Eagle River WI Fishing Report

Last week I headed up to Eagle River WI for my yearly fishing vacation. This is my time to relax and not think about nothing but fishing. I left last Tuesday and on the way up the traffic was little to none and weather was great. This fishing trip is all CPR while spending time in four star hotels and eating at five star restaurants. The lakes that I was mainly fishing were Butternut and Kentuck lakes in Forest county and Anvil Lake in Vilas county. This is what I was catching on these three lakes.

When I arrive in the afternoon I decided to fish the eagle river in the Town of Eagle River. I launched at the city launch and started fishing the wood in three to four foot of water for the famous golden walleye. All I could manage to catch was a nice northern pike around 30 inches which broke me off right at the boat and some small walleye which wasn’t worth taking pictures. My technique for this afternoon fish outing was pitching 1/8oz nuckle ball jigs with half of night crawler or a leech. The next morning I headed to one of the best lakes in Wisconsin for smallmouth bass and that’s the famous Butternut Lake. I got a late start this morning it was around 9:00 am which was a mistake because the wind already started blowing pretty good and it was hard to fish shorelines cribs where I new where some big fish were staging. I did manage to get some nice fish like this one in the picture which was around 20 inches in four to eight foot of water pitching Bass-N Nuckle ball jigs with gulp leeches, my color choice was white and black jigs and water temps were ranging from 62 to 66.

On Thursday morning I started fishing by 6:00 am and my lake choice was Anvil. It was calm and sunny and the fish were on a biting frenzy. Same technique applied on this lake as Butternut but just a tad shallower. If you never have used gulp leeches you have to give them a try. You will save tons of money and it’s true it out fishes live bait. I was catching fish with every cast. The smallmouth average all around 18 to 20 inches. After about three hours of fishing my arms were getting sore so I decided to anchor by a crib in eight foot of water and fish for some crappies. Anvil is a great pan fish lake also; there are some huge crappies and rock bass. I didn’t get into the huge crappies I usually do but this one in this picture was fun. Technique was slip bobber rigs with crappie minnows.

The conclusion of this report is I had another great time up north fishing the blue waters of Vilas and Forest County in Wisconsin catching fish like this one in this picture. Great food and accommodations and all the relaxing I could get. I would like to take this time to thank my sponsors Fin-tech Tackle Company, Don’s Marine, Evinrude Outboards, Alumacraft Boats, Pure Fishing, St. Croix and Lamiglas rods. Thank You

Click on photos for lager view