I was wandering...since i mainly vacation and fish in wisconsin in the summer....how early in the spring do you catch fish? March? Early April? Im not sure when the ice leaves..especially in the northern part of the state. Anyway, im just curious. My work allows me a week off over the easter break but i always thought it was too early for Wisconsin crappie fishing..so i never went.

Up in NW Wisconsin I get to fish around April 15th give or take a week or 2.

Your invited to come fish with me some weekend if you are able to do the travel time issue.

It's about an 9 hour drive to Chicago from there....more if you live way further south.

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CrappieMagnet
Wisconsin Moderator

Where in Northern WI do you fish CrappieMagnet?

If you take 9 hours you got to be taking the wrong route. Froom the south side of chi-town, it takes 7 hours all the time, and if you only stop to p, its about 6 to vilas cty.btw, the crappies start to spawn may 15 or so. you can catch them sooner of course! gt

I fish from Dairyland on south to about St.Croix Falls,and from Solon Springs to as far as the Chetek chain of lakes.All within about 2 hours of the Twin Cities.

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CrappieMagnet
Wisconsin Moderator

I fish as soon as ice is out, in N/Central WI., its around mid-April. I fly fish only and catch panfish easily but what always surprises me is in the shallows the number of "large" perch still hanging around from spawning - 6 inches of water - and they readly take the fly. Some of the lakes in my area have trout (closed but fun) and they hang in the shallows after ice out also, last year a 15 inch & 23 inch Brown in a favorite lake of mine. I also visit Chetek early.

I live about 2 blocks from lake st croix in solon springs and the ice went off last year on the 19th of april I believe. I'm thinking that it will be later this year because of the cold temps and slow warm up period up here. Temps havn't gotten above 50 once yet this year and last year we had several days of temps in the 60-70's around the first of april. Some people are still driving trucks on the ice. Temps are forcast to be in lower 50's for a few days then dropping to low to mid 40's for the next 10 days. If we don't start warming up, I wouldn't be surprised that when the opener comes, the lakes will still be ice covered.

CrappieMagnet, I have been looking for a good lake to find some early crappies on. St croix seems like it has numbers but the quaility is not as good as I would like it. IM or e-mail me if you have some tips and maybe we could share some info.

Sounds good to me.PM me your phone number and we'll discuss it in further detail.

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CrappieMagnet
Wisconsin Moderator