The fish
Fishing guides by the fish.
A page on each fish guides in the Upper Midwest go after: how to know it, where it lives, how the year goes and how guides fish for it, with the guides who list it and the waters they do it on. Or start with the water.
- Musky1 guide · 9 watersThe biggest predator in a northern lake and the hardest one to put in the boat. A musky trip is a day of casting big baits over weeds and rock for a fish that may follow ten times before it eats once.
- Walleye1 guide · 9 watersThe fish most of the Upper Midwest goes fishing for. Walleye feed in low light on bars, points and current, bite best on a jig or a live-bait rig moved slowly, and are the reason a fish fry exists.
- Smallmouth bass1 guide · 9 watersA bronze bass of rock, current and clear water, and pound for pound the hardest-pulling fish in the north. A smallmouth trip is casting to visible structure in rivers and rocky lakes, often with light tackle or a fly rod.
- Largemouth bassNo guide listed yetThe green bass of weeds, wood and warm water, and the most-fished-for fish in the country. In the north it lives in the shallow, weedy lakes and backwaters, and a largemouth trip is casting into cover and setting the hook hard.
- Northern pikeNo guide listed yetThe long, toothy predator that lives in nearly every northern lake and river, and the one most likely to hit a lure meant for something else. A pike trip is casting weed edges with big baits, and the strike is the point.
- CrappieNo guide listed yetThe panfish that schools, suspends and bites softly on a small jig or minnow. A crappie trip is finding the school — in spring brush, over summer weeds, or under the ice — and then catching a lot of them.
- Bluegill and sunfishNo guide listed yetThe fish most people caught first. Bluegill and their sunfish cousins live in every warm, weedy lake in the region, bite all day on a worm or a small jig, and make a trip for a family or a first-timer that puts fish in the boat.
- Yellow perchNo guide listed yetThe striped, schooling panfish of the big lakes and the ice, and the fish behind the Friday fish fry across the Great Lakes. A perch trip is finding the school over a sand or gravel flat and filling a bucket.
- Lake troutNo guide listed yetThe big, slow-growing char of deep cold lakes — Superior, the deep inland lakes of the north and the Boundary Waters. A lake trout trip is deep water, big lures and a fish that may be older than the angler.
- Brown troutNo guide listed yetThe wary, hard-to-fool trout of the spring creeks and limestone streams, and a lake-run fish in the Great Lakes. A brown trout trip is a day of reading water, careful casts and fish that reward getting it right.
- Brook troutNo guide listed yetThe native trout of the north — small, bright, and found where the water is coldest and cleanest. A brook trout trip is a walk up a small stream or a cast along a Lake Superior shore for a fish that is the measure of a healthy watershed.
- Rainbow trout and steelheadNo guide listed yetOne fish, two lives. The rainbow is the stocked trout of streams and ponds across the region; the steelhead is the same fish grown big and silver in the Great Lakes, running up the tributary rivers in spring and fall for the hardest-fighting trout fishing there is.
- SalmonNo guide listed yetThe Pacific salmon of the Great Lakes — chinook and coho stocked since the 1960s, now the backbone of the charter fleet on Lake Michigan and part of Superior's fishing. A salmon trip is a big boat, downriggers, deep cold water and a fish that takes line.
- Lake sturgeonNo guide listed yetThe oldest and largest fish in the region, a bottom-feeding relic that can live past a hundred years. Nearly all sturgeon fishing is catch and release on big rivers, and a sturgeon trip is heavy gear, patience and a fish you will remember.
- CatfishNo guide listed yetThe whiskered fish of the big rivers, fished at night and in summer heat when nothing else bites. Channel cats come by the dozen on cut bait below a dam; flatheads are the river's biggest predator, caught one at a time on live bait in the dark.
Guide for a fish with no guide listed? Set up your service, add your waters and tick it.