Fishing on the Namekagon River

Hats off to the Namekagon River

Join Bob Metoxen on a fishing trip in Northern Wisconsin on the pristine Namekagon River. The Namekagon is a National Wild and Scenic River and a major tributary of the St. Croix, long known for its smallmouth bass fishing. Its name comes from the Ojibwe word for “river abundant with sturgeon,” and the Ojibwe once used fish dams along its banks each May to catch sturgeon as they moved upriver.

Bob’s video captures a great variety of wildlife along the way: eagles, an osprey with a fresh catch, a smallmouth bass, a deer with antlers still in velvet, and a bear. Also keep an eye out for a turtle with a strikingly smooth, round shell — almost certainly a spiny softshell turtle, a species that has actually been documented right here on the Namekagon.