Milwaukee River

[gretch6364]

Hello everyone. I am in the MKE area every couple months and was thinking of bringing my fly rod with me to fish in the summer evenings. My next trip is June 6th. Any suggestions on where to fish not too far from Grafton and River Hills area?

I have a fast 6wt with floating line and a 7wt with full sink line, along with normal small stream trout rods. Any help would be appreciated, feel free to message me if you do not want to post. I won't share the info if it is secret, but am up there enough to fish a could evenings every year.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: Menominee River near Menominee falls is also maybe an option? I am staying in Brown Deer...just looking for a quick and easy spot to fish for a couple hours.

 

[mikechell]

I've been to Milwaukee with a fly rod twice in the last three years. Both times, I found places along Riverside Park where you can walk down and wade the Milwaukee river. Lots of Small Mouth Bass in there.
Never made it to the Menominee ... but the local fly shops say it's got fish in it too.

Good luck

 

[gretch6364]

I've been to Milwaukee with a fly rod twice in the last three years. Both times, I found places along Riverside Park where you can walk down and wade the Milwaukee river. Lots of Small Mouth Bass in there.
Never made it to the Menominee ... but the local fly shops say it's got fish in it too.

Good luck

Thanks for the info! For smallies, do you typically fish a floating line with like a popper, or a sink link with a sinking streamer? Or floating line with a sinking steamer?

 

[flav]

I grew up fishing the Milwaukee around Grafton. Mike is right, lots of smallmouth, and a few pike, rock bass, and carp around as well. I don't live there anymore, but I still fish when I visit. I'll message you a few easy access points and what tackle and flies I use.

 

[mikechell]

If I can wade it, then it's too shallow for me to weight my flies. I fish top water (poppers), tumbling/suspended (unweighted wooley buggers) and on the bottom (or near it) my own "Panfish Attractor".

View attachment 11498

Yeah, it might resemble other named flies, but I invented this one on my own (before internet) to be as weedless as possible. The key was the raccoon tail hair ... which doesn't collapse when wet. Keeps the hook point covered while pulling through pads, etc.

All my rods have floating line. If I need to go deeper than I can get with the fly rod, then it's time to break out the spinning and level-wind gear.

 

[gretch6364]

Sorry for the late response. Thank you for all the hints. It was fun to get out and relax a bit. It is a pretty river where I hit it and I caught a couple. I still have much to learn when it comes to bass fishing.

 

[flav]

Nice, I'm glad you found some smallies. I recognize where you were fishing and have found a few nice fish there as well. I'm spending the summer here and the milwaukee has been where I've spent several pleasant and productive afternoons. In fact I'm finding more and much bigger fish than I ever did when I was young. I think the river and it's fish have benefitted greatly from dam removals and some water quality improvement.