Chippewa River – Chippewa Falls, Wi.

Anybody familiar with smallie fishing on the Chippewa River bewteen the Wissota dam and the dam in Chippewa? Was born in that town many moons ago and have onl;y gotten back from the twin cities a few times enough to visit a few older relatives and make it out for a quick drive along the river by the landing and the pump house. My uncle used to tell me that the smallies used to really go on a feeding binge when the turbines were running on the Wissota dam.I’ve got more time to fish this year so I am thinking about coming “home” and fishing on this stretch this summer. Its just a small drive from the Twin Cities for me and would appreciate any info you guys can give me. I’ve got a Tuffy marauder and a alum flat bottom so whatever I need to bring I probabaly have already. Thanks again for your time and suggestions!

Bassbugger,

This section does hold a lot of smallies, but most are
smaller fish. And when they are pulling water, it really
does turn them on. It use to be a much better fishery,
than it is currently. My previous office overlooked
that section of the river, and for years there were very
few boats out there. Somehow the word got out, and it
gets a crowd sometimes. And this crowd seems to have
thinned the smallie numbers, or at least the ones that get
over the minimum size limit(14″). Don’t get me wrong, it is
still an above average place for catching smaller smallmouth.
When it is hot, 30 bass per fisher, is not
uncommon. But there will be mostly 12″ fish brought to the
boat.

One word of warning. That section is extremely hazardous.
There are more shallow rocky areas, than there are deep
areas to run in. So when you go out there, go slow until
you know where the deeper water is, and where those mid
river rock piles are.

Big Bass Bane

Ditto with bbbane on the small fish, I fished it quite a bit last summer and could probably count the number of bass I caught 16″ and over on 1 hand. however its pretty easy to go out alone for 3-4 hours after work and put anywhere from 20-40 fish in the boat. This was the first year I lived here so I can’t tell you how it used to be “back in the day” or anything.
If you want info on it you can email(in my user profile) or pm me and I can give you some more specific info. However, in general there’s a lot better smallmouth fishing in the area than that stretch of river, especially if you are coming all the way from the cities you might want to drive the couple extra miles to get some better fish.

Diddo and Diddo again.
I work for the same company as BBBane, and have fished that section and know several other folks that do as well. Locally it is referred to as the “flats”. It has been over fished. There was a day when a guy could twitch cranks and boat fish all day.
Inge

Hey Bassbugger, Do you need a break from those hawgs on your home stretch of water?

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that you can post on the Chippewa River on the Wisconsin Rivers Forum. Lets see anyone work for SGI, or Cray ??? There’s some really large fish in that section of river. Steve

Kevin,
Your right! I’m sure not complaining about walking out my back door and fishing for the smallies on the stretch around Monticello! I was just wondering about the Chippewa River as I haven’t fished it for years as I moved from Chippewa Falls with my parents many years ago.
At one time it also had some nice black crappies that I used to catch in the evening from shore, just upstream from the dam in town. Many nice memories of that town. Thanks guys for your replies to my question about the river. I appreciate it. By the way Kevin, great ad on the back cover of Catfish In-Fisherman!