Top 10 Wisconsin Ice Fishing Vacations

Share

Top 10 Wisconsin Ice Fishing Vacations Overview

While we advise against using fish-lips as a kissing technique, we couldn’t help but get hooked on them at the resorts on our list of Top 10 Wisconsin Ice Fishing Vacations. Wintertime brings holiday cheer and snuggly nights in front of the fire. However, you can only fight off the hibernating blues and dreams of the big catch for so long. Just because you can’t canoe onto those Wisconsin waters doesn’t mean you should let the fish rest easy. Fine tune that reel, dust off your tackle box and experience the satisfaction of catching the big one. You won’t regret courting Lady Lake Luck at any of these Northwoods angling hot spots.

1

Floods Island Resort - Chetek, Wisconsin

Floods Island Resort is your Wisconsin island fishing getaway in the Chetek chain. These six lakes hold the coveted treasures you hope to hang above your mantle. Lake Chetek has a depth of 22 ft. and 683 surface acres for your bait to lie in wait for the crappie, bluegill, perch, bullhead, northern and walleye. Plus, every other year Chetek Lake is stocked with more than 100,000 walleye fingerlings. Though you may have missed the annual fish-o-rama, there’s no reason to not have a friendly competition with your buddies in the ice house. You could add the money you earn from this industrious wager toward the kids’ Christmas gift budget…or your own!

Related Onsite Offerings

Floods Island Resort not only has a convenient lakeside location, it also has comfortable lakeside cabins. Stay in spacious lodge rooms with fieldstone fireplaces and a three-season porch. Or, shack up by yourself or as a pair in the cozy one-bedroom Mainland Cabins.

Related activities

As much fun as sitting around a hole on a layer of frozen water is, we suggest moving around a little – beyond stretching. Go downhill skiing, snow shoeing or snowmobiling on trails right by Floods Island Resort.

Address

641 26th Street, Chetek, WI 54728

Write Review
2

Woodside Cottages of Bayfield - Bayfield, Wisconsin

Woodside Cottages of Bayfield has chosen to set up camp in the form of 13 pristine cottages next to Lake Superior. The quaint Wisconsin town of Bayfield is known as the gateway to the Apostle Islands. No, it’s not the pearly gates, but it’s the closest thing to angling heaven on earth! There are not three, not 11, but 21 islands in the Apostle chain, plus 12 miles of mainland. When those first cold gales of wind pick up, ice anglers wait in anticipation of the Superior ice caves on the Bayfield Peninsula and shores of Apostle Islands. A gleaming glass floor of ice in the caves paves the way for serene ice fishing in an exotic surrounding. And when you’ve strung a satisfying line of lake trout, you can return to your Woodside cottage to rest in front of the fire or thaw out in the Jacuzzi.

Related activities

Take a short 1.5-mile ride into the town of Bayfield on your snowmobile or hit the hundreds of state and forest snowmobile tracks in the area.

Related Onsite Offerings

Each cottage comes equipped with conveniences like high-speed wireless Internet, a gas fireplace, coffee maker, dishwasher, pine vaulted ceilings and more.

Getting there

From Ashland, WI, take U.S. Hwy. 2 W to Hwy. 13 N. Hwy. 13 N will bring you into Bayfield. Approximately a half of a mile south of Bayfield, turn right at the intersection of Hwy. 13 N and County Road J. Woodside Cottages are adjacent to the Fore ‘n Aft Restaurant.

Visit Website Write Review
Cabin Exterior at White Birch Village Resort
3

White Birch Village Resort - Boulder Junction, Wisconsin

Cast your line into the White Birch-Ballard-Irving chain of lakes for an exciting day of ice fishing. Whether you are fishing for bass, walleye, musky, or panfish, your day on the ice is sure to make your fishing trip memorable. After a long lay on the lake, retire to one of their spacious vacation rentals. These warm and welcoming cabins offer you a charming place to stay, but you'll never be far from the lake or from a day of exciting fishing. All this and so much more awaits you when you spend your winter fishing with White Birch Village Resort.

