Wisconsin's Geneva Lake is a Midwest anomaly: 135 feet deep, spring-fed and clear as a Finger Lake, with cisco-fattened pike and smallmouth, a walkable 21-mile public shore path, and one of the region's classic hard-water seasons.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Wisconsin's deep, clear resort lake: big smallmouth, true trophy pike and a two-story fishery an hour from Chicago.
Wisconsin's inland sea: walleye by the million and the last great sturgeon spearing culture.
Wisconsin's spring highway: the walleye run that feeds a whole region's tradition.
Wisconsin's everyman walleye factory: a shallow weed bowl northwest of Green Bay where limits still feel routine and muskies patrol the cabbage.
Walworth County's rebuilt gem: a spring-fed southern-Wisconsin lake that came back from collapse to grow muskies, walleye and big bluegills again.
Milwaukee's muskie factory: the most fished fifty-inch water in Wisconsin, twenty minutes from downtown.
The most studied lake in the world fishes back: Madison's big water of perch lore, dawn walleye and ice culture at the university's door.
The Wisconsin River's broad shallow middle: fourth-largest lake in the state, grinding out walleye, white bass and flowage-country cats.
The Chip: Wisconsin's wild muskie cathedral, 15,000 flooded acres of islands and stumps where the world record swam and legends still follow.
The Malibu of the Midwest fishes harder than it surfs: Sheboygan's harbor, river and reefs run Lake Michigan's full salmon calendar.
The trophy bay: Lake Michigan's fertile arm, where 30-inch walleye became routine, whitefish moved in and the Fox River run paints spring gold.
Wisconsin’s wilderness inland sea: 14,000 flooded acres of islands, stumps and walleye water that still feels like 1926.
Wisconsin's second-largest water: the Wisconsin River's upper flowage, grinding walleye, flatheads and white bass through the stumps.
Green Bay's quiet trib: brown trout Septembers, a steelhead spring and the smallmouth summer nobody drives past Door County for.
The Winnebago system's wild corner: Poygan's shallow rushes hold the chain's walleye waves, sturgeon lore and duck-blind mornings.
Chippewa power water: Wissota's stained flowage runs walleye classics, muskie folklore and the state park's northern calm.
Racine County's bass factory: Wind Lake's milfoil bowls stack largemouth, panfish rafts and southeastern Wisconsin's tournament habits.
Pool 7’s great backwater: Onalaska’s stump fields and running sloughs are the Upper Mississippi’s panfish capital with a walleye degree.
Door County’s salmon conveyor: the Kewaunee stacks chinook, coho and steelhead within sight of Lake Michigan’s horizon.
A Wisconsin River flowage: Lake Wisconsin holds walleye, catfish and white bass above Prairie du Sac.
The Fox River’s shallow bowl: Puckaway grows northern pike, walleye and panfish in a marsh lake.
Wisconsin’s deepest lake: Green Lake drops 237 feet and holds lake trout, cisco and smallmouth.
Northwest Wisconsin’s deep lake: LCO holds muskie, walleye and cisco in clear water near Hayward.
The Namekagon runs smallmouth and trout through the St. Croix wilderness, a national scenic riverway.
The river of presidents: the Bois Brule runs steelhead, salmon and wild brook trout to Lake Superior.
The Wisconsin-Michigan border river: the Menominee runs smallmouth, walleye and sturgeon to Green Bay.
Wisconsin’s big western river: the Chippewa runs smallmouth, walleye, sturgeon and flatheads to the Mississippi.
Wisconsin’s crookedest river: the Kickapoo winds smallmouth water through Driftless valleys.
The Kinni: a spring-fed brown trout stream running through River Falls to the St. Croix.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: April.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Geneva | Lake | Walworth | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Winnebago | Lake | Winnebago | USGS | Apr |
| Wolf River | River | Eau Claire | modeled | Jan |
| Shawano Lake | Lake | Shawano | modeled | Apr |
| Delavan Lake | Lake | Walworth | modeled | Apr |
| Pewaukee Lake | Lake | Waukesha | modeled | May |
| Lake Mendota | Lake | Dane | modeled | Apr |
| Castle Rock Lake | Reservoir | Juneau | modeled | Apr |
| Chippewa Flowage | Reservoir | Sawyer | modeled | May |
| Sheboygan (Lake Michigan) | Lake | Sheboygan | modeled | Apr |
| Green Bay | Lake | Brown | modeled | Apr |
| Turtle-Flambeau Flowage | Reservoir | Iron | modeled | May |
| Petenwell Lake | Reservoir | Adams | modeled | Apr |
| Oconto River | River | Oconto | modeled | Jan |
| Lake Poygan | Lake | Winnebago | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Wissota | Reservoir | Chippewa | modeled | Apr |
| Wind Lake | Lake | Racine | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Onalaska | Reservoir | La Crosse | USGS | Apr |
| Kewaunee River | River | Kewaunee | USGS | Jan |
| Lake Wisconsin | Reservoir | Columbia | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Puckaway | Lake | Green Lake | modeled | Apr |
| Big Green Lake | Lake | Green Lake | modeled | Apr |
| Lac Courte Oreilles | Lake | Sawyer | modeled | Apr |
| Namekagon River | River | Washburn | modeled | May |
| Bois Brule River | River | Douglas | USGS | Jan |
| Menominee River | River | Marinette | USGS | May |
| Chippewa River | River | Chippewa | USGS | May |
| Kickapoo River | River | Vernon | USGS | May |
| Kinnickinnic River | River | Pierce | USGS | Apr |
Wisconsin gave the world muskie fishing (the record books run through Hayward) and keeps giving: the northwoods' flowages and clear lakes hold dense populations, Green Bay grows the giants, and the Menominee system feeds trophy water in every direction. Add Sturgeon Bay's world-class smallmouth, driftless spring creeks in the southwest, and deep clear lakes like Geneva with their two-story fisheries, and Wisconsin quietly covers every freshwater game there is.
May-June: smallmouth shallow everywhere (Door County is world-class), walleye river runs done, muskies opening north. Summer: weed-edge muskies, evening walleye, panfish for the pan. Fall: the sucker-and-jerkbait muskie hunt for the year's biggest fish, Green Bay trophies included. Winter: sturgeon spearing on Winnebago: the most Wisconsin sentence in fishing.
Yes: a public footpath rings all 21 miles, a legal easement dating to the 1800s. Dawn shore anglers cover prime breaks most boats never slow down for.