Minocqua Thoroughfare
A lake in Wisconsin
50 acres
About Minocqua Thoroughfare
The Minocqua Thoroughfare is exactly what its name says: a short channel connecting lakes, fifty acres of surface and barely two miles of bank, sitting between Minocqua, Woodruff and Arbor Vitae in Oneida and Vilas counties.
One public access is on record. What makes it worth a page rather than a footnote is that the state manages it as water in its own right — musky as natural reproduction plus stocking, walleye as stocking plus natural reproduction, and smallmouth as nursery habitat.
A thoroughfare between two lakes is a piece of moving water in a landscape of still water, and that is generally why people fish one. Current, a defined channel, and fish moving between basins through a narrow place.
Connecting waters can fall under different rules from the lakes at either end. Check the current DNR regulations for the water being fished.
Written from Wisconsin DNR hydrography and fisheries data. State water ID WBIC 1544400.
How the state manages it
- musky · Natural reproduction plus stocking (Cat. 2)
- smallmouth · Wadable Nursery Waters
- walleye · Stocking plus Natural Reproduction
Wisconsin DNR fisheries designations. These describe how the water is managed, not what is in it on any given day.
Fishing license
Wisconsin sells them online. Buy one from the state. We don’t know whether you need one — that depends on your age, where you live, the water, and what your guide’s own license covers.