Does anyone else take advantage of the great river fishing in northern Wisconsin? There’s incredible multi-species opportunity! Smallmouth, largemouth, 5 species of sucker, walleye, pike, musky, catfish, and sturgeon. These small rivers offer everything a large river would, and most of the time, you get them to yourself! Here’s a few videos I’ve put together on these rivers. https://youtu.be/1hLDM5MX1e0
Wisconsin Fishing Discussion
Northern Wisconsin Small Rivers
Awesome catch! Thanks for sharing your videos. I love fly fishing in the river. In my years of experience, Ive found the hobby to be a lot more fun and easy if you have the best waders. Its makes moving around the river a lot easier. If anyone is looking to get the best waders, you should discover more here.
Here’s another video from last week on the rivers in northern Wisconsin. Plenty of smallmouth on topwater, and a musky strike at the boat!
My friend fishes a lot of rivers in the summer as well. Mostly in Southern Wisconsin, but he travels north sometimes. Not even sure where this river is, but it had some nice fish in it. Rivers in the heat of the summer the fish don't seem to care, they're always biting! When I lived in the SE part of the state while attending college I used to fish rivers a lot more often. Near Madison where I live now there's not as many of these nearby, but I'd love to get back into putting a pair of tennis shoes on and walking the river again!
As lake fishing has been poor, we have searched out rivers in the north and the fishing is more stable and variety is great, scenery and wildlife is second to none. From Grouse, to Deer, Bear, Eagles, fresh berries and a few fresh fish, simply priceless! If you enjoy the places you find, keep them to yourself as people have and will ruin this Wonderful world!
Absolutely! The area I normally fish is northwest Wisconsin. In Washburn, Sawyer, Douglas, and Burnett counties. I always thought that river smallies would run a bit smaller than lakes which they do, but those 18+ inch fish are incredibly common. We hooked into several 4 pound fish last week! And my favorite part is that you always have a shot at a musky or big pike.
As I'm passing by them, I always wonder what lurks beneath the surface. Unfortunately, I rarely have an opportunity to check them out, though. 20+ years ago I remember being up north and had a boat issue so we were just driving around. Ran across the spot where the Manitowish River runs close to 51 and stopped for a few casts and got a 19 1/2" smallie on a topwater. That was pretty cool. I remember thinking how awesome it would be to wade that stretch because it looked like there would be a fish by every rock!