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Home › Waters › Wisconsin › Lac Vieux Desert
Lake · Northwoods · Wisconsin

Lac Vieux Desert Fishing Guides

The headwaters of the Wisconsin River on the Michigan line, a shallow Northwoods lake with a long muskellunge tradition and water on both sides of a state boundary.

A canoe drawn up on the rocky shore of a northern forest lake

Map of the Lac Vieux Desert

7 numbered points: 4 access points, 1 campsite, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 25, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (4)
  • Campsite (1)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 7 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1USGS gauge 05390100
Wisconsin River at Lac Vieux Desert outlet		USGS gauge46.12162, -89.15208At the outlet dam. Follow the link for the current reading.
2Lac Vieux Desert Dam
Outlet dam · NID WI01138		Dam / hazard46.12148, -89.15252The lake outlet and the head of the Wisconsin River.
3Lac Vieux Desert Carry-In
Wisconsin Valley Improvement Co · gravel carry-in		Access / boat ramp46.12163, -89.15232Carry-in put-in at the outlet, logged by WDNR against the Wisconsin River rather than the lake.
4Lac Vieux Desert Access
US Forest Service · concrete panel ramp		Access / boat ramp46.13446, -89.14993Trailer ramp on the Wisconsin shore, beside the Forest Service recreation area.
5Lac Vieux Desert Recreation Area
US Forest Service campground		Campsite46.13634, -89.15131
6Lac Vieux Desert Boat Launch
Michigan DNR · north shore		Access / boat ramp46.15947, -89.11762The Michigan-side launch. Its parent access parcel is mapped separately in OSM and is not listed twice.
7Lac Vieux Desert Lake Public Access
Concrete panel ramp · east end		Access / boat ramp46.12353, -89.07362

Guides on the Lac Vieux Desert

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About the Lac Vieux Desert

Lac Vieux Desert sits on the Wisconsin and Michigan border at the head of the Wisconsin River, a shallow Northwoods lake ringed with bog, timber and weed beds. It is the source of the longest river in Wisconsin, and it has a fishing history that goes back as far as anything in the region.

Muskellunge are the tradition here. The lake is part of the classic northern Wisconsin muskie country, and it has produced serious fish for generations. The habitat suits them: shallow water, extensive vegetation, bog edges and a forage base of suckers and panfish.

Walleye are the other main fishery, caught along the weed edges and over the shallow flats, and they fish well both in open water and through the ice. Smallmouth bass on the rock and northern pike in the weeds add to the mix, and the perch and crappie fishing keeps everyone busy between the big-fish hours.

Because the lake straddles a state line, licensing and regulations depend on which side you fish. There are reciprocal arrangements in some cases, but it is worth checking rather than assuming.

The surrounding country is part of what makes a trip here worthwhile. This is the heart of the Northwoods, with hundreds of lakes within an hour and a long tradition of resorts and guides. Anglers rarely come to fish Lac Vieux Desert alone; they come to fish the region and this is one of the best waters in it.

The gauge below reports lake elevation. This is a shallow natural lake with a small regulating structure at the outlet, and the level matters mostly for how much of the shallow weed and bog edge is in fishable depth.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Lac Vieux Desert.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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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.

Pool right now

1,680.31ft NAVD88
  • 24 hours-0.01 ft → steady

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 05390100, LAC VIEUX DESERT NEAR LAND O'LAKES, WI. 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 Lac Vieux Desert.

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.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Lac Vieux Desert ft (NAVD88)

Now: 1,680.31 ft pool elevation, read 4:45 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 05390100, LAC VIEUX DESERT NEAR LAND O'LAKES, WI).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Public boat landings on both the Wisconsin and Michigan shores.
Land O Lakes: the nearest town with services, bait and lodging.
Resorts around the lake offer launching, rentals and guides.
Extensive shallow weed and bog edges make up the main cover.
The Wisconsin River outlet at the south end is fishable water in itself.
Ice access in winter is straightforward from the public landings.
Note: the lake spans a state line. Check which licence you need.

Seasons

Winter: walleye, perch and pike through the ice in a long hard season.
Spring: walleye after ice-out and pike in the warming bays.
Summer: weed-edge muskie and walleye fishing, quiet Northwoods weeks.
Fall: the classic muskellunge season and the best fishing of the year.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Lac Vieux Desert?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Lac Vieux Desert in Wisconsin.

Where can you access the Lac Vieux Desert?

Public boat landings on both the Wisconsin and Michigan shores. Land O Lakes: the nearest town with services, bait and lodging. Resorts around the lake offer launching, rentals and guides. Extensive shallow weed and bog edges make up the main cover. The Wisconsin River outlet at the south end is fishable water in itself. Ice access in winter is straightforward from the public landings. Note: the lake spans a state line. Check which licence you need.

When is the best time to fish the Lac Vieux Desert?

Winter: walleye, perch and pike through the ice in a long hard season. Spring: walleye after ice-out and pike in the warming bays. Summer: weed-edge muskie and walleye fishing, quiet Northwoods weeks. Fall: the classic muskellunge season and the best fishing of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lac Vieux Desert?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Wisconsin agency site: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/fishing/regulations