Chippewa falls area Vs Mille Lacs

[PDXFisher]

I am likely to make a trip to that Chippewa Falls for work (I live in Oregon). I will be adding extra days, of course. My question is should I spend a few days fishing Chippewa Flowage or Wissota Lake (or Chippewa river?), or should I only spend the day out there and come back to fish Mille Lacs? This will be sometime around the first week in August.

I want the best chance to boat fish and if fishing Wisconsin is only for the novelty of it, I'd rather not waste my time.

Thanks,

Derek

PS: What is it about Muskies that you can be an addict without having even boated one? Am I nuts? I mean...the abuse I have heaped on myself and bank account...insanity.

[AWH]

Quote:

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I want the best chance to boat fish

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I'm not personally familiar with the waters in that area of WI. But if your main goal is what you stated above, I am going to say that your best bet is in WI over hitting Mille Lacs. Although Mille Lacs is a phenomenal fishery, it's not the lake I would take someone to that was looking to catch their first musky.

Aaron

[PDXFisher]

Heh, while it's my first Muskie (in the boat), I've spent well over 20 days (12hrs+ each) at it

I don't know how long it took most of you to catch one while actually targeting them (incidental catches dont count...I don't have that luxury), but I feel like a pretty experienced fishless musky fisherman at the moment. I made a ton of progress last time I was in MN (early June), thanks to the tutelage of Troy Anderson from Muskieonthefly.com on Tonka and Indy and Muskybug85 (Jonah) on Mantrap. I raised a bunch and had two on, which is way more than I can say for my other 18 days or so. What I really need to do is pick a lake and learn it well. Well, that and figure out how to get that hook to stay in (I did a great job getting hooked past the barb in my shin with a Polish Pike, though). I must say I had a lot more fun in the Park Rapids, Staples and Alexandria area (Lobster, Mantrap, Alexander) than I have in the metro lakes (Tonka, Indy, Waconia). Haven't tried Sugar yet. I think I would like Rebecca if the visibility wasn't so horrible. I only went once though, so I don't know if it clears up later in the season or what. Had one hit a Popper Fly there, scared the hell out of me. After getting follows and no takes on Mantrap, I gave up on the fly idea pretty quickly.

The guy who's taking me out knows Mille Lacs, though he is usually after 'eyes. I'm much more likely to continue fishing Mille Lacs than anything in Wisconsin. I suppose Forest Lake is also an option. Well, if I can get this guy's boat, anything is an option, I'm usually stuck in a 14' backtroller (which is what I will have in WI), but this time I will be stylin in a 19' or so Lund with big, beautiful GPSes. I want to take advantage and hit water that is normally not available to me because of this.

Last year when I visited during summer, you guys had your heat wave and all the lakes were 82-85 degrees where I was. If Mille Lacs stays a bit cooler because of the amount of water, that appeals to me as well. Last week when I talked to Jonah, Mantrap was over 80, so I'll probably wait until late Sept to go North again unless I go someplace big.

I may well get a guide for a day as well, if I think I can spend the money. I'd really like to go out on Vermillion with Chad Cain some day, but I will probably have to schedule the trip around that.

I think those leaders I got from you helped, too, Aaron

[AWH]

Too bad those leaders haven't been the "magic pill" to put that first one in the boat for you....yet!

It sounds like you have a good idea of what you want to do. So I would go with your gut and make the most of it. All of the lakes you mentioned are good lakes. That's great that you're taking water temps into consideration as well. Mille Lacs can get warm like others if you get some hot, calm days. But one day with a good wind and the water temps cool down. Because of the relatively shallow basin that Mille Lacs has, a big wind will mix that entire water column. So when you're bringing that water up from the bottom of the depths, it helps to cool down the entire lake. You don't get that on your smaller lakes, even the ones that have much deeper, cooler water.

Aaron

[AWH]

On anonther note, if you want to hire Chad Cain for Vermilion, you'll want to do it this year. He won't be making that his summer home water after this year.

Aaron

[Cooter]

Plenty of fish on Wissota, we had 10 guys out last Wed for league and boated 7 muskies - although this past Wed only one fish was boated....there's musky fishing for ya. Probably the best lake in the area for numbers and size is the Holcombe flowage, a short drive(about 30 min) from Chippewa Falls. The Muskies Inc Gil Hamm tourney had about 75 people fishing and boated 50 some muskies, the biggest being 47 and 49" .The Chippewa R itself is good as well, the stretch below the Wissota (Contact Us Please) in particular but also up from Wissota to the Jim Falls (Contact Us Please). Fire away with any more questions....when are you gonna be up? Might be able to show you around the lake if interested.

[PDXFisher]

Thanks for the info, Cooter! I haven't finalized any sort of date yet, have to make an appointment with Cray. My assumption is it will be sometime between 7/31 and 8/3, though it could be the next week.

I have never fished for Musky in a river before, since no one I know seems to do that. I grew up in Oregon fishing rivers pretty much exclusively, so I understand them much better than lakes, but only in the steelhead-hang-out-behind-the-rocks-in-current sense, not a Musky one. If there's multiple places I need to try out, I'll stick around multiple days

Holcombe sounds great and the river sounds great too. I'd certainly be up for joining you out there. I'll send you a message when I have the dates worked out.

Thanks again,

Derek

[PDXFisher]

So does Mille Lacs have an abundance of big Pike, too? Are they active at this temperature? As much as I wanna boat a musky, catching big Northerns always keeps me entertained in the meantime. If fishing muskies shallow, I assume that precludes me from having much of a chance at the Northerns, which are probably in the dropoffs by now?

I got my official clearance to head to MN on my employer's dime, I just don't have dates yet. Aaron, check your inbox for a nice order from Oregon. I wish I could find a place that wouldn't charge me sales tax, since I'm buying from Oregon, but would let me ship to MN, since that's where I'll use it. Packing monster lures for the plane is gonna be hell.

[AWH]

PDXFisher,

Thanks - all of your essentials are on the way! Mille Lacs is actually one of the few lakes where catching big pike during the summer months is more than just a rare occurence. Most lakes will find the big pike going deep this time of year. Certainly, they do this on Mille Lacs as well. But there's still plenty of big ones that hang out in the weeds all summer long right along with the muskies. It's one of a handful of lakes in MN where an upper 30" pike should almost be expected in a few days of fishing. And although I have somehow yet to boat a 40" out there, it's a real possibility, even during the summer. I would say that your best bet at a big pike would be in water deeper than 8 feet. If you're fishing shallower than that while chasing muskies, you'll probably run into some smaller pike.

Good luck, things should be going good by the time you get here!

Aaron