With the arrival of summer, Lake Pewaukee's diverse fish habitat supports muskie-fishing tactics of all options. In 2008, muskie anglers here registered 170 fish in the state records, which recognizes Pewaukee muskies larger than 35 inches. Photo by Bret Alexander.

There is much to be said about listening to loon music spreading across a pristine northern Wisconsin lake at dawn, your nostrils filled with the pungent aroma of dew on balsams while you casually tune in to the "slurp, slurp, slurp" of your Surf Roller lure gliding slowly across the lake's surface . . . until the lure disappears in the violent surface attack of a 30-pound muskie infuriated with an intrusion in its watery domain!

Heaven, indeed, may be painted this way for a number of Dairyland anglers at some of southern Wisconsin's best muskie waters. For others -- at Pewaukee Lake, for example -- it's the crashing of "Big Momma" destroying your topwater bait while the sound of a trucker engaging his engine brakes combines with the pungent aroma of diesel exhaust wafting off Interstate 94. Not only is the region home to Wisconsin's finest muskie fishing waters; it's also laced with highways and interstates that support the state's most dense population centers.

And the muskie fishing persists!

PEWAUKEE LAKE
Pewaukee Lake takes the top spot on the list of Wisconsin's finest muskie waters for both numbers and big fish. It might also top the list for fishing pressure, too.

This means you may have to wait a few minutes at Pewaukee to launch your boat or to fish a certain point, where one of the biggest things you've ever seen with fins haunts the lives of anglers and forage in the shape of fish, mice, snakes, ducks and more -- minor demerits in an otherwise perfect world where the muskie eats when, where and what it wants to.

Fisheries biologist Sue Beyler of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says Pewaukee holds one adult muskellunge for every 2 1/2 surface acres of the 2,400-acre lake. The data reveals Pewaukee holds almost twice as many adult muskies as its "competing" waters, lakes Okauchee or Oconomowoc, which average one adult muskie for every 4 to 5 surface acres.

"For size (of individual fish) I would recommend Okauchee. The average adult measures 36 to 38 inches, compared with 32 to 34 inches on Pewaukee," Beyler admits. "But Pewaukee is still the best place in southern Wisconsin to tangle with a muskie of respectable dimensions."

Fishing guide Capt. Mike Koepp of Mike's Extreme Guide Service in Pewaukee practically lives on Pewaukee from opening weekend until the arrival of summer. He points to Pewaukee's diverse fish habitat as the secret to success for muskie anglers.

"With all the options available to a muskie angler," he says, "you can usually come up with some kind of pattern (for taking fish) out there just about every time you launch the boat."

Koepp often starts his spring muskie fishing at the west end of Pewaukee, targeting the waters of the fast-warming marsh area and shoreline just north of the public boat launch.

"If I move a muskie here, there is a good chance (more) fish will be active in Taylor's Bay," he predicts. "Both of these areas have a peat bottom that transitions into sand and gravel areas where the muskies like to spawn."