Bishop Lake Bull Bluegills, Wisconsin

[larry simonis]

Biggest bluegills I've ever seen in my life came out of Bishop Lake in Northern Wisconsin near the town of Mole Lake. Its a smallish lake, 287 acres, very wild on 3 sides, has a stream with native brook trout flowing into it, and also out, 10 ft. maximum depth. Anyway, the gills we sometimes got here were as big as plates, their width was nearly the same as length, and some of them were very dark. Only got them once/year around spawning time (late June up there), not far from where the stream entered, near weeds we called "banana stalks" (the top sticking out of the water looked like a banana). I think the biggest bulls would average about 1 1/2 pounds! They would burrow into the weeds, and you thought you had a 5 lb. bass on. A cane pole worked well, you could hoist them up and out of the weeds before they could burrow into them.

One year a buddy of mine had been fishing a different lake the same weekend I had gotten some of those bulls at Bishop Lake, and he caught a real nice 3/4 lb. bluegill, and he was sure it was bigger than anything I had. I saw his gill, said "yeah, that's a pretty nice one, but check these out", and he reacted like someone had smacked him on the face when he saw mine: they literally DWARFED his 3/4 lb.'er!!

My uncle caught one that had to be nearly 2 pounds, I think it was 12 inches or so. They caught limits on occasion of these hogs. Its been a number of years since I fished there, but the memories remain. There's really nothing quite like it in the world than a bunch of these bulls on a really nice N. Wisconsin lake, with the cold water of a trout stream flowing into it. Any true connoisseur of really big gills and Northern lakes will relate to what I'm saying. Had to share this with y'all.

[thomas j swank]

Sounds beautiful! How long ago has it been since you've been there?

[Bill "Musky" Modica]

Larry, your description of Bishop lake has me on the edge of my seat.....I'm looking at it right now via google earth....looks like a real gem, with a public boat launch. I might not go to Canada this year, and instead hit Northern Wi. for giant gills.....4 hrs and 45 min from my house....can you say bucket list?

[Jim Gronaw]

Any photos?