Namekagon River

[MuntzAngling]

I will be canoeing for 3 days on this river this month. Most likely I will take the Trego to Riverside stretch but I'm not opposed to trying Hayward to Trego other than the fewer camping options.

I'm guessing it's mostly smallmouth. What else should I EXPECT to catch?

Any other tips about camping, bugs, and daily mileage? The NPS HSOforum says 15 miles is leisurely for a day and the river is running barely at medium levels?!? I was thinking 10 miles would be good. Does it really run that quickly?

Any firsthand experience shared is great!

[trimbelle22]

i did a canoe trip on the upper st croix river earlier this spring and we were able to cover a lot of ground each day. We did 28.5 miles in one day. The water was high and the weather wasnt great, so we didnt slow down and fish as much as we usually would. But if you get an early start, you should be able to easily cover 15 miles with lots of stopping/fishing etc.

As far as other fish, i believe there are northerns, smallmouths, a few muskies, a few walleyes, and trout in some areas, depending upon where you are fishing.

hope this helps and good luck!

[MuntzAngling]

Thanks a lot man! I have been hearing 15 miles is easily done lately. I appreciate the heads up on the fishing, too. I will post a report if I make back safely.

Hopefully I will catch a 'delicious bass'

[MuntzAngling]

Well I lived to tell a report.

We found some smallies, I got 8 during the 3 days. My girlfriend got one 16" and was happy to rub in that it was biggest. One good walleye about 18". I had a nice muskie 36-40" on for about a minute until I tried pulling it away from a snag and the 10lb power pro snapped. Bummer! Got a good surface look at it as I went downriver.

Mileage was good. We went County Road K Landing to Riverside. First day was fast with mostly just steering and the last two days was more actual paddling. Campsites were about 3/4 full as we went down on Saturday night with more crowds. Some wood ticks and CLOUDS of skeeters.

The river is flowing slightly high now but is very manageable to float.

[anordqu42]

I'm going to be up in the Namekagon area next week and planning floating different sections of the river. This might be a rarely asked question, but are there any sections that hold more redhorse/suckers/roughfish than others? Or maybe other rivers/lakes? Kind of looking for multi-species action. Thanks in advance!