Looking to beat the heat around St. Louis so I want to try out the Wisconsin River near Merril. What can I expect as far as running and bass fishing on that river? Thanks.

Hi Nick,

I have never fished the Wisconsin River that far north...my understanding is it can get a little skinny and boulders are not uncommon.

However, I can comment on and invite you to try the Stevens Point flowage. If you stick to backwater (near deeper water) timber, I can just about promise you a decent amount of largies and any rip rap shore line (almost cliche, I know:) will work just fine for smallies.

I lived in Stevens Point for 24 years and have been back there to fish the WI river in the past two week; the largies were on fire.

Hope this helps.

Jason

If you are still coming up to the river call or look up hooksetters guide service. One of their guides runs a jet boat and I always caught big smallies and muskies.

I did make the trip and the water can get quite skinny even for a jet. The water rose and dropped over 18 inches the first day I fished and the bite was sporadic. Early I had 4 big smallies, but in the pm,, with the water dropping, the little guys took over.

This is quite a dangerous river mainly due to the dark color of the water that can hide the skinny water obstacles mainly rocks. Often the water depth is four feet or less with the visibility about a foot. The musky fishing was quite good on this river, an added bonus.