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Home › Waters › Wisconsin › Lake Mendota
Lake · Madison · Wisconsin

Lake Mendota Fishing Guides

The big lake in the Madison chain and one of the most studied lakes on earth, with a serious walleye and bass fishery inside a state capital.

A dense forest shoreline reflected in dead-calm lake water

Map of the Lake Mendota

36 numbered points: 6 access points, 1 campsite, 1 bait & fly shop, 2 outfitters, 4 bridges, 13 parks and conservation areas, 2 agency offices, 1 hazard, 1 spring, 1 USGS gauge, 4 points of interest. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Oct 23, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (6)
  • Campsite (1)
  • Bait, tackle & fly shop (1)
  • Outfitter / canoe rental (2)
  • Bridge crossing (4)
  • Park / conservation area (13)
  • Agency / conservation office (2)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • Spring (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
  • Point of interest (4)
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 36 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Burrows Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.10230, -89.36632East-shore neighbourhood park with lawn down to the water.
2Deon's Live Bait & Minnows
East Madison		Bait, tackle & fly shop43.10655, -89.35336Live bait and minnows about a mile east of the Burrows Park shore.
3Beach Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.11188, -89.37164Small east-shore beach park below Maple Bluff.
4Maple Bluff Marina
Maple Bluff, east shore		Access / boat ramp43.12409, -89.37549Village marina basin on the east shore, just north of the Governor's Mansion.
5Warner Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.12733, -89.37615Large north-east park and lagoon; boat launch and shoreline frontage.
6Lerdahl Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.13196, -89.38859North-shore park on the bay west of Warner Park.
7Cherokee Marsh - Mendota Unit
Dane County conservancy		Park / conservation area43.14257, -89.40756Marsh and wild-rice conservancy where the Yahara enters the lake.
8Westport Road
Yahara inlet		Bridge crossing43.15094, -89.40427County bridge over the Yahara just above the lake.
9State Highway 113
WI 113, Yahara inlet		Bridge crossing43.15072, -89.40199Highway crossing of the Yahara at the north inlet.
10Skipper Buds
Yahara inlet, north end		Access / boat ramp43.15178, -89.40568Full-service marina at the north end where the Yahara River enters the lake.
11Jackson's Landing
Westshire Conservancy		Access / boat ramp43.14770, -89.41558Paddle landing on the Yahara above the lake, inside the Westshire Conservancy.
12Park Office
Governor Nelson State Park		Agency / conservation office43.13750, -89.43995Wisconsin DNR park office on the north shore; permits and launch information.
13Mendota County Park Campground
Dane County		Campsite43.11113, -89.46840The only campground on the lake; west shore, inside Mendota County Park.
14Mendota County Park
Dane County		Park / conservation area43.10957, -89.46885West-shore county park with picnic grounds and lake frontage.
15Century Avenue
CTH M / CTH Q, Middleton		Bridge crossing43.10597, -89.48366Crossing at the Pheasant Branch inlet on the west shore.
16Marshall Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.09237, -89.48282West-shore park at the Pheasant Branch mouth; the main public launch on this side.
17Marshall Boats
Marshall Park		Outfitter / canoe rental43.09326, -89.48208Seasonal canoe, kayak and boat rental at the Marshall Park launch.
18Capital Avenue Street End
Spring Harbor, west shore		Access / boat ramp43.08667, -89.47241City street-end lake access on the west shore; shore fishing, no trailer ramp.
19Spring Harbor Beach
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.08275, -89.46950Beach and shoreline park in Spring Harbor bay.
20Merrill Spring
Merrill Springs Park		Spring43.08139, -89.46660Shoreline spring on the west side, cold inflow at the lake edge.
21Shorewood Hills Marina
Shorewood Hills		Access / boat ramp43.08137, -89.45975Small village marina on the south-west shore.
22Bigfoot Park
Shorewood Hills		Park / conservation area43.08277, -89.45293Wooded shoreline park on the south-west shore.
23Raymer's Cove
Lakeshore Nature Preserve		Point of interest43.08905, -89.44002Steep-sided cove in the preserve; walk-in shore fishing off the sandstone bank.
24Frautschi (Second) Point
Lakeshore Nature Preserve		Point of interest43.09272, -89.43102Wooded point on the south shore with deep water close in.
25Picnic Point
Lakeshore Nature Preserve		Point of interest43.08977, -89.41519Mile-long peninsula splitting University Bay; shore access the whole way out.
26Lakeshore Nature Preserve
UW-Madison		Park / conservation area43.08169, -89.42392Four miles of undeveloped south-shore woods, coves and points open to walk-in anglers.
27Memorial Union Swim Pier
UW Memorial Union Terrace		Access / boat ramp43.07713, -89.39931Pier off the Union Terrace; the most-used walk-in shore access on the south shore.
28Rutabaga Paddlesports
South Madison		Outfitter / canoe rental43.03423, -89.38117Large paddlesports shop and outfitter south of the isthmus.
29Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
GEF-2, downtown Madison		Agency / conservation office43.07531, -89.38022DNR central headquarters, four blocks off the south shore.
30James Madison Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.08211, -89.38252Downtown lakefront park with beach, pier and launch.
31Giddings Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.08711, -89.37680Small park on the shore between James Madison and Tenney parks.
32Tenney Park
City of Madison		Park / conservation area43.09431, -89.37129Park at the Yahara outlet; shore fishing along the lagoon and locks.
33Tenney Park Breakwater
Tenney Park		Point of interest43.09537, -89.37226Stone breakwater at the Yahara outlet, the classic open-water shore spot.
34Sherman Avenue
Tenney Park		Bridge crossing43.09469, -89.36984Bridge over the Yahara outlet channel beside the locks.
35USGS 05428000 Lake Mendota At Madison
Primary level reference		USGS gauge43.09500, -89.37012
36Mendota Locks Dam
Yahara outlet		Dam / hazard43.09503, -89.37026Dam and lock structure controlling the lake; stay well clear of the gates.

