Photo by Robert Sloan

Our namesake river sees quantum change in both character and spirit from its headwaters in the northwoods at Lac Vieux Desert on the Upper Michigan border and its confluence with the Mississippi River south of Prairie du Chien at Wyalusing State Park just across from Iowa -- 427 miles away!

The Wisconsin River has been called the "hardest-working river in America," with a number of power-generating dams attempting to harness its serpentine course to the Mississippi and eventually the sea.

Winnebago Indians once described the genesis of this water, "springing from the path of a great serpent that lived in the northern forests by the big lake leaving for the sea. Its great body created grooves in the earth that filled with water on this journey, with lesser tributaries formed by lesser serpents scurrying to get out of the way."

Father Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet are credited as the first white men to traverse the Wisconsin River in 1673, centuries before great dams created our state's two largest reservoirs -- Petenwell and Castle Rock.

The sometimes turbulent, sometimes sleepy Wisconsin was our state's first superhighway hundreds of years before we became a state. The Chippewa called this place Wees-konsan, meaning "the gathering place of waters." To the Menominee, it was Wisc-coh-seh-a, "good place for a home." The Winnebago tribe called these root-beer-colored waters Wees-koos-erah, which meant "river of the flowery banks."

Modern superhighways like Interstate 90/94 and I-39/U.S. 51 can get us to any point on this river from any point in Wisconsin in less than five hours. You can pursue over 100 species of fish. Topping the list are muskies, walleyes, bass and panfish, but giant sturgeon and catfish swim here, too. You never know what species of piscator will stretch your string in the Wisconsin River, although tailoring a presentation to be species-specific certainly enhances your chances of making your fishing dreams come true.

After over 40 years of fishing this river from near the giant wooden tubes that channel flow around Grandfather Dam in the north to the deep sandy holes on the Wisconsin's lower end, I find myself contemplating the majesty in and along the "river of the flowery banks" as much as casting.

If you want to catch bass here, it's not all that tough -- provided you can gain access to the water. There are dozens of boat ramps along these 427 miles. Recreational boating is popular on Castle Rock, Petenwell and Lake Wisconsin, where high-powered boats not pulling skiers usually are probing wood or weedy backwater cover for largemouth bass.

Overall, the Wisconsin River offers better fishing for smallmouth bass than largemouths, with the very best action on these brown bombers found in stretches of the river that require considerable effort to access, both near the headwaters and far downstream.

Maybe it's just a "river rat" spirit, but I've always seen the flowages as a means to get up into the river, away from the personal watercraft and pontoon boats. If you're one of those bassers who feels compelled to turn his ball cap around backward when moving from spot to spot, the following article may not be what you're looking for. But if you understand the joys of sharing a watercraft with a buddy wearing a red hat, read on.