Photo by Pete Maina

The perspective on Wisconsin’s state fish has changed considerably over the past 15 to 20 years.

A generation ago, going muskie fishing meant a journey to the northwoods. The vision quest for a 50-incher included a Friday night fish fry in a supper club where walls were adorned with lunkers, loon magic in the morning and the pungent aroma of wet tamaracks. It was all about immersing in the north country. Muskie trips and deer camp were two Wisconsin institutions placed on pedestals that no man -- or woman -- dared put asunder.

Nowadays, muskies now swim in dozens of waters across southern Wisconsin. Muskies rule their watery domains less than an hour away from most downstate folks’ homes. Instead of hearing loons and smelling tamaracks, most of our fishing time is spent listening to jets overhead and vehicle traffic, and getting whiffs of diesel smoke. More often than not, there are lines at the ramp, and sometimes there are boats waiting their turn to fish a windblown point.

Muskies may still be the fish of 10,000 casts. But the taunting of Tallywackers and seduction of Suicks come in such a rapid progression that a 40-inch muskie living downstate has seen a dozen times more plugs and bucktails than her cousin Milly of similar dimensions living in northern Wisconsin’s Lac Vieux Desert, Teal Lake or the Chippewa Flowage.

With Wisconsin’s modern road system, we can be anywhere in the northwoods in five hours -- six hours tops -- even when road tripping from someplace “way down south” like Waukesha County. That’s a 10- to 12-hour round trip without wetting a line. The same amount of time spent on Pewaukee or Okauchee twitching a Jake or burning a bucktail just under the surface has all the ingredients for producing a torpedo wake and open-jawed strike right by the boat that makes our knees go weak.

Having to jam on the brakes and head for the ditch because some guy in a minivan from Illinois missed the exit for the Wisconsin Dells can create a similar adrenaline rush. But the sensory input of a big downstate muskie shaking her head to some double-trebled chin music is much more pleasurable than what could occur on northbound I-90/94. The best part is, you can show other softball dads the release of this 42-incher on your camera/cell phone at junior’s game that evening, and still make it to work come Monday morning without a red-eyed commute through deer country at night.

Our northwoods will always have the unrivaled ambience of pristine woods and waters. But your chances for getting that string stretched are as good or better close to where the lion’s share of our population pays primary dwelling property taxes -- the joy from which makes you want to set the hook hard, soon and multiple times.

The following is a look at some of our best waters for finding catharsis close to home for those who live in southern Wisconsin. Next month, we’ll tell you where you can catch a trophy muskie after your Friday night fish fry in the northwoods.

PEWAUKEE LAKE
This 2,400-acre Waukesha County muskie hotspot has led every category -- except loon music and tamarack aroma -- for years.