ST. CROIX FLOWAGE
“The St. Croix Flowage is a sleeper lake with good pike numbers and decent sizes that anglers should consider tapping into this year,” fisheries biologist Scott Toshner said.

Good numbers with some lunker-class fish thrown in is always a nice combination and is not always the case at other area lakes. There are numerous keeper-sized northerns in the flowage and they’re eager biters in early spring. Look for green vegetation near the natural shoreline areas that have served as spawning areas.

With depths reaching 28 feet, pike have a coldwater refuge. Hammer-handles can live in shallow, weedy water all summer long, but as they grow, they need cooler water to avoid heat stress. Start casting or trolling shallow and move into deeper water to locate the bigger pike.

St. Croix Flowage is in Douglas County and covers 1,913 acres. For more information, call the Bureau of Fisheries at (715) 635-4162.

FRANKLIN LAKE
“My first thought for good pike waters in my area is Franklin Lake,” fisheries biologist Tim Simonson said. “There aren’t any muskies in the lake and that makes life a lot easier for the northern pike.”

Muskies are major competitors for available prey fish and a big muskie thinks nothing of munching on a smaller pike for lunch. Northerns are at the top of the food chain in Franklin Lake and can afford to throw caution to the wind.

“We tried a 32-inch minimum length limit on Franklin Lake in Forest County for a number of years,” fisheries biologist John Kubisiak said. “Franklin Lake always had a reputation for lots of pike with an occasional very large fish. The population of small pike exploded and may have started impacting the bass and walleye populations and we haven’t seen many large northern pike being produced. There was poor angler compliance with the regulations and larger fish were illegally taken. As a result, we now have a high density of smaller pike. Franklin Lake is back to a no-minimum-length regulation, so our anglers can thin out the smaller fish.”

Franklin Lake covers 161 acres in Oneida County. For more information, call the Bureau of Fisheries in Rhinelander at (715) 365-8919.

GRINDSTONE LAKE
This great pike water is another of Simonson’s picks and on the opposite end of the scale from Franklin Lake. Grindstone has the sizes lacking in Franklin, but anglers can’t expect to catch many of them.

Fisheries biologist Frank Pratt Jr. also tags Grindstone as a great place to try for larger pike.

“There is a very low density of northern pike in Grindstone, maybe one for every 5 to 10 acres of water, which is a similar density maintained by muskies in our waters,” Pratt said.