THE LOON CAPITAL MERCER WISCONSIN IS THE ULTIMATE NORTHWOODS EXPERIENCE
There’s something special about Northwoods. The heavy scent of pine in the air. Bald eagles everywhere. The wailing call of the loons. It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to fish up North. But a recent trip to Mercer, Wisconsin brought back a flood of memories, and a chance to create new ones.
Located at the northernmost part of Wisconsin, Mercer is just miles from the Michigan border, or about 5 hours from Chicago. I was filming an episode of Illinois Outdoors TV with my buddy Don Dziedzina, so we had to squeeze a lot into 3 short days. As we pulled into town, we were greeted by a giant loon sculpture, fitting for the Loon Capital of the World.
Over three days we fished several lakes. But the largest body of water was the famed Turtle-Flambeau Flowage. There was plenty of rock structure typical of the northern lakes, but this body of water was loaded with lots of downed timber, which provides great hiding places for the fish. Our method of fishing was working small jigs tipped with a half a night crawler through the logs and timber. Using this technique, we caught a variety of fish including smallmouth bass, walleye, rock bass and bluegills. Of course there’s a price to pay when fishing underwater timber- as I donated plenty of jigs to the Flowage. “If you’re not getting snags, you’re not where the fish are,” explained Jerry Hartigan of Jerkbait Guide Services. We boated some giant smallmouth in the 4-plus pound range. I was intrigued by how dark their colors were, almost black, due to the tannin in the water from the trees. Our timing was not ideal as we arrived just after the mayfly hatch, so the fish had been gorging themselves on the mayfly larvae hatching from the lake bottoms. The temperature was in the upper 80’s, which also slowed the bite. The walleye had lockjaw as well, but we still caught our limit and brought some home for the frying pan.Despite the challenging conditions we still caught fish thanks to the help of some of the best guides in Northern Wisconsin including Hartigan, Mike “Doc” Sabec, John Andrew, Jeff Robl, and Erv Keller. When you book your trip to Mercer, I highly recommend contacting these guys for a day on the water (click their names to visit their websites)!
Now I have never fished for muskies before, but know it requires a LOT of casting with giant lures, and that catching a musky is kind of like winning the lottery. Well, our guide Bobby Orr made it looks easy. In just 3 hours, we had one musky in the boat, 2 hooked up and about 5 more that followed our lures to the boat. I had a 40-incher hooked up…for about ten seconds. After grabbing my spinnerbait, he exploded out of the water about 15 feet from the boat, shaking his tooth-filled head, then in a giant “woosh” he cut the line and waved goodbye. Now I know why musky fishing can be so addicting— what a rush!
Catching fish in the Northwoods makes you hungry, and the locals went above and beyond to make sure we had our fill. We enjoyed a lakeside campfire breakfast at the Pine Forest Lodge, a BBQ cookout with salmon and ribs courtesy of the McNutt Group, and a scrumptious walleye shore lunch at The Gateway Lodge. The resorts in Mercer are all outstanding. Our cabin at the Deadhorse Lodge was loaded with all of the amenities, and a great lakeside view of the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage.
Mercer is also a great place for the entire family. Every facility we visited was family-friendly. And the Wampum Shop is a must-visit for the kids, or if you need to bring gifts back for the rest of the family. The locals were some of the friendliest folks I’ve met, and they treated us like family. Mercer is also a winter hotspot with some outstanding snowmobiles trails and ice fishing. If you are interested in setting up a trip, contact the Mercer Chamber of Commerce at www.mercercc.com.
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