Anyone fish these bodies of water? Can you tell me anything about them? Looking for cabin in the area. Also looked at Lake Nancy a little further south. I’m open to other ideas in the area if you have them. I would like to be on a decent size lake. Walleye presence a plus. Thanks.
I have fished them all. I dont have much experience on the Eua Claire Lakes though cause I have only fished them once. On the Lower St. Croix Flowage I have caught many big gils and crappies. nancy is a good lake. I have caught many bass there. I am not a great walleye fisherman so I cant really help you there but on Upper St. Croix lake I have caught many sub leagal eye’s. Bueatiful area up there thats for sure.
The Eau Claire chain is a really nice sized body of water (~ 2700 acres). It has a resort population but isn’t nearly as busy as the lakes closer to Hayward. The water is really clear which makes them good low-light lakes. Nancy is a smaller body of water (~ 900 acres) with a decent multi-species fishery. Muskies were planted in 1990. As far as I know, there has been no subsequent stocking but muskies are still taken out of there occasionally, which means that there must be some natural reproduction. Nancy has clear water too and great cabbage beds in the main body of the lake. Nancy is closer to Hayward and closer to the cities (just off Hwy 53) but I don’t recall if there are any resorts on that lake; mostly just cabins. Watch out where your cabin is on Nancy. You’re fine on the main lobe of the lake but the smaller, shallow lobe gets weed choked as summer wears on.
Nancy walleyes are stocked. ~ 40 fingerlings per acre are planted on a biannual basis, although this pattern is not as regular as it is on other stocked lakes in the region. The target for the WI DNR is ~ 1-2 adults per acre in a stocked walleye lake, and stocking is adjusted regularly to try to hit this target. The Eau Claire chain gets a regular dose of fingerling muskies and got walleyes up until 1999 (~ 20 fingerlings per acre for the whole chain).
Both of these lakes (Eau Claire chain and Nancy) are speared annually. In 2003 (the last year for which I have seen the reporting data), the Eau Claire chain (all 3 lakes) had 707 walleyes speared and Nancy had 171 walleyes speared. For the Eau Claire chain, that’s about 1 fish per 4 surface acres, and for Nancy, that’s about one fish for every 5 acres. The Eau Claire chain also had 2 ‘skis speared. So, both of these lakes get similar spearing pressure even though one lake has mostly naturally produced fish and one is almost entirely stocked.
Suzuki,
Our fam has a place on the Minong flowage. I have fished both bodies and have much better luck in the minong flowage for eyes. The st croix flowage has some monster gills and crappies and nancy puts out a ski or two over 52 inches each year but we get all our eyes out of our lake.
If you have any questions shoot me an e-mail
jbusch at directservicetransport.com
We fish the chetek chain but have not fished eau claire yet so I cannot help there.
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