Fishing near Milwaukee

I started dating a gal that lives in Milwaukee and know I will need to satisfy my fishing addiction when visiting.

My boat is rigged for downrigger trolling so I know I will have fun in the summer trolling Lake Michigan, but what are the inland options?

Any general guidance of where to start my research is greatly appreciated.

Sully

Depending on where she lives in Brewtown, you’re probably only an hour or so from Delavan/Lake Geneva. Really nice multi-species lakes. Geneva is big and deep and clean enough to have lakers.

Get that Pro-V down there before it gets too warm and tap into the brown trout fishing in the harbor.

-J

Jason,

What do you like to fish for? There are numerous options for you depending on what you want to target.

Derek

Diesel-

I consider myself a multi-species fisherman, but I have a special place in my heart for walleyes and pan fish.

Jason-

The browns hit in the winter, eh? Maybe I should take a charter for my first time to learn the ropes. Or did you mean off shore casting? My great lakes experiece is all from when I lived in Duluth. I have no clue about Lake Michigan.

Thanks for the help!

Sully

Pewaukee Lake, just minutes from downtown could be the best big muskie lake in the state, lots of 50’s come from that lake every year, Okauchee also has musky and walleye, Nagawicka, has great bass fishing, the lakes are all within a half hour of downtown.

That harbor/near-shore brown fishery is pretty well known. You can do it from shore, or in small/medium boats. You probably didn’t catch Gillespie’s show this saturday….they were tied up to a pier and hammered browns (up to 15 lb’ers) mid-day on spawn on the bottom and on blades. They also talked about guys set up for walleye trolling (know anybody like that?? ) who go out and pull cranks and clean up!

A question from my home base for 33 years, so many lakes so little time. The best lake in that area is Pewaukee, Never had better musky fishing, I have had double digit follows on that lake with 3 ski’s boated in one day, the hotter the weather the hotter the ski fishing also it is an excellent walleye lake and bass lake SM or LM, also it is a very good panfish lake, if I had to choose just one lake in that area this would be it, now I’ll give you my second favorite lake- Pine, it has limited access but the fishing is second to none for bass, both SM and LM, tons of structure on this lake with underwater fingers points and humps to never get bored, very good for crappies also and of course the scenery is outstanding, the lake is lined with multi million dollar houses if you like that type of scenery. Next up is Big Cedar, awesome lake for LM bass. Probably caught more bass out of this lake than any lake I have fished, there is a huge underwater shelve on the south end of the lake the runs north and south just east of the yacht club that gives lots of bass panfish and pike. Night fishing for bass on this lake is real good also. Also this lake can yield trophy pike though I never figured it out. Walleyes are a little secret on this lake but they can be tough to locate, if you do locate your golden. A few others that are good are Upper and Lower Nabahbin- Big pans and good game fish lakes, I’ll through in Friess Lake only because this is the lake I grew up on and cut my fishing teeth on so to say, go into little Friess at night and through crazy crawlers around the lake and have fun catching big bass….thats all I can think of for now this brought back some good memories, P.S. These lakes can get very very busy, if you get disgusted with that fish at night and have the lake to yourself, fishing the daytime is no problem just fish deeper than you normally do. Never liked the big pond but if you like downrigger trolling the fishing is excellent, also break wall fishing is fun.. good luck and make sure you catch a few Brewer games -the new ball park is awesome….

Gilespies show must have been from the Milwaukee river, they took out the North Ave. Dam and planted bass and walleyes and from what I have heard this restoration project is going better than anyone hoped, its a mazing how a river can be cleaned up no matter how much damage man trys to inflict…

I can’t thank you guys enough. You’ve given me a lot to absorb here. I’m heading down mid February and the ice likely won’t be good enough to fish, so the Chevy will be pulling the Lund.

Another example of why this site is so great!

Sully

Don’t forget Pine Lake, Nagawicka, and a host of others in the Waukesha area. Can be heavy with traffic or tough to get on but you can have some good action if you spend a little time on the water or talk to the guys on this site.

I know I have learned a bunch.

Derek