the river and head out to fish around the islands and weed edges in this lake by Tomahawk. Bryan Schaeffer goes the other way - clear up to the dam at Lake Alice - with an array of twitchbaits, bucktails and topwater lures.

This may be the best riverine muskie fishery in our state for numbers of fish. Most are in the low- to mid-30-inch range, but a 50-inch sow called the confluence of the river with Muskie Creek home all summer long.

Contact: Tomahawk's Muskie Guide Service, (715) 453-6388.

This popular family vacation spot has to be on the top five northcountry panfish lakes. Quality crappies around the wood, nice bluegills around the weeds and northern pike always close by. If you don't have time to launch a boat, grab a fly rod with a black popper and fish below the spillway. Big 'gills and a lot of 'em.

Huge bronzebacks wait under logs not far from the boat ramp in this ultraclear lake east of Eagle River. Use polarized sunglasses to find cover, then back off and pitch clear hologram tube jigs or a clear Heddon Tiny Torpedo. Deadsticking a Rapala Husky Jerk near cover early in the season is a great tactic, too.

These slightly stained waters in the Presque Isle Chain are a stark contrast to the ultraclear Presque Isle Lake. If there ever was a place to teach muskie fishing, this is it. Just use the electronics to hug the 10-foot contour and pitch an orange Grandma with black spots or orange/black bucktail.

You can cover 200-acre Van Vliet in just a couple of hours. You don't need guide Howie Meyer to figure this lake out. But if money marked "taxidermist" is burning a hole in your pocket, Meyer knows some secret spots not far away where 30-pounders live.

Contact: Seven Islands Guide Service, (715) 686-7155.

Sonny's Dip Bait fished along channel edges and above snags between Janesville and Beloit will net you a 10-fish limit of "eaters" in a couple hours. For flatheads, fish a jig-and-minnow in the river around Blackhawk Island above Lake Koshkonong. On Kosh itself, troll spinner rigs and crawlers behind planer boards for channel cats averaging 4 to 6 pounds.

The deep blue waters on the south side of Madeline Island at the top of our state hold lake trout all summer. Cruise the area out from the state park with an eye on your electronics, looking for a school of baitfish. Eater-sized and larger lakers are hanging just below and are willing to eat vertical Crippled Herring and Lindy Rat'lr spoons in chrome/blue hues.

A series of four hills that run southwest to northeast on the bottom about four miles east of Racine Harbor are the summer home of some of the biggest lake trout in the Great Lakes.

For Racine's charter fleet, tying into these big green salmonids has nearly sure-thing status - just a very slow troll with wire line rigs and downriggers that keep dodger/fly combinations and white trolling spoons close to the bottom 90 to 115 feet down.

On quiet days you can get at these fish with a deep-V boat - if you have the tackle. If you don't, a half-dozen anglers chipping in about $75 apiece can experience laker fishing at its best in a charter out of what may be our best salmonid port.

Contact: Rich Gorske, (262) 639-9562.

The run of the Wisconsin River from Merrill to Brokaw above the city of Wausau offers incredible bronzeback action for small-boat anglers, with a good chance at tangling with a muskie as well. A No. 4 Mepps Black Fury spinner is all you need, but you better pack a couple of spares.

If you're a serious muskie "hook," Big Sis in Sawyer County is a must-do trip this summer. Natural color bucktails and topwaters are all you need to move fish here.

Sturgeon Bay is another fishing destination where something is always biting. When the sun goes down, you might want to target walleyes. During the daylight hours, fish the edges of the ship canal for northern pike, some of substantial dimensions.

In many places the weed edge drops directly away into deep water. The area around the yacht club is good. Don't overlook Sawyer Harbor at the west end of the ship canal, especially the "hook" of the Idlewild Peninsula.

Contact: Guide Gary Nault, (920) 743-1100.

North of Crivitz on Highway 141 is the little town of Amberg. Turn east on the county road and go 10 miles to the river. Take either Chalk Hills Road before the bridge two miles south to Area 32, or the first road past the bridge to Area 4. Both spots have primitive camping at $8 a night, good boat launches and loads of smallies.

Key on flocks of seagulls dining on minnows whacked by schools of marauding white bass that can number in the thousands. Get there quick with the big motor, then drop the electric a hundred yards out and begin throwing Cicadas, Road Runners and little white bucktail spinners.

OCTOBER
Teal Lake Muskies