Looking for good boating lakes in Wisconsin- any ideas?

[R00st]

We are looking to buy a cabin or Park model trailer on a lake in Wisconsin. We would also consider being on a river, as long as it's good for boating. We live in northern IL so I'd like to stay in the southern half of the state.

I'd like to be on a decent sized body of water since we would be spending about every other weekend there, and I would probabaly keep the boat up there. We also ride side by sides so access to a trail system would be a bonus!

 

[Julian]

The lakes I enjoyed boating the most on in WI were all northern lakes. The further south you go, the more crowded they get. Minoqua and Tomohawk were among our favorites. Our boat lived in a slip on Silver lake - really far south....but that lake was so busy on the weekends that they declared that everyone had to drive counter clockwise to prevent accidents! Beat that for busy! LOL

 

[gbboating]

All the good lakes are in northen wisconsin. Three lakes and the eagle river chain or minoqua

 

[rrmidden]

There are no good lakes in Wisconsin!

In reality it depends on your budget, and your local. Beluha in the SE, Castle Rock in the SW, Geneva if you have a bottomless pit of money and love crowds! There's about 15,000 lakes, find one that suits you.

 

[SCP1]

If you want to ride side by sides I would go north as Julian stated. I know there are some trails by Castle Rock which is part of the Wisconsin River. But this a big shallow lake, with a couple cool bars which have sand bars. But the lake is rarely calm due to the size, so if your thinking of doing watersports I would avoid Castle Rock.

 

[JJ-B-Boatin]

The Lake Winnebago system (Lake Butte de Morts, Wolf river, Fox River, Lake Winneconne, Lake Poygan) offers some great boating. Lake Winnebago can get rough depending on wind conditions, but usually can then boat the river and other lakes. Also, have to be a little careful for it can get shallow. Get a good lake map and all is good. As far as riding trails, not sure, know of many up north. We spend a lot/most of time on Winnebago due to being only 15 minutes from the boat launch, however my favorite Wisconsin Lakes are the Eagle River chain, Three Lakes Chain, Minoqua Chain and Little St. Germain Chain.

 

[viper15]

I got this off a WI DNR site a while back. I can't remember exactly where I found it, but it's a nice spreadsheet of all the WI lakes. You can filter it on a number of criteria such as: size, depth, public landings, water clarity, etc. It also lists the county with GPS location to help you find it on a map.