Janesville's Don Herr caught and released this 44-inch muskie on Big Tomahawk Lake during the 2002 World Muskie Hunt. Photo by www.dansmalloutdoors.com.

To some anglers, classic muskie water is a shallow, stained lake with scattered cabbage beds, bars that rise to within a few feet of the surface and an abundance of forage in the form of suckers or perch. To other anglers, classic Esox waters are deep, clear lakes with steep dropoffs, few weeds and a forage base of ciscoes.

These two profiles describe very different lakes, with very different challenges and opportunities. Muskies inhabit them both, but to catch "toothers" consistently on each, you must adapt your fishing style to the water at hand, and often to the time of year.

Here is a look at a handful of Wisconsin lakes that fit each description, and how you should go about fishing them.

SHALLOW LAKES
The typical shallow muskie lake has enough structure in 10 feet of water or less to hold both muskies and forage species. Many shallow lakes are manmade stump-studded flowages, with subtle depth changes along old river channels and boggy shorelines broken by frequent bays and inlets. Muskies are likely to be anywhere they can find good cover and food. Cast bucktails, topwaters and other shallow-running lures over weedflats, bars and channels, and you can expect jarring strikes at any time.

Lake Namekagon
Bayfield County's Lake Namekagon, at 3,200 acres, consists of four lake basins connected by channels, with a dam on the west side and an outlet to the Namekagon River. Although the lake drops to 50 feet in places, much of it is shallow. The muskies here are generally found in 4 to 8 feet of water, where structure in the form of bars, weedbeds and an irregular shoreline abounds.

Guide Bruce Shumway said there is always a quiet place to fish here because the lake has so many bays and points. Most of its 44-mile shoreline is bordered by good weedbeds, so muskies can be anywhere. And regardless of wind direction, you can almost always find a good drift.

"Sometimes muskies here want wood, and sometimes they want hair," said Shumway, who has designed several effective muskie lures, including the Bootail and Funky Chicken.

Shumway usually starts fishing big jerkbaits in June while concentrating on the shallow bays of Garden Lake that warm early and sport the first weedbeds. Later, he switches to smaller jerkbaits, twitchbaits and bucktails. By midsummer, topwaters and shallow-running buzzbaits are hot. In the fall, big jerkbaits work great, and live suckers on quick-strike rigs catch fish. Color and sound make a difference in this stained water. Go with bright orange, chartreuse and other high-visibility colors, and noisy surface baits of any color.

Numerous resorts -- including the classy Lakewoods -- serve the lake, and there are several public landings.

Contacts: Cable Area Chamber of Commerce, 1-800-533-7454, or www.cable4fun.com; Shumway Guide Service, (715) 798-3441, or www.shumwaysmusky.com.

Lac Vieux Desert
Located on the border of Wisconsin's Vilas County and Upper Michigan's Gogebic County, Lac Vieux Desert covers some 4,300 acres of prime muskie water. Stained and fertile with vast weedbeds, this lake is full of big perch and walleyes, which serve to fatten up the big predators here. Lac Vieux Desert has produced pure muskies over 40 pounds, and world-record tiger muskies topping 50 pounds.

The season here opens on the first Saturday in May -- one of the features of being a border lake -- and action remains good all season long. Small spinnerbaits are good in early May. Later, shallow-running crankbaits and twitchbaits work well over the weedtops. In midsummer, work deep weed edges with bigger bucktails, or toss noisy topwaters at night.

George Langley of Eagle Sports Center in Eagle River said row-trolling can be an effective technique here, as long as you stick to baits that run shallow enough to avoid fouling in weeds.

Contact: Vilas County Advertising Department, (715) 479-3648, or www.co.vilas.wi.us; Eagle Sports Center, (715) 479-8804, or www.eaglesportscenter.com.

Lost Land & Teal Lakes
Known as the "quiet lakes," Lost Land (1,300 acres) and Teal (1,050 acres) in Sawyer County are often considered as one flowage because there is a navigable channel connecting them. Similar in size, depth and other characteristics, both are fertile, stained and weedy. Fishing pressure and boat traffic are light on both lakes because a local ordinance prohibits water-skiing, and it limits all boats to 10 mph.