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Posts: 86
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Not real a fishing report or destination question, but I want to ask what is the main bait fish in northern Wisconsin? I have pondered this question for past couple of years? Is it mostly walleye, perch, crappie, shad, cisco or bass. What do you think is the main bait fish? I know people are going to say it depends on the lake. I get that. Just trying to find out peoples opinions. Thanks |
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Posts: 2686
Location: Hayward, WI | Yes, depending on lake, but I think for the most part it will be perch, suckers, and on some lakes ciscos. |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | Mostly suckers and perch. The Tom Burri diet study from the '90s confirmed this. Those two species are near universal.
Obviously on lakes with cisco/whitefish they will target them. It's debatable whether those are different muskies that target suspended forage all the time, or move back and forth between structure and suspension. Also there is a variety of other fish that suspend--including shiners. Read Tom Gelb's book, he talks about pulling nice muskies out around shiner concentrations.
No shad in N WI, the Fox River system is about as far north as they go.
BTW, this post may get moved to the "Research and Biology" forum. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | we fish one lake with golden shiners... the muskies definitely eat/target them. we have seen them blasting thru schools of shiners...
some lakes have redhorse which of course they target/eat as well...
pretty much any type of fish in the lake they can and will eat if presented w the right opportunity |
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Posts: 4342
Location: Smith Creek | They eat crappies and gills almost exclusively in some lakes. |
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Posts: 1120
Location: West Chester, OH | They eat everything that someone else wants to catch...everywhere. |
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Posts: 8856
| Suckers, redhorse, bullheads, and a surprising amount of crayfish from what I hear. Many of the lakes have the typical perch/panfish forage base, so you know what they're eating there. It can be hit or miss. Some lakes are relatively infertile, and while they do support a population of muskies you don't often see them of any size. Other lakes have surprising forage/water chemistry for their size and can produce some pretty decent fish for a small lake. |
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Posts: 1343
Location: E. Tenn | Crayfish were mentioned... funny thing's happened more than once.. Make a cast with a bucktail, thumb misbehaves and voila... a backlash. The bucktail lays on the bottom, while the backlash is picked out, the reel is engaged and BEHOLD!! fish on!!
Once while dealing with the same issue in gin clear water, glanced over the side of the boat, saw the bait on the bottom in 15'. I engaged the reel, and all of a sudden there was an upper 30 picking my bait up..
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Northern Wisconsin Bait Fish Question