Commercial Trap Nets near Milwaukee

There is currently commercial lake whitefish fishing happening in the Milwaukee area. These are trap nets, which are anchored on the bottom and can cover up to an acre. This diagram of a trap net will help anglers to understand what the different buoys mean and how to avoid entanglement. A general rule of them is to either stay shallower than the double orange flagged buoy or deeper than the black flagged buoy. The wings have small floats marking the anchors so avoid trying to fish between nets.

I've heard reports of several nets north of McKinley, off Bradford Beach. If I can get net locations, I will share those as soon as possible.

Titus Seilheimer

Fisheries Specialist

Wisconsin Sea Grant

I was fishing Milwaukee this past thurs and at that time there was a net just out and slightly north of north gap.  There was also another out from main gap.  They are both pretty big.  The main gap net seems to run from about 42 feet to about 55 feet on a southwest to north east direction.   I just motored around the north gap net when coming in from the just south of filter area.  I can't give any depth details on that one.  Wish they would put them away for the year.  I troll way away from them.

Keep an eye out for commercial trap nets between the North Gap and Atwater Park.

These are the general locations of the Milwaukee trap nets that I have heard about. This just the general area to be on the look out but nets can be moved, so this is just a general guideline. Be careful out there.

Titus Seilheimer

Fisheries Specialist

Wisconsin Sea Grant