High Water on the Wisconsin River

by: Dan Bomkamp - author & host of "How's Fishing?"

Normally in August you could roll up your pants legs and walk across the Wisconsin River in almost any place you wanted. Not this year. The river is high and has been high all summer. It’s played havoc with the canoe business since folks who like to canoe the river also like to get out on sandbars and picnic and camp. There are no sandbars this year.

Yesterday I was crossing the new bridge at Spring Green and had to smile. There were about 30 tents clustered together on a tiny sandbar that was inches above the water line just below the bridge. The place looked like a colorful ant hill with people scurrying all over the place between the tightly packed tents. I hope the water didn’t come up during the night or there were going to be a lot of wet people the following morning.

While the high water has made fishing and canoeing on the river a bit difficult it has made the fishing in the backwaters great. Normally at this time of year the backwater sloughs are choked with weeds and nearly impossible to fish. The high water gives fishermen much more open water to fish and makes moving around very easy and pleasant.

There are many fish to be caught in the backwaters from bluegills and perch to northerns and bass. While you’re fishing you can watch sandhill cranes and great blue heron as they fish the shallows and maybe a couple of geese as they swim around and feed. It’s a magical place and well worth a trip in a small boat or canoe. At dusk you’ll be amazed at the number of ducks that return from feeding in the fields to roost on the ponds. It’s really a great place for both fishing and nature.