19 species
Everything swimming in Shawano Lake
Eight species carry their own DNR survey tables and the other eleven do not. Each page holds the 2023 survey numbers, the state record, the trophy standard, where the fish holds in this lake, and what to throw at it.
Surveyed game fish and panfish
The DNR published a full size, abundance and growth table for each of these in 2023.
Walleye
Sander vitreus
The fish that most people drive to Shawano for, and the one the lake works hardest to produce. Two-thirds of the adults swimming in front of you were hatched in a volunteer-run trailer in Cecil.
Muskellunge
Esox masquinongy
The DNR netted 46 muskies in the whole system in 2023, and the longest went 49.8 inches. Every one of them counts.
Northern pike
Esox lucius
The most reliable predator in the lake. The DNR measured 552 of them in one spring and the longest was 32.2 inches.
Largemouth bass
Micropterus salmoides
Docks, reeds, weed flats, deep weedlines. A lake built for a Texas rig.
Black crappie
Pomoxis nigromaculatus
The DNR aged a 12-inch female at 19 years old. Crappies here live a long time and grow slowly past 10 inches, so a 12-inch fish is a genuinely old animal.
Bluegill
Lepomis macrochirus
A 7-inch Shawano bluegill has been alive for about seven and a half years. The lake holds a lot of them and grows them slowly.
Pumpkinseed
Lepomis gibbosus
Shawano Lake ranks in the 96th percentile statewide for pumpkinseed density and the 98th percentile for pumpkinseed over 7 inches. Nothing else in this lake scores that high.
Yellow perch
Perca flavescens
Netting size structure sits in the 88th percentile statewide. Fish over 10 inches are on the table here.
Also in the lake
These fish live here and you can legally catch most of them. The 2023 comprehensive survey did not target them, so no abundance numbers exist to print.
Smallmouth bass
Micropterus dolomieu
A sand-and-muck bottom gives smallmouth almost nothing to hold on. Fish the current instead.
Rock bass
Ambloplites rupestris
The bycatch that saves a slow day. A rock bass will eat almost anything you drop past it.
White bass
Morone chrysops
The Wolf River white bass run is one of the biggest fish events in this part of Wisconsin, and the outlet connects you to it.
Lake sturgeon
Acipenser fulvescens
Fishing for lake sturgeon is closed on Shawano Lake. Watching the Wolf River run in April is the reason they are on this list.
Closed season
Channel catfish
Ictalurus punctatus
A summer night fish. Almost nobody on this lake targets them.
Black bullhead
Ameiurus melas
The lake bottom is 12% muck, which suits them, and no bag limit applies.
Freshwater drum
Aplodinotus grunniens
Also called sheepshead. It crushes mollusks, so the zebra mussel invasion fed it.
Common carp
Cyprinus carpio
The biggest fish most people on this lake ever hook, and they hook it by accident.
Bowfin
Amia calva
Called dogfish locally. A native fish older than the dinosaurs, and it fights harder than anything else here.
White crappie
Pomoxis annularis
Count the dorsal spines to tell them apart: six on a white crappie, seven or eight on a black.
Golden shiner
Notemigonus crysoleucas
The forage fish that the pike and the walleye are eating. Match it.