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Home › Waters › Michigan › Cisco Lake
Lake · Gogebic County in Michigan's western Upper Peninsula near Watersmeet, at the centre of the fifteen-lake Cisco Chain on the Wisconsin border · Michigan

Cisco Lake Fishing Guides

The hub of Michigan's fifteen-lake Cisco Chain, a boat-connected Upper Peninsula muskie and walleye fishery reachable without trailering between lakes.

Pines along a rocky shoreline on a calm northern lake
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Cisco Lake

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About the Cisco Lake

Cisco Lake sits at the middle of the Cisco Chain, a connected system of roughly fifteen lakes straddling the Michigan and Wisconsin line near Watersmeet. What makes the chain unusual is that a boat can move between the lakes through navigable channels and thoroughfares without ever coming out of the water, which gives a guide with local knowledge an enormous amount of structure to work in a single day. Depths, clarity and weed growth vary substantially from lake to lake, so a change of conditions is a short run rather than a trailer trip and a new launch fee.

Muskellunge are the headline species and the reason the chain has a national reputation. The system has produced fish of serious size for decades, and fall muskie work fills the guided calendar. Walleye are the second fishery and are strong throughout the chain, with the classic evening and low-light pattern on the deeper breaks. Smallmouth bass hold on the rock and gravel, largemouth in the weedier bays, and northern pike are abundant everywhere. Panfish – black crappie, bluegill and yellow perch – support both a summer family fishery and a serious winter one.

This is Northwoods water with everything that implies: heavy timber to the shoreline, a mixture of resort, private and national forest frontage, and a short but intense summer season followed by an excellent fall. Ice-out is late, often into April, and the ice fishery runs long. This gauge near Watersmeet reports lake elevation rather than water temperature, so it is the number for judging water levels across the chain and whether the connecting channels are passable at low water – which is the practical constraint that the chain’s whole appeal depends on.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

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2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

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Pool right now

1,683.54ft NAVD88
  • 24 hours+0.02 ft → steady

Reading taken 2h ago at USGS 04037400, CISCO LAKE NEAR WATERSMEET, MI. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Cisco Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Cisco Lake public boat launch near Watersmeet - the main ramp and the access closest to the gauge.
Big Lake and Thousand Island Lake ramps - alternative launches on the connected chain.
Ottawa National Forest campgrounds on the chain - camping with shoreline and small-boat access.
Watersmeet resort moorage - the usual base for guided trips on the system.
Lindsley Lake and West Bay channels - interior chain access through the thoroughfares.
Highway 535 and forest-road landings - scattered small launches around the chain.
Wisconsin-side ramps on the lower chain - additional access across the state line.

Seasons

Spring: late ice-out, then strong walleye and pike fishing in the shallow bays as the water warms.
Summer: bass and panfish across the chain, with muskie fishing building through July and August.
Fall: the best muskie weeks of the year and excellent walleye fishing as the resort traffic disappears.
Winter: a long, serious ice season for walleye, perch, crappie and northern pike.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Cisco Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Cisco Lake in Michigan.

Where can you access the Cisco Lake?

Cisco Lake public boat launch near Watersmeet - the main ramp and the access closest to the gauge. Big Lake and Thousand Island Lake ramps - alternative launches on the connected chain. Ottawa National Forest campgrounds on the chain - camping with shoreline and small-boat access. Watersmeet resort moorage - the usual base for guided trips on the system. Lindsley Lake and West Bay channels - interior chain access through the thoroughfares. Highway 535 and forest-road landings - scattered small launches around the chain. Wisconsin-side ramps on the lower chain - additional access across the sta...

When is the best time to fish the Cisco Lake?

Spring: late ice-out, then strong walleye and pike fishing in the shallow bays as the water warms. Summer: bass and panfish across the chain, with muskie fishing building through July and August. Fall: the best muskie weeks of the year and excellent walleye fishing as the resort traffic disappears. Winter: a long, serious ice season for walleye, perch, crappie and northern pike.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Cisco Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Michigan agency site: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/fishing/fishing-regulations