Guides on the Lake Mendota

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Lake Mendota

Mendota is the largest of the Madison lakes and probably the most intensively studied lake in the world, monitored continuously by the University of Wisconsin for over a century. For anglers what matters is that it is a big, fertile, well-managed urban lake with genuinely good fishing a short walk from a state capitol.

Walleye are stocked and are the main coldwater-season target, fished on the weed edges, the bars and the drop-offs. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are both strong, with largemouth in the vegetation and smallmouth on the rock and gravel. Northern pike hold in the weedy bays.

The panfishing is excellent and heavily used. Bluegill, crappie and yellow perch are all abundant, and much of it is reachable from shore, docks and piers, which makes Mendota an unusually accessible lake for anglers without a boat.

Water clarity on Mendota has changed markedly over the decades with shifts in the food web and in nutrient runoff, and the fishing changes with it. Anglers who have fished it a long time will tell you it is a different lake in a clear year than in a green one.

Mendota is also part of a chain. Monona, Waubesa and Kegonsa lie downstream on the Yahara, each with its own character, and an angler based in Madison can fish four distinct lakes without driving more than fifteen minutes. That is a rare thing to find inside a city.

The gauge below reports lake elevation. The Yahara chain is regulated, so the level is managed within a range, and reading it after heavy rain tells you whether the shallow bays and the shoreline vegetation are flooded and fishable.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Lake Mendota.

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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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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Pool right now

849.68ft NAVD88
  • 24 hours+0.02 ft → steady

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 05428000, LAKE MENDOTA AT MADISON, WI. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

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

Posting to Lake Mendota.

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 Lake Mendota ft (NAVD88)

Now: 849.68 ft pool elevation, read 5:00 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 05428000, LAKE MENDOTA AT MADISON, WI).

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

Access

Marshall Park and Warner Park: public ramps on the west and north shores.
Tenney Park and James Madison Park: shore and pier access in the city.
Governor Nelson State Park: ramp, beach and shore fishing on the north shore.
Yahara River: the connection to Lake Monona and the rest of the chain.
Extensive shoreline and pier access throughout Madison.
Ice fishing is popular and access is easy from city parks.
Note: a busy urban lake with heavy recreational and sailing traffic in summer.

Seasons

Winter: walleye, perch and panfish through the ice, with easy access.
Spring: the walleye season opens and bass move into the shallow bays.
Summer: weed edges for walleye and pike, bass on the rock, busy afternoons.
Fall: cooling water and the best walleye fishing of the open-water year.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Lake Mendota?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Lake Mendota in Wisconsin.

Are there fishing guides on the Lake Mendota?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Lake Mendota. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Lake Mendota?

Marshall Park and Warner Park: public ramps on the west and north shores. Tenney Park and James Madison Park: shore and pier access in the city. Governor Nelson State Park: ramp, beach and shore fishing on the north shore. Yahara River: the connection to Lake Monona and the rest of the chain. Extensive shoreline and pier access throughout Madison. Ice fishing is popular and access is easy from city parks. Note: a busy urban lake with heavy recreational and sailing traffic in summer.

When is the best time to fish the Lake Mendota?

Winter: walleye, perch and panfish through the ice, with easy access. Spring: the walleye season opens and bass move into the shallow bays. Summer: weed edges for walleye and pike, bass on the rock, busy afternoons. Fall: cooling water and the best walleye fishing of the open-water year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lake Mendota?

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