Address

8764 County Rd. K East Boulder Junction, WI 54512

Population

958

Elevation

1666 ft

Visit Website Write Review
4

Pitlik's Sand Beach Resort - Eagle River, Wisconsin

Pitlik’s Sand Beach Resort has 13 cabins conveniently close to the shores of Sand Lake but that’s not the only body of water you can dip your lure into. Pitlik’s is also nine miles southwest of Eagle River. Feel the rush when your tip-up signals the biting of a prize pike or walleye. If you really want to impress your buddies, stay out late and we don’t mean at the local bar. After the sun sinks, so will your jig rod – but not for long! These dark hours are actually the prime time for walleye-seekers. When the other fishermen are getting out of bed, you will have already caught your trophy. Pitlik’s cabins not only showcase the Sugar Camp Chain of Lakes with gorgeous views of Sand Lake, some also speak to modern comfort with an open-view wood burning stove, a fieldstone chimney, screened in porch, patio or spiral staircase.

Fun facts

Pitlik’s has been open since 1928 with a mission to deliver Northwoods wilderness relaxation. Enjoy the WI outdoors fishing, hiking or sitting by the fire.

Highlights

Pitlik’s is ideal for secluded wilderness getaways or wildlife viewing because of the Norway pine, birch, oak and maple that surrounds the resort.

Address

4833 Sand Beach Drive, Eagle River, WI 54521

Visit Website Write Review
5

Shady Rest Lodge - Rhinelander, Wisconsin

If you came to Shady Rest Lodge in the summer, we know you’d make ample use of the pine and hardwood tree shade. But since we are after cold, hard ground and frozen lakes, we won’t get into how Shady Rest Lodge is on Breezy Point Peninsula, which juts out into the gorgeous 300-acre, spring-fed Manson Lake. Instead, we will tell you that Manson Lake is acclaimed for its musky, including tiger muskies, and stocked with walleye by both Shady Rest Lodge’s lake association and the Wisconsin DNR. If you’re bringing your little tikes up for their ice fishing debut, cozy Cabin No. 3 is appointed with family-friendly amenities like a refrigerator, a lake view and a fireplace where you can warm your toes after a day of reeling.

Related Onsite Offerings

If you do decide to come back and catch that piece of shade, you will enjoy Shady Rest Lodge’s Modified American Plan which includes breakfast and dinner, water skiing, use of the boats and more.

Related activities

Enjoy the Breezy Point scenery in a different way – on the green. Courses like Timber Ridge, Edgewater Country Club, Northwood Golf Club of Rhinelander and more are within 20 min. of the resort.

Address

8440 Shady Rest Road, Rhinelander, WI 54501

Write Review
6

Gypsy Villa Resort - Eagle River, Wisconsin

Our No. 6 spot sports an exotic name and location. Gypsy Villa Resort has Mainland and Island Villas in the chain of 28 navigable and connected Wisconsin lakes that make up the Eagle River-Three Lakes area. The Island Villas on Cranberry Island are surrounded by the gateway waters of the Nicolet National Forest. No matter what season you choose to follow your lure, Gypsy Villa always provides stunning scenery and warm, convenient lodging in the Carriage House or Hillcrest House. And being in the Eagle River-Three Lakes area also means that those musky, perch, smallmouth bass and northern pike are at the tip of your hook!

Related Onsite Offerings

Full kitchens, dining areas and cable TV are in every room of the Carriage House. The two suites in the Hillcrest House have private whirlpools, living rooms, TVs, dining areas and full kitchens.

Related activities

Never navigated Cranberry Lake before? Take an ice fishing guide with you to catch that record-breaking musky!

