Milwaukee bay or harbor

  • IceJohn
    Posts: 167
    August 31, 2011 at 4:09 pm #1302666

    When is the best time to come up there?To fish for lake trout or other big fish? Would we need a guide?Also will be looking for a cheap place to stay.ICEJOHN icefishing

    Wade Boardman
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 4453
    August 31, 2011 at 4:15 pm #992084

    Quote:

    When is the best time to come up there?To fish for lake trout or other big fish? Would we need a guide?Also will be looking for a cheap place to stay.ICEJOHN

    Place to Stay: La Quinta Inn and Suites. I think you can get those rooms for $52/night or something like that. The one down near Oak Center has an Applebees sharing the parking lot. Makes dining easy.

    Fishing: Start in the McKinley Park area. There are actually a lot of areas to fish (rivers and harbors) once you get to know the area.

    That’s if you are talking Ice Fishing. Cold water fishing will be the Milwaukee Harbor once the landings open up.

    eyecatchum
    Milwaukee WI
    Posts: 270
    August 31, 2011 at 7:37 pm #992122

    ICEJOHN- It sounds like you are interested in a few different things. If its big fish your looking for, they can be found through the ice and open water, but its typically different species. Through the ice, your catches will predominately be steelies and browns. If its lakers you are looking for, they are catchable in the spring time with spinning tackle. The rest of the year, its pretty much a trolling bite. Never seen or heard of one being caught through the ice. Not impossible though. If its big Kings youre looking for, the time is NOW!!! They can be caught from shore or boat, but I can almost surely say you will not catch one through the ice. ( I did hear of a coho once). Besides that, if you are in fact planning on trying ice fishing here, I would definately suggest hiring a guide (for at least one day if nothing else) The learning curve to catching trout through the ice is huge. You need the right set ups and the right bait, which a lot of times cant be bought. There’s also a huge safety factor involved with fishing the harbor. Only certain parts freeze well enough to fish, and a good guide will let you know where those are. Eric Hataaja runs Big Fish Guide Service (wwww.wibigfish.com) and really has that bite dialed. I’d suggest giving him a call if you really want to do it right. Hope all this helps.

    IceJohn
    Posts: 167
    August 31, 2011 at 10:18 pm #992171

    wade.eyecatchum, thanks for the help.ICEJOHN

    phoyem
    Minneapolis
    Posts: 357
    September 1, 2011 at 1:06 am #992197

    We’ve started a tradition of trolling planer boards with cranks around the harbor the day after thanksgiving and have always done decent getting browns and steelhead

    mfreeman451
    Posts: 543
    September 1, 2011 at 6:55 am #991360

    I’ve seen the wibigfish.com guy and it looks pretty fun..

    Quote:

    ICEJOHN- It sounds like you are interested in a few different things. If its big fish your looking for, they can be found through the ice and open water, but its typically different species. Through the ice, your catches will predominately be steelies and browns. If its lakers you are looking for, they are catchable in the spring time with spinning tackle. The rest of the year, its pretty much a trolling bite. Never seen or heard of one being caught through the ice. Not impossible though. If its big Kings youre looking for, the time is NOW!!! They can be caught from shore or boat, but I can almost surely say you will not catch one through the ice. ( I did hear of a coho once). Besides that, if you are in fact planning on trying ice fishing here, I would definately suggest hiring a guide (for at least one day if nothing else) The learning curve to catching trout through the ice is huge. You need the right set ups and the right bait, which a lot of times cant be bought. There’s also a huge safety factor involved with fishing the harbor. Only certain parts freeze well enough to fish, and a good guide will let you know where those are. Eric Hataaja runs Big Fish Guide Service (wwww.wibigfish.com) and really has that bite dialed. I’d suggest giving him a call if you really want to do it right. Hope all this helps.

    Wade Boardman
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 4453
    September 1, 2011 at 11:41 am #992230

    http://www.wielandoutdoors.com/Home_Page.html

    I would contact Randy Wieland. He’s a frequent contributor on here and guides over there on Lake Michigan. Randy is the type of guy who is your friend 5 minutes into your day. Not just your friend when you are paying for his time like some other guides. He is frequently helping me out with advice, tactics and tools to make my fishing experiences that much better. Majority of that comes unsolicited.

    For that, Randy get’s my vote and recommendation.

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