Bois Brule River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Wisconsin

About the Bois Brule River

The Bois Brule rises in a bog south of Highway 2 and runs north forty-four miles through the Brule River State Forest to Lake Superior. Five presidents fished it, which is how it got its nickname, and it remains one of the most carefully managed and most beautiful trout rivers in the Midwest.

The river has two halves. Above Highway 2 it is a spring-fed, slow, cedar-lined stream with a stable, cold flow and resident brook trout and browns, fished by canoe and on foot, and it is the reach the fly fishing tradition here was built on. Below Highway 2 the gradient steepens through a series of ledges and rapids in a red clay canyon, and that lower reach is the migratory water, with steelhead running in spring and fall and coho and chinook salmon in the fall.

Wisconsin manages the Brule intensively, with reach-by-reach regulations, seasonal closures and gear restrictions that differ substantially between the upper and lower river. It is one of the rivers where reading the current rules for the specific section really matters.

The Brule gauge reads a spring-fed system, and its most distinctive feature is stability: the flow varies far less than on a typical freestone river because so much of it comes from groundwater. That is why the upper river stays cold in August and clear after rain, and it is also why the fishing here is comparatively reliable. The lower canyon still colors up after heavy rain because of the clay.

The village of Brule and the towns along Highway 2 provide lodging and canoe rental; Superior and Duluth are less than an hour away.

Access

Stones Bridge: the top of the fly water on the upper river, canoe launch.
Winneboujou: upper river access and the classic canoe stretch.
Brule River State Forest campground and Highway 2: the dividing line between the upper and lower river.
Pine Tree Landing and Highway 13: lower river accesses in the migratory water.
McNeil's Landing and the lower canyon: steelhead and salmon access.
The mouth at Lake Superior: access through the state forest.

Seasons

Late March through May: spring steelhead in the lower river, high water from snowmelt.
May through August: the resident trout season on the upper river, hendricksons through terrestrials.
September through November: fall salmon and steelhead in the lower canyon.
Winter: closed on most reaches; check current Wisconsin rules for the Brule specifically.