Northern wisconsin

[Dfiene1]

Hi everyone. I am going to be in northern Wisconsin for a long weekend in the beginning of sept. I am looking to hit up at least one new lake if not a few. Any suggestions? I am primarily a Bass guy but will target almost anything. I will be staying in St. Germain area. Thanks!

[Lamar]

  Not sure where St.Germain is. I would go to the Green Bay area and fish Lake Michigan for smallmouth. Some of the best smallmouth fishing in the world comes from there. In-Fisherman has Sturgeon Bay as number three in the world for smallmouth. Wisconsin has some odd fishing laws so read up before you go out.

[Muskygary]

Big St. Germaine lake is known for musky and walleye fishing, but it is hard fished! Walleye fishing is most productive at night.

[Botanophilia]

Lamar, St. Germain is about 4 hrs north-west of Green Bay.  It's an excellent area for pretty much any type of fish you want to catch.

I'll tentatively be heading up there after Labor Day.  We take the canoe out on smaller lakes to find bass and panfish.  Really, pick a body of water up there and you'll find good fish.  There are some big bass to be found!

[ctom]

4 hours? More like 1.5 to 2 isn't it? Nice area though. You won't have any problem finding water or fish.

[Lamar]

Big St. Germaine lake is known for musky and walleye fishing, but it is hard fished! Walleye fishing is most productive at night.

  For the most part all the inland lakes in Wisconsin are like that. I fished a tournament on Lake Winnebago and remember dodging walleye boats everywhere coming out of Oshkosh in the morning. I bet there was 250 plus walleye boats out there every morning and night. No one was fishing for bass except us in the tournament. The funny thing was the locals were blaming the smallmouth for eating the walleye fry and that's why they said the catch was down. I told the one guy You don't think it has anything to do with you guys yanking all your fish out and eating them do you ? He didn't want to hear that. But the smallmouth fishing on the north end of that lake was awesome and when you got bored with them you could go back in the channels and take a rat on top of the grass mats and catch some really nice largemouth. Just to make the locals mad the one night we had a walleye fry to show them bass wasn't the only thing we were catching out off those rock piles.

[Muskygary]

LOL! Love that story Lamar. I find the same thing down here in Indiana. The northerns eat all the bluegill. I always like to come back ,with "How many bluegill do you eat?"

[Dfiene1]

Thanks for all the info guys. My grandparents had a cabin in the town of sugar camp in between st germain and eagle river on the sugar camp chain of lakes. Every vacation of my childhood was spent on those lakes, we never explored much. It seems for every mile of road their is a different lake on both sides. As with any where some lakes are just better than others. This year I'm staying on the eagle river chain instead of st germain. Looking at the DNR reports it looks quite promising. Thanks again for the input.

[Botanophilia]

4 hours? More like 1.5 to 2 isn't it? Nice area though. You won't have any problem finding water or fish.

Maps says 2h41m.  I remember it taking us close to 5 hr to get to Minocqua and we're only an hour south of GB, hence my 4 hr estimate.

That area of the state is a treasure; almost more water than land.  If you can get on some of the small lakes with a canoe (many are no boat access) be prepared for a super great time.  If you can't find bass or pike, the panfish are huge.  I'm sure you'll have a great time up there! 

Lamar,
Your Winnebago story is much like one of mine. We spent a day fishing rock piles at the end of a channel and easily boated over 100 bass.  Slow no wake area so boaters would see us doing well and ask what we're catching.  You should've seen the look on their faces when we would say bass.  It's a dirty word there. We rarely catch walleye, and even bass is usually slow.  I don't like the lake.  It's over fished.  I assume you guys saw the story out of MN where a group was almost 700 fish over their limit?  Only facing a $3000 fine.  Should be more. 

[Lamar]

Maps says 2h41m.  I remember it taking us close to 5 hr to get to Minocqua and we're only an hour south of GB, hence my 4 hr estimate.

That area of the state is a treasure; almost more water than land.  If you can get on some of the small lakes with a canoe (many are no boat access) be prepared for a super great time.  If you can't find bass or pike, the panfish are huge.  I'm sure you'll have a great time up there! 

Lamar,
Your Winnebago story is much like one of mine. We spent a day fishing rock piles at the end of a channel and easily boated over 100 bass.  Slow no wake area so boaters would see us doing well and ask what we're catching.  You should've seen the look on their faces when we would say bass.  It's a dirty word there. We rarely catch walleye, and even bass is usually slow.  I don't like the lake.  It's over fished.  I assume you guys saw the story out of MN where a group was almost 700 fish over their limit?  Only facing a $3000 fine.  Should be more.

  We caught a lot of fish on the north end. The south end was full of algey bloom and stunk. Looked like antifreeze. I hired a guide the first day I was there and he told me ( after I hired him ) they just don't fish bass here but thought if I would catch 8 to 9 pounds a day it would be winning weight. Plus he only fished with live bait. Really ? The first day I came in with 17 pounds and was in 15th place. He showed up to the weigh in and was totally shocked. All I can say is it was a good thing I ignored his advise and fished the north end and not the east side of the lake where 12 to 14 inch fish were common. I will say we were catching two to five walleye each a day off of tubes on the humps. That's why we decided to keep some for a fry. But of all the places I have fished the people there simply didn't like us being there.