Lake Chippewa Flowage Pike Improvement Project

Summer on the Lake Chippewa Flowage

A sparkling illuminating sun rise, warm south winds, the lake looking like a mirror, a clear blue sky, a crimson sunset dropping below the tree line, cool evening breezes mixed with the hoot of a cruising Loon. You are on your summer vacation on the Chippewa Flowage!

The season of summer is upon us and is being enjoyed by our visitors, guests, and vacationers who are experiencing many back to back days of sunshine, evening showers, and a wonderful afternoon breeze coming across the Chippewa Flowage.

Recreation on the Chippewa Flowage has been a delight for our summer visitors. Boaters, skiers, pontoons, rope swings, wave runners, canoes, kayaks, and tubers are enjoying the thrills of summer water activities. Most campsites on the Flowage have been occupied and folks living on the Lake can experience the call of the Loon, the flight of Eagles, the chasing of the chipmunk, and even a visit from a Black Bear on occasion. Loon chicks, Mallard ducklings, deer fawns, bear cubs, and infant skunks can sometimes be observed while on a slow moving boat or pontoon.

We are enjoying a excellent come back of the Blue Heron on the Chippewa Flowage after a devastating ice storm a few years ago, Herons can be observed flying over head between the heronry and a fishing area, perched on a swinging tree limb, standing in a striking potion over a fish filled pool, and lashing out with a screech when startled by your presence.

Outstanding fishing, boating activities, silent water adventures, hiking in the woods, wild animals on the alert, evening sunsets, observing new born creatures, birding, vacation photos, a trip to town and shopping, a purchase at the bait shop, cook outs around the cabin, renewing friendships from past vacations, maybe a trip to the Casino or a Powwow?

How about some of those summer events—-the “fishing opener”, the Musky Hunt fishing contest, Musky Festival, the 4th of July, parades, cranberry festivals, art shows, antiques, horseback riding, Championship Log Rolling, road races, bike races, the challenge of golf, star gazing, your favorite restaurant, sidewalk sales in town, Honor the Earth, water skiing, rope swings, a early morning cup of coffee out on your cabin’s deck.

Random Stories from the Past

Sucker Study Reveals Important Findings – Long-standing tradition contributes to musky mortalit - December 3, 2001

By John Dettloff Sucker fishing has long been a tradition in the north country, especially on the Chippewa Flowage. After all, Louie Spray caught his 69 pound 11 oz musky out of these waters on that famed late fall day on October 20th, 1949. Generally, the recommended sucker fishing method that was used years ago was that of the single hook sucker rig. Although some anglers used quick set rigs during those early years, as a rule, they were seldom used. With the single hook method, the angler waited up to a half an hour or more so that the musky could swallow the sucker and the hook. Upon the hook set, the large single hook usually hooked the musky deep in its gut. Before catch and release was a widely practiced method, it didn’t much matter that a musky was gut hooked like that because they were almost always kept anyway. But when people began releasing muskys that were caught by this method, they had to cut the leader and leave the hook deeply imbedded in the musky…. and hope for the best that the hook would “dissolve” and that the fish would survive the ordeal. Within the last decade, sportsminded anglers harbored serious doubts as to the survivability of these gut-hooked muskys and quick set sucker rigs quickly became popular. But numbers of musky men from the old school still favored the method of single hook fishing…..myself included. They had much faith in the method and were reluctant …… Read More …