With the water so low, we’re you able to get into the reservoir from Cedar Falls? I recall navigating the floating bog being problematic with normal water levels.
These are some of the best fishing vids I've ever seen. Informative, entertaining, just the right pace, well produced, and FISHING...how does it get any better? Having never been to Willow, but starting to plan a pike trip, I'm curious about the "first come / first served / no reservation" site policy of these flowages. I'm particularly interested in how quickly single family remote sites fill up in May (especially, for instance, Monday-Thursday vs over the weekend), and how difficult it might be to find a vacant one. My challenge is that I'm all electric, so I can't spend tons of time, distance, and battery running around to find a vacant campground. And, having to leave the Flowage every night would stink! Can you shed some light on this? Launches and campsites in the southwest quarter of the flowage (in Indian Bay and Swamsauger Bay) would be ideal for me. Thanks!
Monday thru Thursday you will have a pretty easy time finding a campsite just about anywhere on the lake up until Memorial Day weekend. After that I'd say 50% of the sites are occupied during the week and 90-100% are occupied Friday-Sunday up until Labor day Weekend. After that the lake really clears out, but depending on the summer weather the water level can be down several feet. May is my favorite month to target Pike across Northern Wisconsin. As for the SW section of the lake.... that is the side I'm least familiar with and haven't stayed at any sites west of Indian Bay. The far west end has plenty of excellent fishing locations for spring Pike. Any shallow weedy bays, coves , and shorelines should hold fish. I haven't used any of the launches on that side either. I've always used the large public launch by the dam. There is a really nice campsite in Clubhouse Island. I'd check that one first before venturing about. Hope that helps.
@@AnthonysOutdoors Thanks for the fantastic intel...I really appreciate it. Slipping in before Memorial Day is our objective. In looking over the brochure map for Willow Flowage, the whole southwest quarter seems to be full of bays and coves. The bathymetrtic map on Navionics shows most of these to be shallow-ish fishable flats with deeper waters nearby. In fact, based on one of your other videos, the east-west stretch of the flowage that connects Indian and Swamsauger bays seems replete with "northern bays and south-facing shorelines". And, if fish are deeper, it looks like this stretch is the old river channel, with 16-20' depths. I noticed on another post that you haven't fished Lake Michigan tributaries, but I highly recommend it. You may need a shallower boat, depending on where you go, but some of these tributaries hold some really nice-sized pike. The drawback is that most of the access points for such tributaries aren't exactly remote, so the vibe is way different than fishing in northwoods lakes. Moreover, certain tributaries allow year-round fishing for pike, so you can fish from ice-out until the next official fishing season, hitting up the pre-spawn feeding frenzy.
Awesome video guys!
Thanks for watching! We had a blast.
With the water so low, we’re you able to get into the reservoir from Cedar Falls? I recall navigating the floating bog being problematic with normal water levels.
No sir. Couldn't even launch a boat at the campground.
These are some of the best fishing vids I've ever seen. Informative, entertaining, just the right pace, well produced, and FISHING...how does it get any better?
Having never been to Willow, but starting to plan a pike trip, I'm curious about the "first come / first served / no reservation" site policy of these flowages. I'm particularly interested in how quickly single family remote sites fill up in May (especially, for instance, Monday-Thursday vs over the weekend), and how difficult it might be to find a vacant one. My challenge is that I'm all electric, so I can't spend tons of time, distance, and battery running around to find a vacant campground. And, having to leave the Flowage every night would stink!
Can you shed some light on this? Launches and campsites in the southwest quarter of the flowage (in Indian Bay and Swamsauger Bay) would be ideal for me. Thanks!
Thanks for watching. When I get home from work I'll reference my maps and give you a much more detailed explanation.
Can’t ask for better…thanks!
Monday thru Thursday you will have a pretty easy time finding a campsite just about anywhere on the lake up until Memorial Day weekend. After that I'd say 50% of the sites are occupied during the week and 90-100% are occupied Friday-Sunday up until Labor day Weekend. After that the lake really clears out, but depending on the summer weather the water level can be down several feet. May is my favorite month to target Pike across Northern Wisconsin. As for the SW section of the lake.... that is the side I'm least familiar with and haven't stayed at any sites west of Indian Bay. The far west end has plenty of excellent fishing locations for spring Pike. Any shallow weedy bays, coves , and shorelines should hold fish. I haven't used any of the launches on that side either. I've always used the large public launch by the dam. There is a really nice campsite in Clubhouse Island. I'd check that one first before venturing about. Hope that helps.
@@AnthonysOutdoors Thanks for the fantastic intel...I really appreciate it. Slipping in before Memorial Day is our objective. In looking over the brochure map for Willow Flowage, the whole southwest quarter seems to be full of bays and coves. The bathymetrtic map on Navionics shows most of these to be shallow-ish fishable flats with deeper waters nearby. In fact, based on one of your other videos, the east-west stretch of the flowage that connects Indian and Swamsauger bays seems replete with "northern bays and south-facing shorelines". And, if fish are deeper, it looks like this stretch is the old river channel, with 16-20' depths.
I noticed on another post that you haven't fished Lake Michigan tributaries, but I highly recommend it. You may need a shallower boat, depending on where you go, but some of these tributaries hold some really nice-sized pike. The drawback is that most of the access points for such tributaries aren't exactly remote, so the vibe is way different than fishing in northwoods lakes. Moreover, certain tributaries allow year-round fishing for pike, so you can fish from ice-out until the next official fishing season, hitting up the pre-spawn feeding frenzy.
Man you know it's gotta be tough for the muskies if Anthony is fishing a topwater and not blades 😉
100% true story
Some nice pike! Was that group site #1 campsite?
23 I believe
Is this still willow?
This 2nd half was the willow