Motor trolling is legal here, and trolling deep-diving crankbaits like a Depth Raider or Bagley is one way to reach the deep fish. A more effective way, especially in fall, is to locate schools of ciscoes and jig above them with blade baits like a Cicada or Bruce Shumway's Fuzzy Duzzit.

Fishing a blade bait is easy, even if it is a little monotonous. Drop it to the desired depth, pump it up, let it flutter back down, and slam home the hooks if you feel it stop. When you jig a 1/2-ounce lure 35 feet down in 50 feet of water and it suddenly stops dead, there is a split-second when you say, "Rats, snag." Then you snap to reality, "No, that's a fish!" This technique is lethal in fall when ciscoes bunch up before spawning and muskies feed voraciously before shutting down for the winter.

Contact: Jim's Bait, (715) 795-3150, or www.eauclairelakes.com/www.jimsbaitnconveniencestore.htm.

Trout Lake
At over 3,800 acres, Trout Lake is one of Wisconsin's largest muskie waters, and one of the toughest to fish. Trout yields 40-pounders each season, and there are likely bigger fish here. Some folks even think a new world record is finning here.

Deep and clear, Trout consists of two basins, known locally as North Lake and South Lake. North has a few weedbeds that produce muskies in the spring on bucktails. Most of the lake is over 20 feet deep, however, and most big muskies skedaddle to deep water by early summer, where they patrol the thermocline for suspended schools of ciscoes.

Some anglers get down to these fish by row-trolling with deep-diving crankbaits. A row-troller is a specialized boat, usually made of wood, that one angler can row comfortably. With your rods secured in holders, you simply row at a steady pace and hope a fish grabs your crankbait. If not, your arms and abs get a good workout. The steep dropoff along the east side of North Lake is one good spot to row-troll. Another is a similar stretch of steep drops on the east shore of South Lake.

Contact: Boulder Junction Chamber of Commerce, 1-800-GO MUSKY, or www.boulderjct.org.

Round Lake
If you are looking for a real challenge, head for 3,054-acre Round Lake in Sawyer County and try to catch a muskie in a half-day of fishing. Deep, clear and infertile, Round is one of the toughest lakes to fish, according to Hayward-area guide Pete Maina. But Maina is one of the few anglers who regularly catch fish over 30 pounds here. He may not admit it, but a substantial number of the trophy muskies you see on the cover of this magazine were caught by Maina or his guided clients on Round Lake.

"I work the weedbeds and shallow structure early in the season," Maina said. "But by summer, I'm out over deep water looking for suspended fish."

The lake's deepwater gravel bars, like Sandy and Dugans, produce muskies in summer. Maina likes heavy bucktails, such as a Mepps Muskie Killer, or a 3/4-ounce jig tipped with a live sucker. Maina also fishes for muskies at night here in the summer when he uses topwaters right on top of shallow, rocky bars, and crankbaits and bucktails over deep water. In fall, he jigs a Fuzzy Duzzit with a 3-inch minnow on the back treble.

Round is one lake where the nastier the weather, the better the fishing is because of the high visibility during fair weather. Motor trolling is legal here, but you will need deep divers or wire line to get down to the fish. Contact: Hayward Chamber of Commerce, (715) 634-8662, or www.haywardareachamber.com.

Lake Tomahawk
At 3,392 acres, "Big Tom" -- as the local folks call it -- is an imposing lake to master. This is the site of the annual World Muskie Hunt, along with sister lakes Minocqua and Kawaguesaga. They offer anglers a formidable challenge to newcomer and veteran alike. Most of Tomahawk Lake is over 20 feet deep, and there is an abundance of structure, both deep and mid-depth. That makes it hard to decide where to even start fishing.