March 2, 2022 at 4:57 p.m.
Fish Like a GIRL
Lake maps provide a trip down memory lane
Fish Like a GIRL
Lake maps - they are kind of a thing of the past almost now, but I still enjoy looking at them during down times like cold, February days. Most of the lake maps I have are Fishing Hot Spots maps, which likely comes as no surprise. They always were some of the most comprehensive maps out there, but I did run across a few treasures, too, such as two maps of Lake Mead and one of Havasu that dated back to the 1980s. I can say map technology has certainly changed since those days.
Closer to home, I found a map of the Stevens Point part of the Wisconsin River. Now, I am not sure of the date on this highly undetailed map (included here is a photo of one of the pages), but I would venture to say it was likely from the early 90s, when Rod first moved here. We used to fish the Point Flowage in the Central Wisconsin River Series quite a bit and my series, the Wisconsin Bass Team Trail, will be heading back there again this year for our first tournament in May.
As a boater, I know enough about the Point Flowage to get lost, stuck, or lose a lower unit. I have never taken the time to get to know it and, honestly, this "Stellar vintage map," as it may be listed on eBay by an unscrupulous seller, will likely not improve my plight. This 49-page beauty is an outline only map in many places.
I do recognize pieces of the map such as First Lake and Second lake, but I have no idea how a person would go about using a map such as this to - do anything, actually. "Not to be used for navigation," comes to mind, but it is fun to look at and think back on the day when it was likely state of the art.
Some of the maps are small and functional, such as the Oneida Lake map I have included here. Not exactly practical on the water, as they are paper and not waterproof, but at the same time, these are nice maps to look at during those down times.
Another gem I ran across was the Wisconsin Lakes book published by the DNR in 2001. This book has some fun facts in it. As part of the Wisconsin Lakes Roundup section, it lists Vilas County as having the most lakes in any one county at 1,318. Brown and Outagamie Counties come in at the bottom of the ladder with only 4 named lakes each. The five lakes with the largest surface area were not a shock: Winnebago, Petenwell, Chippewa Flowage, Poygan and Castle Rock.
We often talk about Clear Lake or Long Lake or lakes with common names such as those. In 2001, the most common lake was Mud Lake. There are 116 Mud Lakes in the state. I am under the assumption that lake names are no longer being dolled out a high rate, so I would guess that is probably the case even today. Bass Lake came in second with 82 lakes named such in the state. There are 59 Long Lakes, 45 Spring Lakes and 42 Lost Lakes in Wisconsin as well.
The book also contains a full breakdown by county of number of named lakes and their acreage, number of unnamed lakes and their acreage, and the totals of both. Without Lake Superior and Lake Michigan acreage included, according to this 2001 book, there are/were 982,962 acres of lakes in the state and a total of 15,081 named and unnamed bodies of water.
From there, there is a list of all of the lakes in each county. These breakdowns let the angler know what species of fish they are likely to encounter in any of those lakes. While the information may be somewhat simplistic, I can imagine it took more than a great deal of time to compile all of these facts and figures into one publication. To me, another cool find in my lake map file folder.
I also have several maps that I "made" myself. On one side is the Sportsman's Guide map from the bound book. On the other side, I have a Google Earth map. I still use Google Earth, especially for places with which I am not familiar, but for a few years, as I was fishing tournaments as a non-boater, I found it somewhat helpful to have one of these maps with me. It even allowed me to put a pin point on an area I knew I wanted to check out. Again, with fishing electronics being what they are now, even these maps are not needed nearly as much when on the water. Our electronics tell us so much more than they ever have.
One map in particular I found will make me smile for years to come. We had a club tournament on Little Arbor Vitae Lake one year when I first started fishing out of my own boat. I was working as a front desk and banquet manager at a local hotel and did not have time to get out prefishing. Rod, being the nice guy he was (hold that thought) said he would mark up the Fishing Hot Spots map of the lake for me so I had some places to at least check out come tournament morning. He was a good angler with a lot of experience, so I was excited he was going to share some of his secrets with me, even though I was fishing against him.
Fast forward to tournament morning. I am in my boat, getting my gear ready. As the sun comes up, I float offshore a bit to check out this map with all of his "secret spots" pin pointed for me. I felt positive of my success as I unfolded the map. Then, I saw his markings. At the launch ramp he had written, in his all-capital-letter scrawl, "START HERE." In several other areas his instructions were, "CHECK IN THE WATER HERE FOR FISH," or "THERE MIGHT BE FISH HERE." None of these things were meant to be especially helpful to the new angler, but I have to say it did make me laugh. On the bottom of the map he had written, a bit smaller, "THAT WILL TEACH YOU NOT TO PRE-FISH." This map still makes me laugh. I was a bit irritated that morning, of course, when I looked over to his boat and saw the goofy grin on his face, but that was who we were and how we interacted. Those types of memories are things I will always cherish as I get ready for another season on the water.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.