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Your Guide - Jeff Robl My family and I live in Mercer, Wisconsin. One of the many reasons we moved here in 2006 was our love for fishing and camping on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. Our family has had a cabin near the Flowage since 1964, and I have fished there since I was a young boy.

There are obviously many good lakes to fish in our area of the state. With my free time I've always opted to fish on the Flowage. With over 14,000 acres of water and the majority of the shoreline undeveloped, it is the type of fishing environment that held my interest. Another huge attraction for me is the diverse structure and habitat to fish. When I fish by myself or with my family I often resist the temptation to go where I know I can usually catch fish and explore for new spots which seem infinite.

My boat is an 1890 Warrior (that's model, not vintage) with a 90 hp Mercury tiller. I've always liked the extra room tiller models provide, especially when guiding three people. The glass boats have a nice ride in rough water and drift slow when drift fishing.

I've always been a low technology person, but late last season (2011) I updated my electronics to a Hummingbird 798 ci HD with side imaging and bought the Lakemaster chip, wow! I still like to feel the bottom with a cast iron window sash weight on a steel cable while scouting new spots. As I gain confidence in the new unit and its ability to detect bottom composition, I may abandon the sash weight; they don't use them in windows anymore either.

I fish with St. Croix rods. They're made in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and for me that's about as "buy local" as it gets. My favorite jigging rod is an Avid series 6'8"medium power extra-fast action. For slip bobbin' I like a long rod and use the Triumph series in 7' medium light fast action. It also makes a nice lower cost jigging rod.

I have a pretty aggressive style of fishing but try to adapt to the clients's pace. after all, it is often said, "life should be fun." Well, fishing should be really fun! I encourage customers to opt for having a shore lunch. A fish fry over a campfire on an island is a fitting compliment to spending a day on the Flowage. It's a little more effort on my end but I enjoy doing it and don't count the lunch break into our fishing time. I also have it priced to mainly reflect my costs. Click here for fishing rates.

Fishing Tactics There are many methods to catching fish on the Flowage; I will outline a couple of tactics I commonly use.

Much of the fishing I do is with jigs and live bait, minnows into Memorial Day weekend, then leeches and crawlers until September and minnows again in the fall. read more......