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Posts: 1061
Location: Medford, WI | Hey guys,
I'm thinking about heading to Fireside (Rusk Co.) tonight with my dad. I'd really like to try the lake out, but it would only be for a few hours tonight if we go (about an hour drive). Wondering if it's worth the short trip or if my friend and I should make a weekend of it some other time. Any help would really be appreciated... baits, location, etc.
Can't find a whole lot of info. but looks like it has good potential.
If you could PM me or post on here, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks guys and good luck to everyone who gets out tonight, Jake Bucki |
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Posts: 282
Location: north west wisconsin | north east end stay in 18 ft of water |
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| I haven't been on Fireside for a couple of years now but it used to be a regular stop for me.
No secrets there.........lake is ringed with weeds. Floydd is right about keeping your boat out in deeper water when casting the shorelines. There are plenty of deep weeds you won't be able to see because of the stain in the water. I always kept the boat in 12 or deeper. Watch your graph for cribs and isolated coontail beds.
Surface baits are a good bet there on cloudy days and at low light. Bucktails are always good as is twitching Cranes or Shallow Raiders.
Fireside has the potential to put out some of the nicer fish in that area.
Fred |
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Posts: 726
Location: Eau Claire, WI | in the ne end, try a perch or firetiger flavored glider over those cribs. you can ring the main basin in 3-4 hours so keep moving until you find some fish. There are cribs around the lake just outside the weedline/breaks. Trolling is legal so try that to cover deep water fast. good luck. |
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Posts: 1061
Location: Medford, WI | Thanks a lot guys. Still not sure if we're headed there tonight or not, but I will be up there within the next couple of weeks for sure. It looked like a pretty "basic" lake to fish as far as structurewise (at least from the DNR map - as if there's such thing as a "basic" lake...) I appreciate the tips guys. I will let you know how we do if we get there.
Thanks again, Jake Bucki |
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Posts: 147
Location: WI - Land of small muskies and big jawbones | Fireside consists of two basins connected by a narrow channel and is ~ 300 total acres. The main basin, which is the largest & deepest of the two, is basically a bowl with weeds all around it so its shoreline fishing for the most part. The other basin is much shallower in general and is probably very weed choked right now and tough to fish. On the main basin the weeds go out quite a ways off shore in some areas and as Fred J said, there are deep weeds you won't be able to see. Its been several years now since I have fished it but I remember seeing weeds on my graph out to ~ 10ft of water. I used to fish this lake quite a bit years ago. And even though it only has a 34" size limit, the average size muskies I have boated from Fireside have run ~ 4" larger than what I have boated from all the other musky lakes in that area including the much larger waters with 40" size limits. The only real difference between Fireside and the other lakes in that area that I know of that might possibly explain this is that Fireside has never been stocked by the DNR according to the DNR stocking database. I can't say for sure if that explains the larger average size of the muskies in Fireside but I suspect it does. Fireside has what I would consider to be a low density population of muskies mainly due to it not being stocked. It would be nice to see this lake with at least a 40" size limit to help protect this lower denisity population since its apparently self-sustaining and produces a bit larger muskies than average for the area. Oh, and there are some big walleyes in there also. At least there used to be. Good luck if you make it there.
Edited by Lockjaw 7/26/2007 4:22 AM
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