Best place in the state to get first muskie???

Wife has hounded me she wants her 1st muskie. She is good at throwing baits and has spend quite a few hours with me unsuccessfully. She had a fish last year chase a topwater but got nervous and stopped the bait! We live in southeastern Wi and we will travel, just want some ideas. Something easy to fish, time of year, etc. Our yellow lab travels everywhere with us so we need lodging that will take him also. We fish Random, but last few years have slowed do to fishing pressure. Lake Wingra in Madison worth a try? Anything close would be great!!! Will travel if needed. Thanks Dave

Pewaukee, Oconomowoc, Okauchee lakes, also hear that they are starting to turn on up on Sturgon Bay (also in De Pere and The Fox River up in the Greenbay area).

Pewaukee is rated as having more muskies per acre then any of the other musky waters in Wisconsin:

“Muskie growth here exceeds state averages, with a mean average of 37 inches for adult females and 33 inches for adult males. Pewaukee also leads state averages in adult muskies per surface acre at .52, with the very best Class A northwoods counterparts checking in at about .33.”

Okauchee boosts that there is a musky for every 5 acres.

Both Okauchee and Pewaukee can be hard to fish though this time of the year due to pleasure boating. Night fishing seems to be the key during the hot summer days.

If I had to rate the three lakes, I’d say start at Okauchee, then Pewaukee, and lastly Oconomowoc.

East rush lake. I hardly have ever fished Muskies but during practice for and the bass tournament I was in we caught alot of muskies there.

Sorry. Just realized that is a Minnesota lake and you are talking Wis.

Any idea on anything in Vilas or Oneida counties??? I used to fish Big St. germain, but its been a few years. I’d like to go september or october.

I was reading recently were Pete Mania has his favorite lakes listed for numbers and trophys in Wisconsin, I think the article was in an old Wisconsin Sportsman. Anyways you might want to do a little research for Pete on the web and see if you can find anything there , if anyone would know the best place in those two countys he would be it, when I get access to my old mags (work on Wednesday) I’ll take a look and see if I cant find that article and relay the info to you it was a very good article I just need to find it!

There are quite a few lakes up here in oneida and vilas county. Little and big arbor vitae are good action lakes just to name a couple.
PM me if you would like some more info. on the area lakes and what the bite is like.

Dodge Boy got a couple, but for my money as of late I would consider Ballard and Wildcat. Ballard is making a comeback from a severe winterkill 6-7 years ago. Wildcat is a lake that a friend of mine fishes every now and then just to put a fish in the boat. Allequash used to be a good numbers lake, but seems to be a little better now for its size distribution. A little further to the east would be the Eagle River and Three Lakes Chains. I think the PMTT just fished the ER Chain and in the two days of fishing they put over 50 fish in their boats for the tourney.

Mark

Found that article, Maina, took NW Wisconsin, he said Bone Lake inPolk county is an excellent Lkae for #’s, 1 musky per acre. Amnicon and Lyman Lakes NW of Solon Springs are two more inhis area for #’s. Rob Manthei wrote about the Vilas area, He mentioned Allequesh and Lost and Found Lakes. Along with this he said Plum lake is a good trophy lake. The article is in the June 2003 edition so its a little old, but I’d be surprized if any of these lakes changed…

My money is on Big Sand in Vilas County. Sturgeon Bay and DePere can be fantastic but require many hours and some unique skills to connect. The occational 4 – 6 fish in one day @ DePere is truley a possibility and with potential world record fish comming from one of these two areas it’s hard to fish anywhere else. For your first fish I would still go elsewhere for numbers. One thing to consider would be fishing at night to increase your chances.

bigpike:

As long as Maina is saying Bone is good in 2003, I will let you know that I had two friends fish it just a couple of weeks ago and they had 13 fish at the boat during that weekend. I can’t remember if or how many times they got hooked up though.

I think Maina and Manthie hooked up in another article here not long ago this summer regarding the same topic and I am pretty sure they talked about an entirely different set of lakes.

Mark

Bone is a great numbers lake similar to Deer. Don’t expect much over 40″ though. There are exceptions but there is a ton of competition for food and growth rates are slow.

Bone lake is excellent for number of muskies. I believe their rate per acre is three time the state average. If you are in that area you could also check out Blake lake and the Apple river for bigger ‘skies. The Apple has pretty good trophy potential with some well over 50″ taken easch year. If you hit the Apple be sure to check in at Gen’s Bait for info.

2catch1; I haven’t musky fished for years because of injuries but if you fish Random and don’t mind traveling, I’d try Pewaukee Lake. I’ve read a lot of good things about it. If you want to go to Vilas County I would agree Big Sand Lake. I admit I haven’t been there for a while, but there were quite a few just legals in there last time I was in Phelps. There is a lot of eurasian milfoil in that lake and this time of year you want to be careful motoring into the big flats of that stuff. Can be hard to get out of. Big Sand flows into Long Lake and fall can produce some huge ones. It’s a much harder to fish lake however. If you go to either of these lakes, take a few minutes to try by the boat landings: often overlooked. Good luck!