Tomahawk River
A river in Wisconsin
About Tomahawk River
The Tomahawk River runs 22 miles through Oneida and Lincoln counties, a mile west of Minocqua and down past Heafford Junction toward the Wisconsin River. The survey puts 429 acres of surface and 91 miles of bank on it.
Three public landings are on record. The designations tell a fuller story than the landing count: musky are managed both as self-sustaining and as natural reproduction plus stocking on different reaches, walleye both as natural reproduction only and as stocking-supplemented, and smallmouth habitat spans nursery and warm water through non-wadable coarse substrate.
A river in this part of the state is rarely fished alone — it links a chain of lakes, and most people work the connection rather than the river's whole length.
River and connected lakes can carry different rules. Check the current DNR regulations for the water being fished.
Written from Wisconsin DNR hydrography and fisheries data. State water ID WBIC 1515800.
How the state manages it
- musky · Natural reproduction plus stocking (Cat. 2); Self-sustaining via natural reproduction (Cat. 1)
- smallmouth · Non-Wadable Coarse Substrate; Wadable Nursery Waters; Wadable Warm Water
- walleye · Natural Reproduction Only; 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.