Explore the southwestern boundary of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and you can come away convinced that some of the best fishing in Michigan is in Wisconsin-- and vice versa. The lakes and rivers forming the Michigan-Wisconsin border are an angling no-man's-land claimed by both states, where either a Michigan or Wisconsin license is valid.
Among the advantages to fishing the border waters are the extended seasons they allow. Trout and salmon are always fair game on the Montreal and Menominee rivers up to the first dams. Upstream, the seasons vary with species, but are generally open longer than on other lakes and rivers in the region.
Ice-fishermen, trollers, and bait fishermen will be pleased to note that up to three lines are allowed per angler. Detailed information about seasons and regulations is available in both the Michigan and Wisconsin fishing guides given out free by those state's departments of natural resources.
Traveling south to northwest, some of the finest boundary waters include:
Menominee River
This longest of U.P. rivers forms the largest portion of the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin, and offers the greatest angling variety. In the cities of Menominee and Marinette, the one-mile section of river up to Scott Dam remains open year around and is well-known for its brown trout, steelhead, salmon, perch, and walleye runs.
Upstream from Scott Dam are more than 100 miles of fine, varied water offering largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike, muskie, panfish, and (at times) brown trout. Numerous dams and small reservoirs interrupt the river all the way to its headwaters north of Iron Mountain.
Between the dams are long stretches of wide, slow river and a few stretches of whitewater. The most notable rapids are at Piers Gorge, near Norway, where shore anglers sometimes pick up smallmouth bass. Otherwise the river is best fished in a boat, with trolling and still fishing the preferred methods for walleye, muskie, pike, and bass.
One outstanding section of river is from the Badwater Lake Dam north of Iron Mountain downstream to the M-95 bridge near Kingsford. Those 12 miles of river give up good numbers of muskie and pike from the weed beds, walleye from the deep pools, smallmouth bass from the mainstream, largemouth bass from the shoreline areas and connecting sloughs, and occasional trophy-sized brown trout. The river is big and slow, well suited for powerboats. A state-run public access site is found on the east shore of the river just north of Iron Mountain.
The Brule River
This long, quick-spirited river joins the Paint and Michigamme rivers above Iron Mountain to form the Menominee. The junction is at Brule River Flowage above Brule Island Dam, a good walleye lake known also for its pike and bass.
A few miles upstream the Brule is inhabited primarily by brown trout, with brookies present in the tributaries. Local anglers report sporadic success in the lower sections of the river, with a few large trout taken every year, often at night from the deeper pools. Farther upstream, especially above Pentoga, trout are more abundant and large fish are caught consistently. The upper river, from Iron River to the M-73 bridge, gives up occasional good browns and brookies, but serves primarily as a nursery for small trout.
Lac Vieux Desert
This well-known boundary lake is famous in upper Michigan and Wisconsin for its muskie, pike, and walleye fisheries. Because it is shallow, Lac Vieux Desert tends to clog with weed growth by midsummer.
Keep in mind that in this and the other boundary waters within Wisconsin's Vilas County, trolling or otherwise fishing from a boat with the motor running is prohibited. Anglers cast or drift with the wind, and in the shallow waters of Lac Vieux Desert, that does not seem to be a disadvantage.
Local walleye specialists use small jigs tipped with fathead minnows before the weeds are a problem, then switch to slip bobbers and leeches later in the season. A Michigan access site is found at the north end, in Misery Bay. Traveling west from here are several smaller lakes, including Crystal, Mill, and Big Bateau, where there are good populations of northern pike and bass, but limited access sites.
Big Lake
Part of the sprawl of interconnected lakes known as the Cisco Chain of Lakes, Big Lake is connected by channels to West Bay Lake and Mamie Belle Lake to form some four miles of border water. Walleyes are the big attraction here, but again, trolling is prohibited, so anglers have been forced to perfect casting and jigging techniques.
Big Lake is deep enough to avoid the weed problems of Lac Vieux Desert, though some of the big, shallow bays will grow clogged by summer. Various jig-and-minnow rigs are effective, as are spinners and crankbaits and good-old-fashioned nightcrawler harnesses.
Montreal River
This river marks the westernmost border of Michigan, and empties into Lake Superior just west of Little Girl Point. From the mouth to Superior Falls is a short section of deep, heavy current, popular locally for its steelhead and salmon runs in spring and fall. That section has no closed season, with a five salmon or trout (over 10 inches) combined creel limit.
Upstream the river is open from the last Saturday in April to September 30, and is primarily a brown trout stream. The section from Saxon Falls to County Road 505 offers the best fishing, but is the most remote and is very difficult to reach by land. It can be floated in canoes, but heavy rapids make it dangerous for anyone but experienced whitewater paddlers. The long stretch of river between Saxon Falls and the cities of Ironwood, Michigan, and Hurley, Wisconsin, is more accessible and supports brown trout and brook trout.
Taken all together, the Michigan/Wisconsin boundary waters represent a sizable and important fishery.
How good is the fishing? I can vouch for the Montreal and the Brule, where I've taken brown trout up to 18 inches during good hatches of mayflies. A few years ago on the Menominee I met an 85-year-old angler named Herb Peterson who said that in his 47 years of fishing that river he had caught more than 200 muskies up to 28 pounds. He had also caught "innumerable" northern pike, walleye, bass, and occasional brown trout-- all from the same stretch of river.
Regretting that I'd been born too late to witness such good fishing, I asked him how long it had been since he'd caught a sizable pike or muskie.
"Last week," he said. "I limited out on pike and released a 12-pound muskie. Listen, young man, I'm not talking about the good-old-days. The fishing on the Menominee River is as good today as it has ever been in my life. Maybe better."
Copyright (c) 1997 Jerry Dennis. All rights reserved.
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