SoCal Locales

Wisconsin Travel - Take the Rainbow Trout Fishing Challenge

Wisconsin Tourism - Fishing Challenge: One of the Wisconsin tourism bragging points is the fact that they have Lake Michigan and the tributaries that flow from it carrying the steelheads from the deep waters of the lake to the shallow areas of the streams inland. Here you can try your still at catching the “rainbow trout” that has been growing to huge sizes in the depths of Lake Michigan. It isn’t easy; it is more like hunting and fishing combined than just stream fishing in a meadowland area in the heartland.

One of the more popular is Steelhead fishing. The steelheads are known to be skittish when they come into the shallow waters to spawn. They are used to the depth and safety of the big lake but it is required to come into the tributaries to spawn. They are hard to catch because of their being leery. You will need to be sure to move quietly and slowly but with determination to have them take the hook.

Two of the strains are the Ganaraska and the Chambers Creek River. These two have later winter/early spring runs that typically occur between late February and Mid-April. Occasionally the runs are later depending on how soon it begins to warm up. At the first warming the fish will show up.

You get your hook as close to the bottom of the tributary as you can. You use a bobber to hold it just off the bottom and bring it to the face of the fish (if you can see it or by luck if you can’t). When the fish takes the hook be ready to run with it for a while since it will take off. The fish is larger than you probably have thought it would be and if you aren’t careful it will take your line, snap it and be gone. A 18 pound trout can snap a 10 lb. line pretty quickly unless you are prepared to move with it until you can get enough drag on the line to tire it out.

Wisconsin has many Lake Michigan tributary streams that support fine steelhead runs. The most popular streams for steelhead fishing along Lake Michigan include the Kewaunee, Root, Oconto, Manitowoc, Menominee, Milwaukee, East Twin, Peshtigo, Ahnapee, and West Twin rivers. Smaller steelhead streams include the Pigeon, Little, Pike, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic rivers; Stony, Oak, Heins, Sauk, Whitefish Bay, Fischer, Silver, and Reibolts creeks.

So get your fly rod, get in the car and come to Wisconsin for some of the best Central Wisconsin tourism experiences. The fish are waiting, the people are friendly and the countryside is beautiful.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 9:02 am and is filed under General Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.