Quest to catch 50 different fish species in Wisconsin

I'm turning 40 tomorrow.  I figure, I'm not going to get better at anything athletically, but I still want to have some goals in life.  I like fishing, but I don't get out there as much as I'd like.  To motivate myself and to keep it interesting, I decided to set a goal of catching 50 different species of fish here in my home state of Wisconsin.  And to add to the difficulty, I have to catch each as I'm filming it.  I'm going to post each video to this thread, and I'm also going to need help as I go.  Any tips on how to catch different species of fish would be greatly appreciated.  Here's the first fish I caught on video, the Bigmouth Buffalo by the Hustisford Dam.

Well, I'm back to chasing different species of fish here in Wisconsin.  I'm now just keeping a list for my lifetime no matter where I catch fish.  Once I hit 50, I started counting saltwater fish, too, and when I went to Florida, I caught a bunch of different species.  That pushed my total to 68.

Last weekend I caught Species 69 and I was in Wisconsin. Nice. It was a Gizzard Shad at the Oak Creek Power Plant.  I have some species in mind I'm going to target (Longnose Gar in the Root River - Orangespotted Sunfish in the Crawfish River - Logperch in the Mukwonago River).  I hope to catch some of those this spring or summer and I still haven't caught a muskie, so there's that.  Once again, any tips are greatly appreciated, specifically if you micro fish, as I think I'm going to give that a shot to give me a chance at 100 species in 2022.

Hey n.pike, I took a break. I'm back now.  I tried to catch walleye during the walleye run, and I actually caught a nice one (I've never specifically targeted walleye in my life - only caught a few with a worm on the bottom before).  When they are legal to target, I'm going to go after muskie.  Unfinished business!

Thats' cool One shot. Good memories I'm sure.

Tiefsa-Are you done making videos now? Keep checking, but nothing new. I don't blame you if 50 was your resting or stopping point!

N pike . I lived in Hartland when I was a kid . We fished the Bark a lot . Just under legal (now) northerns and tons of rock bass . A good spot had a willow with branches just over the water . I became pretty good with the Zebco 202 .

Thanks for the kind words, n.pike.  Wading creeks and rivers, looking for cool spots, is actually my favorite kind of fishing trip to try, so I definitely will be making more videos like that!  Also, that mannequin head part where it falls off is actually an idea a former student of mine had.  It made me laugh when I was editing that video, too! Glad your son likes it.

Huge congrats! 50 is 50. Something to be proud of. That was an awesome quest and I look forward to more videos of just regular stuff now. Favorite videos to me are the ones when you hit small out of the way creeks and catch all sorts of little things. Adventure type of fishing. The Bark in Hartland was really cool. My son loves the Fish Face bass where the mannequin head falls off during the song. He's watched that a bunch of times... "Worm on the Bottom...." LOL!

Thanks everyone here who has followed me and offered very valuable advice on my personal fishing quest.

Good job, SuspendedMusky on your ice fishing musky.  Pewaukee Lake doesn't have ice, so I haven't been able to fish there.  I'm hoping I get at least one chance before the season closes on Dec 31st.

That is a pretty fish, very cool

Follow-up to my post below.....35 inch ice musky from earlier today.  Much smaller than what I normally catch during the open water season, but still a good battle on a tip up.

Yes....it is definitely worth trying to ice fish for muskies.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

I've heard of several Musky being caught thru the ice on Pewaukee.  So its possible

I filmed this video in early November, but I just released it today.  Tried and failed for muskies on Pewaukee Lake.  Would it be worth it to try to ice fish with live suckers for a muskie?  Here's the video 

Ha! Roofer, that's hilarious about your 6 year old grandson talking so much!  Good luck on the quest!

I'm going to borrow your "quest" for fifty,  but see how many I and 6yr old grandson can catch from new year till new year. I'll be insane by  the end of labor day but  I'll try. He never shuts up when fishing.