Fishing at Rice River Flowage, Lincoln County, Wisconsin

• Overview

  Rice River Flowage falls in Lincoln County, part of Wisconsin. Height above sea level is 1,453 feet. It measures some 994 acres, and wind has room to build across it. Few waters listed in Lincoln County are bigger. For a base, Tomahawk sits 6 miles out. The big place round here is Green Bay, 111 miles distant. A county boundary sits nearby, which can matter for local access rules.

• Where to Fish on Rice River Flowage

  The records we hold are silent on depth, so plan to find it yourself. Slack water behind an obstruction is worth more than open current. Undercut banks hold fish that the middle of the river never will. Survey and observation records for Lincoln County include brown trout, rainbow trout, pumpkinseed, walleye and bluegill. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Work Rice River Flowage in sections rather than trying to cover it.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 66°F at the top of summer and 10°F at the bottom of winter. The year splits cleanly: hard water, then open water. Cold months ice the margins and pools; moving water stays workable, and everything opens by mid April. The water is typically free of ice between mid April and late November. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. That is the shape of the year on Rice River Flowage.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. Access points are not mapped for this water, which suits people who like quiet. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. Lake Nokomis, 1.7 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Signs at Rice River Flowage carry more weight than any list.