West Central Wisconsin Night Fishing

I live near Boyceville which is about 15 miles north of Menomonie. Anways i was wondering if anyone knew of any good night fishing for walleyes on tip-ups and also crappies. Never done much night fishing before, would like to give it a shot this year.

Overall havent been to successfull so far this year. Had days with a lot of flags and others with only one. A lot of fish but mostly small northern. Hooked a 32 inch northern on lake Eau Galle a couple of weeks ago. Other than that i have been out on thompson, lil round, horseshoe, and pine. Overall i havent caught or seen anyone catch anything really worth speaking of. Anyways thanks for your help

Most of my ice time has been chasing panfish this year, but I can pass along some of what I’ve heard or know from past experiences. Tainter has historically had pretty decent action for ‘eyes on tip ups. I heard they did well earlier in the season, but things have slowed. Right now Menomin really has a lot of northerns in it. Not a lot of big fish, but many in the 18″ to 25″ range, with the chance to stick a better one. I heard they are getting some ‘eyes on tip ups late afternoon/early evening out there. Also heard there may be a good ‘eye bite from mid night to 4:00 a.m. The walleye info is second hand as I haven’t tried it myself. Also know some guys that like to fish White Ash with tip ups for northerns. Big Round is historically a good lake to ice some eyes with tip ups. Hope this helps a little. Let us know what you try & how you do!

I stopped in yesterday at Schmidty’s bait in Menomonie and I heard that they were icing some nice eyes from late afternoon untill a bit after dark. I believe Schmidy said they were catching them on the larger sucker minnows. I may try them this weekend and see what happens. Anyone else going to give it a try. Tainter will probably be busy as I think there is an ice fishing contest on it tomorrow (A good day for Menomin) There used to be some monster northerns in Eau Galle, You ever fish Dead or Silver Birch. Steve

Well I fished Menomin from about 1130-300 am on friday night without a single flag. I was using small shinners, maybe i should haev tried suckers. Also tried some jigging with crappie minnows, and again nothing. I fished across the lake from the dam where a bunch of the shacks are, obviously not the right spot to fish.

Sorry to hear Menomin was unkind to you. It can be a tough lake at times, but don’t give up on it, the next time out the action could be fantastic. That’s the way that lake is sometimes. I probably should have mentioned that what I’ve heard and what I’ve experienced on Tainter & Menomin is that suckers do tend to be a better bait, especially for ‘eyes. I was gonna try Menomin myself today, but right now the windchills are keeping me in front of the computer. Maybe if it warms a little this afternoon I will head out.

Lienie, did you try Menomin yesterday? If so, how’d you do?

Nope ! I didn’t get out of here untill late and thought I would run down to Stockholm area and fish the area around the boat ramp. Not two far of a hike maybe a block, I thought with the shad dying that shiners would do the trick but nope no flags. I did have some good pickled northern that some other fishermen shared with me. I tried jigging with some waxes also just in case but nope. Man was it windy out there.I didn’t even set up the otter as I thought I would have ended up on the other side of the lake. HAHA On the brite side of things somehow I walked out and left my pail of goodis on the shore and even though quite a few folks came looked around and left by the time I relized what I did I made it back and all my stuff was still there in the pail. It was probably only a half hour but I had my baits,extra gloves,lantern,pop,digi camera, in that pail so thank you all you honest people.