| | Many, probably most anglers, have put their open-water fishing gear away for the season. Although there are still some good opportunities for open-water fishing across the Midwest, many anglers are now thinking about ice-fishing. It’s at this time of year that I always like to reflect a little bit on the fishing season that just passed.
It is usually encouraging to look back and see just how good fishing can be here in the Midwest, for both quality and quantity of fish. In May of 2006, Midwest anglers are going to have a chance to get in on world-class walleye fishing on Red Lake in northern Minnesota. Red Lake has been closed to catching and keeping walleyes for the past several years due to over-harvest by netters. This once fantastic walleye fishery was decimated by netters to the point that the lake was closed to walleye harvest.
 Once the walleyes were gone, crappies took over. From sometime in the mid-90’s until now, the action for slab crappies was amazing. In recent years, the walleyes have come back strong. In fact, it’s hard to fish on Red Lake without catching walleyes, nice ones. Walleye limits will be restrictive next year, a two fish limit will probably be enacted, and it will take most anglers about ten minutes to catch their limit. It will be interesting to see if anglers will travel to Red Lake to catch and release walleyes. It will also be interesting to see if any restrictions will be placed on the netters. If the netters are allowed to resume their previous ways, history will repeat itself. I hope we have learned that indiscriminate netting, even on a huge body of water such as Red Lake, will ruin a fishery.
Regarding walleyes, I got to fish on Green Bay this summer and experienced one of my best walleye bites ever. We caught more walleyes over seven pounds than under, and we caught a lot of them. In the spring the walleyes are close to shore, in the summer they are out on the reefs.
In fact, the north central region of Wisconsin offers some of the most diverse fishing anywhere in the Midwest. You can fish big water, smaller lakes and flowages, or rivers, and you will catch several species of bass, walleyes, muskies, pike, and all sorts of panfish. You’ll also see a variety of wildlife including deer, eagles, turkeys, maybe even a bobcat or wolf. And many of the towns in this area have a real Northwood’s feel to them. Visit northcentralwisconsin.com to thoroughly investigate this area and to begin preparing a trip to this region.
Upon reflection, it is again obvious that we are very fortunate for all of our wonderful fishing opportunities here in the Midwest. From the Dakotas to Michigan, you’re never far from really good fishing. Start making plans now to discover more of those opportunities in the months and years to come.
For more fish-catching information, visit http://www.fishingthemidwest.com |
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