Hey I live in southern Wisconsin(near Madison) and I want to take a day or two trip for some big pan fish. I fish the Madison chain every week and I do well but I just want to try somewhere different. Any idea’s? I can tell you some good spots on the Madison chain for tips on other place’s? I was thinking Maybe the Mississippi River or maybe bago. Anything helps.
Thanks
I fish Pete and the Rock quite regular. Both good for nice panfish but take more effort than the river to get on big panfish. Quite honestly you’ll not find better than dota or kegonsa for pig gills statewide. Petenwell and castle rock have great crappie fishing. Not a big year class of giants this year. Perch seem to be down the last few years.
I would consider onalaska for the best of all 3 crappies, gills, and huge perch! In my opinion far easier to get on a great bite there also. Plenty of places to stay very reasonable and very knowledgable bait shops willing to help!
Pools 7-10 would be where I would go.
Before you make the treck do a little research, if you know anyone in the area contact them and also call the bait shops in the areas your gonna try and fish and get a heads up. There are fish to be had but sometimes are hard to find as there is a lot of water and area on the river. We have been hard at it and of some 10 to 15 days of fishing this ice season have yet to ice a crappie over 12″ and a gill over 10″.
What are big pan to you?
Have you considered Lake Geneva? There isn’t much for safe ice there yet, but I’ve had my personal best ice fishing experiences on that lake. I only fish it for panfish. That being said, I have also sat out there all day and been skunked too 
Grass is always greener elsewhere. I live about 40 minutes from Geneva and Delavan in SE WI, still only really look forward to trips up to Pete and Castlerock. This said, I got my first great experience on Geneva crappies ice fishing several years ago. Only problem, you are just as likely to get skunked there as find a few fish. I would love to experience the Miss river pools on the ice, but there’s a lot of water to guess on. From where you are, I’d say the Caslerock, Pete, Dubay waters for a change… but the Madison chain is pretty good as you know.
What do you guys fish in petenwell? I’m assuming the river channel
I normally fish the south half of that lake, in the channel. Normally target walleyes, cant seem to find any consistant way to catch crappies
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