Multi-Species Fishing Wisconsin by Lauren Preston

Every summer my family and I head up north to spend a week enjoying the beautiful lakes and fresh air that northern Wisconsin has to offer. The past two years our place of choice has been Minocqua, Wisconsin.

Anyone who has been here is aware of just how amazing of an area it is! It is an anglers dream. There are so many pristine lakes full of muskellunge, northern pike, large and smallmouth bass, walleye, and more. Our first time there, my boyfriend and I were extremely excited to get the boat out and figure out the lake we were staying on, called White Sand Lake. We had heard good things from some locals.

Figuring out new lakes can be a little frustrating, as any fisherman knows, and this was no exception. The water in many of the lakes in northern Wisconsin is extremely clear, resulting in lakes with little cover.  This is why we struggled to get on the fish.  However we didn’t give up, and after several slow days, we started to figure out some of the better areas.  This resulted in catching some nice smallies, largemouths, and northern pike!

Lucky for us, this lake had a lot of rocky points where we were able to get on some nice smallies using more neutral colored spinners and bucktails. Spinnerbaits are a favorite of mine because you can target all of the different species of fish in these lakes using the same lure.

Lauren’s lure. Photo Courtesy of Lauren Preston. 

Both my boyfriend and I caught a majority of our fish on white or green spinners, although my biggest smallie was caught on a black and yellow bucktail.  My largest northern was caught on a perch colored floating Rapala.

In the end, patience was key.   We also were not afraid of changing things around. We ended up with some nice fish and had a blast enjoying the beautiful lake. We will definitely be back this summer to try out some of the other awesome lakes in the area!