Your Top Picks for Small Wisconsin Lakes

Justin and I are planning a trip next weekend to a mystery (as of now) lake somewhere in northern Wisconsin. We have a good idea of the general area we want to go, but there are so many lakes up there that its tough to decide which one to fish. We only have 1 day to fish, maybe 2 if we get real lucky. So lets hear some of your favorites for fishability and qaulity of fish. We are looking for mainly crappies and walleyes and are willing to move around. Also if anyone has a good suggestion and would be willing to show us the ropes, please let me know. Right now we are looking at the Hayward area, and I have my eyes on Grindstone lake. Before we finalize anything, i want to hear some opinions and see if there is some other small lake I should be more interested in instead..
Thanks,
Cade

I would go across the street to Lac Courte Oreille. neither of those lakes are “small” You really can’t go wrong with any lakes in that area but Lac Courte Oreilles is known for good walleye fishing. check the regs for bag as many lakes up there have restrictions and lake by lake regs.

I would fish either of those lakes for walleyes. LCO is probably more well known for its panfish bite down on the south side in Musky Bay than is Grindstone. I will PM you as well. Bret Clark might give you some ideas for Moose Lake, which for sure will have ‘eyes and I bet has a significant number of crappies.

Mark

Long Lake in Washburn County for sheer numbers of both.

Le’cootaray, is one of the few lakes I seldom fish with anyone else..nice water. The Marsh side of the Nelson Dam is packed with huge Crappie and Blue gills but better check to see if ice is safe??? Bring us back a report!!!!

Nelson!

thanks for the input guys, we really appreciate it!

LCO, Long all excellent choices. I’ll throw in Red Cedar also. Here is the trick. Clear water lakes like this need to be fished at night. Scope a good area out during the day and set up, try for pans or crappies set the tipups and kick back. Alot of my big fish on those lakes come at night. Red Cedar has an excellent first ice walleye bite that I expierenced first hand more than once. The are doing very well for walleye and crappie at the narrows on Long. The crappies are really peaking on this lake now. All fall and I am sure into winter the crappies will bite..

Lake Namekagon would be my first choice. Moose would be my second. Namekagon is very reliable for eyes and really good crappies. Neither are small but produce fish in a ton of spots.

Yea, I’ll be listing my favorite small lakes online.

suzuki:

Doesn’t look like many small lakes got listed…

Mark

We all know you cant do it. It would be nice to share with a few guys but on here that would mean a million.

Absolutely agree!!! Even the lakes I pm’ed to Cade were of the large variety, have been written about by lots of mags and the best part is they are good lakes with great biomass!!!

Mark