Address

950 Circle Drive, Eagle River, WI 54521

Write Review
7

Lakeview Log Cabin Resort - Mosinee, Wisconsin

Lakeview Log Cabin Resort, our No. 7 pick, has a fairly self-explanatory name, but there’s more behind the name that we feel compelled to introduce you to. The five modern cabin homes have various options for housing your party, large or small, and the resort offers all the fisherman’s necessities: a fish cleaning house, freezer storage, a bait shop and license sales. Not only is Lakeview’s attentive staff on hand to make your stay at Lake DuBay as relaxing and convenient as possible, but local fishing guides from Hooksetters are also nearby to make this WI fishing vacation a success!

Related activities

Don’t forget to explore dry land, as well. Check out the Stevens Point Brewery or casinos in the Wausau area.

Related Onsite Offerings

Bed linens, high-speed Internet, garbage bags, dish soap, dishes, air conditioning/heat and more.

Address

1095 Wambold Drive, Mosinee, WI 54455

Write Review
8

Ward's Riverside Cabins - Buffalo City, Wisconsin

Not only does Ward’s Riverside Cabins have cabins with four walls and a roof to block out the cold, they also have warm bed linens, an outdoor firepit and a coffee pot to keep you warm outdoors in those early morning hours. But we know you anglers are itching to move from dry land to water – frozen water that is. The shallow backwaters of the Mississippi are your ice mine – errr, gold mine for panfish and maybe even that 40-in.-plus pike. When you’re not playing on the ice, play in the snow. No, we aren’t referring to making snow angels – although that is a perfectly acceptable past time. We’re referring to the snowmobile trails close to Ward’s Riverside!

Related Onsite Offerings

Ward’s Riverside supplies wood for the firepit and an onsite cleaning house for fish or game that you hunted during your stay.

Fun facts

The owners of Ward’s Riverside also make log furniture, such as beds, dressers, tables and more.

Address

389 West 20th Street, Buffalo City, WI 54622

Visit Website Write Review
9

Treeland Resort - Hayward, Wisconsin

Though we’d love to make this a top 12 so that we are able to give Timber Cove and Oak Shores their due (Pat’s Landing gets theirs in our No. 10 spot), we will have to settle for expounding on the fine qualities of the first and original Treeland Resort for now. Treeland Resort not only boasts lodging with leather furniture and gas-log fireplaces, it also provides fish cleaning stations and a main lodge with a game room, restaurant and bar. Treeland is also mere steps from the Chippewa Flowage, Wisconsin’s third largest lake. Plumb the dark depths with the help of fishing guides, or go solo to win the Treelands Walleye Challenge or Lake Chippewa Flowage Musky Hunt contest.

Fun facts

Each resort in the Treelands Resorts group has its own outdoor heated swimming pool.

Highlights

The family can sprawl out in spacious five-bedroom cabins, or you can cozy up to your sweetie in front of a fieldstone fireplace in a one-bedroom cabin overlooking Musky Bay.

Address

9630 Treeland Road, Hayward, WI 54843

Write Review
10

Pat's Landing - Hayward, Wisconsin

Sunsets over the Chippewa Flowage are widely acclaimed, but Pat’s Landing may have stumbled upon something when they built their newest condos to face the sunrise. Though we realize any self-respecting ice angler would already be on the lake, we couldn’t help but test the view once from the inside. Another inside amenity that we feel is beneficial for ridding your bones of every last chill is Pat’s Landing’s bar. Swap stories about your big day and the best hot spots with other anglers over a pint or a plate of delicious comfort food. If your little one is nagging you for a change of scenery, take them cross country skiing on the kilometers of groomed Wisconsin trails. Or, show them a different thrill – the thrill of the hunt!

Related Onsite Offerings

Internet, TVs in bedrooms, TV/VCR/DVD and fireplace in the great room, washer/dryer unit, a bar and grill restaurant overlooking Chief Lake and more.

Highlights

Pat’s Landing is also an ideal resort for your summer Wisconsin family vacation. The kids will be endlessly entertained with hiking trails, an outdoor playground and heated swimming pool, the sand beach, putting green and more.

Address

7476 N Pat’s Landing Road, Hayward, WI 54843

Write Review

Also See in Wisconsin

stats