Possible U.P./Northern Wisconsin Walleye "numbers" lake?

Ok- every year, in the second week in July we go to a canoe area(sylvania wilderness) for bass fishing....4 out of the 6 days we are remote camping and fishing the lakes within the park. However, 2 of the days we are not remote camping but rather lugging the canoes around fishing area lakes. Anyway, I would like to know about a good Walleye "numbers" lake in the area. FYI- we are CPR fisherman and do not intend on keeping any walleye....we just do not fish for them often.

This shows what you can expect on a typical day fishing Escanaba.

Gillespie on Escanaba with Rob Manthai today's show

The "1 over 28" regulation has nothing to do with why there are so many walleyes in Escanaba. The lake has been a study lake for the past 66 years (since 1946) and has always had an unbelievably high walleye population. The "1 over 28" was instituted in 2004. For the 58 years prior there was no closed season, no size limit and no bag limits on walleyes in Escanaba. In essence you could keep as many of any size as you wanted all year long, and many people did just that. There were plenty of years in there with unlimited exploitation where the lake maintained crazy high walleye populations. The most recent example of those type of numbers would be in 1997 - 1998 when the lake supported populations of 9.8 and 8.5 per acre respectively even with unlimited harvest going on. Studies (many done at Escanaba) have conclusively shown that walleye catch rates are not at all density dependent. You can have an incredibly high walleye density and have worse fishing than in a water with an incredibly low density. It's 100% dependent on prey availability. If the walleyes in a lake have enough natural prey to eat, they won't be as willing to eat your offering than the walleyes in a lake with little forage present regardless of how many walleyes there are, plain and simple. A UWSP graduate student studied the potential changes resulting from the lake going from unlimited harvest to essentially zero harvest during a 14 year span (7 years or essentially one walleye lifespan under each regulation) and compared those results to a nearby reference lake that maintained approximately 12% exploitation per year. What he found was that there was virtually no change in adult walleye abundance or young of the year abundance due to the regulation change to zero harvest. What did change with no harvest were the population dynamics. After the 28" limit was instituted, mean length increased substantially but maximum length attained decreased. Catch rates did not change at all but obviously angling effort significantly decreased as the meat hunters were forced to move elsewhere. Bottom line is that Escanaba has always had an unbelievable walleye population and should continue to do so regardless of what regulations are in place. Here's a hint... watch the perch population (especially yoy) numbers to get a gauge on how successful you'll be there for walleyes. When the perch population is down, it's game on for walleyes with some of the best fishing you'll ever experience.

I haven't fished Escanaba Lake this year but did fish it twice last year and in both cases we had much more luck on Smallies than walleye. I have yet to catch a walleye in that lake with a total of about 12 hours on the water.

The 1 fish over 28" is why the lake has so many 'eyes per acre. LOTS of waters have the forage base to support that many, to many are cropped off by us anglers.

As much as I love the TTF, if you are in Sylvania and do not intend on keeping any 'eyes, I would agree that Escanaba in the Northern Highlands Am. Legion State Forest would be a good choice. HUGE numbers of 'eyes. I believe it has population estimates of around 13 fish per acre. 1 fish over 28" keeps it full of 'eyes.

Sorry, thought you were talking U.P. Escanaba...my bad.

Just north of Escanaba is the town of Little Lake and the lake of the same name has many wallys in it. Also may stumble accross a bunch of 4lb smallmouth if your not carefull!

I highly recommend Escanaba! Little lake and the weed bite should still be going on. You will have fun out there. Good luck!

esoxcpr- I will most certainly look into Escanaba....actually, I have been doing research on the Pallete,Nebish, Escanaba area and it would make for an interesting day trip. Also, TFF looks great and it has been on my list to fish for awhile. But, given our gas restraints, I do not think we could make it over there unless we intended on fishing it for more than 1 day.

Though I absolutely love the TFF and all it has to offer, there are many lakes with a much higher walleye density than the 4.1 adults per acre the TFF contains including many which are much closer to Sylvania than the 65 miles it is to get to the TFF from there. As a strictly C&R angler, your absolute 100% best bet would be Escanaba Lake just a bit west of Star Lake, WI. Escanaba is essentially a C&R only lake with a 28" minimum size limit on walleye and has an unbelievable 12.9 adult walleyes per acre as of 2011, or over 3X the amount of walleyes per area over what the TFF offers. Of those 12.9, an almost unbelievable 9.3 per acre are between 15 and 20 inches long (TFF has 1.2 per acre in that same size range). It's an experimental lake and you must check in at the DNR station at the launch and get a free permit in order to fish it but it's absolutely worth it. Similar to Sylvania, it has no development except the DNR station around it's clear 293 acres and would be about a 30 mile drive and is a small enough size for canoes to be an acceptable choice to fish out of. Also keep in mind that Whitefish Lake within the Sylvania Wilderness Area does contain walleyes as well.

The Turtle-Flambeau Flowage has the highest walleye per acre density in the state. There is also great fishing for Smallmouths, Musky, perch and crappies. You can camp for free on any of 60 island sites that are easily accessible by canoe. Click our logo below for more information on Wisconsin's Scenic Wilderness Waters Area.