wisconsin opener

[bassfshin24]

I know this is a little early but i wanted to post it anyway. So i have never fished any wisconsin lakes before and know opener is earlier than minnesotas. what lakes have some good fishing in them and arent too far away from the cities? I would like to plan a couple trips this spring.

[Craigums]

Fished a tourney on Trade Lake last opener, that's a nice little lake... I'm sure there are plenty others however

[river rat316]

Is there like a lake finder for Wisonsin? That is the best thing the DNR ever put on the web for MN, I am constantly on that thing looking for new lakes

[Deitz Dittrich]

BF24- lots of lakes over there, and many of them are great. I dont think they get hit nearly as hard as our lakes do for bass. There are a ton in the Balsam Lake area that are quite good.

[TR21HP]

The Chetek chain is a really good early season group of lakes.

Spinnerbait and jerkbait madness early on.

[Larson15]

When is the Wisconsin opener?

[SkunkedAgain]

Wisconsin opener is always the first Saturday of May. Wow, so easy....DO YOU HEAR THAT MINNESOTA DNR? Maybe Minnesota opener can always be the second or third Saturday of May, but no, we make it up as we go.

BTW - don't forget to pay $55 or so for an out-of-state fishing license. That's for the year, it's around $25 for a one day license. It usually works out that if you plan to fish Wisconsin more than once, get the season pass. Don't forget to think about winter 2011 ice fishing when you consider if you're going to fish Wisconsin again this year!

[Larson15]

How convenient - May 1st

[Nick Kuhn]

I would actually go as far to say that there aren't many bad bass lakes just over the border. There are a few that have a ton of smaller bass, but for the most part lakes have both good numbers and decent size. Balsam and Wapogasset have tons of bass, but they'll require some work to find large fish. The smaller lakes tend to have fewer fish, but your chances of running into an 18"+ fish really don't diminish all that much.

If you want a list of lakes, you can look at this massive document (~4MB): http://dnr.wi.gov/lakes/lakebook/wilakes2009bma.pdf

Do not rely on the rare/common/abundant to determine to best lakes, as some lakes go by numbers from the 1950's. The nearby counties are St. Croix and Polk. Further north is Burnett, and east is Barron. Those are all within an hour and a half of St. Paul.

You can also use this to find accesses, though not all are listed so you may want to ask in the Wisconsin forums.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/facilities/boataccess/

There is a bass league on polk county lakes that has a good summary for the bass league results. Google "buck n bassers" and then look at their tourney updates.

[bassfshin24]

thanks for all the great responses. im gettin the fishin fever really bad right now and we still have a few months to go.