Lake Wisconsin

BossHog and others: In 1968-1972 I was the first DNR fish manager to be stationed at Poynette and do any actual fisheries work on Lake Wisconsin (LW). My area included Columbia and Sauk Co. The main thing about the walleye population was that the Wis R was so polluted by paper mills and other industries upstream that there was very little sport fishing pressure on LW. When ice fishing contests were held in communities along LW, they wouldn't allow fish from LW to be entered. How would they know? The contest officials would smell the gills, you could tell right away by the chemical odor. A lot of the bait sales places along LW had small holding ponds to keep live walleye in for clients, until the fish "cleaned up." That's where the walleye in Silver L in Portage came from. The best thing to happen to LW and Wis. R. fishing was more stringent water quality laws. At that time, and to this day, the LW walleye population has been self-sustaining. This was in spite of Columbia Generating (the power plant just south of Portage on Hwy 51) building their "cooling lake" and ash storage impoundment in the best walleye spawning marsh in south-central Wisconsin. Northern pike, musky. and sauger used those marshes for spawning also. The other factor that has changed over the years is the makeup of the forage, with big increases in the gizzard and threadfin shad. The regulations currently in place are not having any biological impact on the walleye and sauger population or fisheries. They are mainly in place to allow anglers to believe the sport fishery is fairly divided. Based on scientific creel census data, any fisheries professional will tell you that the old saying, "10% of the anglers catch 90% of the fish" is true. So enjoy being out, sport fishing should not be a contest, but a way to bond with friends, family and nature.

My review is for the fishing, I grew up on this lake and fished all that time it use to be a quality fishing lake but I would have to say this lake now is marginal at best , the walleye were almost fished out 20 -30 years ago it hasn't ever come back , even with the slot limits , on another note, the area is beautiful , the lodging in the area isn't the best , I wouldn't Recommend anyone to come and bring your boat to go waterskiing as it's loaded with stumps, 30 years ago most of the stumps you could see but now with the deterioration, moving water ,ice, etc.. Most of them have been worn down to just below the surface so you can't see them .

Won't find a better lake for walleyes unless you are in Canada. Great slot regulations allow the breeders to make eaters while producing great trophies all the while!