Prairie River

Northern Wis

County: Langlade and Lincoln Counties

DeLorme Page: 77 A-6, A-5, and B-5 and 76 B-4 and C-3

Wisconsin Trout Regulations Page: 14

The Prairie River has beautiful scenery and the varied water types you can fish. Both meadow and pocket water stretches are abundant on the Prairie. Gleason is the Trout Fishing Capital of the World! If you don’t believe me, check out the photo. OK, so somebody may have exaggerated a bit but the fishing is good and great at times. It is home to the state record stream caught Brook Trout, a record that will likely stand for a long time if it is ever broken.

Gleason can be looked at as the dividing point between the upper and lower Prairie River. The upper Prairie hold mostly wild Brookies but some are planted in spots. This area is narrower and has more streamside brush than the lower section. The lower river has some nice and some nasty rapids which can be fun to fish. Yankee Rapids is a little milder and a fun area to fish through. A nice White Fly hatch takes place here, if it isn’t happening on the Wolf, it still may happen here.

The Prairie Dell Dam was removed 1992 which has been a major improvement on the river.