Milwaukee Harbor Brown Trout

This past weekend, we finally got that long awaited break from old man winter and I didn’t want to waste it drilling holes through the ice. This was our chance to break out the boat and hit some open water.
My first choice was to see if I could talk my good buddy Jeremy Williams from Milwaukee into taking me out brown trout fishing in the Milwaukee Harbor. After shooting a few phone calls and emails back & forth, our plans were set for Sunday.

Jeremy Williams holding a 27″ brown trout and the one below went 24 inches.

We didn’t need a big boat for this trip so Jeremy borrowed his farther-in-laws 16’ Sylvan with a 40hp Mariner on the back. Plenty big enough for what we had planned today.
We launched the boat right around 9:00am and headed straight for the MMSD warm water discharge. When the discharge is running strong, the bite can be phenomenal. Fifty to sixty fish days have been had by those who are lucky enough to hit it just right.
On this day though, it didn’t appear as though they were discharging anything at all and since we weren’t out there at the crack of dawn, there were already three other boats tied up to the wall next to the discharge area.

Since there was very little wind, Jeremy easily held the boat out away from the wall with the stern mount electric motor. We then dropped a couple jigs tipped with plastics over the side. Over the next hour or so, we tried stick baits, suspending stick baits, spoons, blades and live bait. Nothing worked at first.

Jeremy moved us away from the small group of boats near the discharge and about a half hour or so later, I connected with our first brown of the day. Not a monster by any means but none the less, the 24 incher put up a good fight and after a quick picture, it was released back into the harbor waters.

Shortly after, I hooked up again. This time the fish felt quite small and after a very short fight, I quickly released an 18” pike. That was kind of a surprise but not an unwelcome one.
Jeremy caught the next two fish, the bigger of the two ran 27″ and the other was a shorty. The bite went cold after that so we took a tour up the river to see if there were any active walleyes to be had. That didn’t pan out either and after an hour or two, we headed back out to try and pick up a few more browns before the day was over.

A fat 25″ in Jeremy’s hands above and the nice 30 incher below. All fish our fish were released today.

We did pick up a couple more browns, the biggest put up a great fight, bulldogging straight down numerous time but finally came into the boat and hit the tap at 30” long. Shortly after I released that one, Jeremy pulled in a fat, 25” brown that also put up a real good fight.

The main bait of choice for most people here is simply a jig tipped with various scented plastics and that’s what we caught all our fish on today. Favorite colors seem to be chartreuse yellow, chart/green & blue. I opted for a 1/4oz Sunburst colored H20 Precision jig because the hook in these jigs is a bit bigger and the gap is a little larger than average. That comes in real handy when the plastic being added to the jig is a bit bulkier than normal.

We ended the day just before sunset and although it wasn’t anywhere near the standards that Jeremy is used to, it was still a fun day for me. Anytime I can get out on the open water and catch a couple of beautiful browns like these it’s going to go down as a good day in my book. This is just what I needed to break up the winter doldrums that sneak up on a guy around this time of the year.

It’s always fun fishing with you Jeremy and thanks a ton for sharing your expertise on harbor brown trout fishing!