Fox River

With the exception of the small creek at Frame Park in Waukesha,the smell at what is officially called "Bethesda Lake" (the impoundment at Frame park) is how stagnant stretches of river smell during late August in Wisconsin. That creek in the park is the Fox River's worst nonpoint source of water pollution from Menomonee Falls to the state line. It flows thru what once was a landfill but it really doesn't contribute much water to the river except after a rain. It drains the small marsh along the bike path that crosses 59/164 by Autohouse.

Waukesha's water treatment plant is about 1 mile downstream from there. It's absolutely irrelevant to anything at Frame Park with the exception of the bathrooms.

Smallmouth bass are becoming prolific in the stretch thru Waukesha. Unfortunately - thanks to the vastly increased fishing pressure - catfish and pike are no longer the easy pickin's they once were back when I was occasionally ridiculed for fishing that stretch of river. The increased harvest is painfully obvious to those like me who've known the river for 50 years.

I've spent as much time as anyone I've ever met - likely far more - fishing it,seining it,exploring it...and recent changes want me to encourage posters like Dumb Bass to spread the word on how polluted it is. Stay away....Or at least don't eat anything taken from there. Stop that hazardous harvest. Water quality is too poor to eat fish from the Fox River until you're downstream from the WDNR boat launch off Bridge Dr at Tichigan.

BTW,that is not the same Fox River as the one that flows thru Neenah and Menasha and Appleton and Green Bay. This one starts essentially in The Falls and flows thru the heavily industrialized areas of Lisbon and Brookfield.

That's enough from me. Simply my opinion peppered with a tiny bit of sarcasm.

DB,
I know exactly 0 about Frame park, never been there, and to be honest I've never even heard of it - so no comments.  I'll take your word on that!

I do know that the DNR has incredibly onerous restrictions on residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal waste water systems. The DNR will take your birthday away for draining your gray (shower) water from your camper onto the ground. Also, if there was raw sewage at Frame park it would also be present in Big Bend, Lake Tichigan, Waterford Lake, Buena Lake, Wind Lake Canal, Wilmont, all the way down to the Mississippi! I'm not looking to get into a debate, just my loose thoughts.  At any rate, we can agree to disagree, that is perfectly OK - just don't think hundreds of miles of the Fox are nasty as you say Frame Park is.

Fishing today was absolutely incredible. Was easily the best outing of the year.  We caught Gills, Rockies, Yellow Bass, Large Mouth, Drum, Channel Cats, Walleye, Crappie, even caught a Flat Head - that was pretty awesome.

Kept a dozen pannies for a meal, everyone else is still swimming.  Went through 4 dozen crawlers and 30 leaf worms. We left because it was hot and we were about out of bait. Fish were super aggressive today! I would guess my bud and I each caught about 50 or so....

Can't wait until fall, it's only gonna get better! Carolina Riggs, and half a crawler under a float still working well.

Going sit in the shade on our deck for a minute, have a glass of red, and cook a fish fry in a bit. 

A few more...

Brent,

   I was just making a statement from previous experiences out there on the water.Your statement about how clean the wastewater is , yeah I'm sure it is. We can make pure crap into drinking water they do it all over the country. Doesn't mean I have to like it. Maybe I should have worded my original post differently.  

    That said you can't tell me there isn't a nasty smell at frame park. Smell the water and the fish you catch from there. Something ain't right about it. And it throws me off on wanting to eat those fish. If you want to, go right ahead! 

As for the smallmouth argument on water quality, lol. They thrive in the Milwaukee River too. Huge smallmouth in there. The Milwaukee River is better than it was but still highly polluted. It was actually dangerous to enter the water in the Milwaukee in the early 1900's watched a whole PBS documentary about it. But like I said, people can do what they want. I'm sure some folks eat 30 pound carp out of the Milwaukee River and love it. And will argue as to why it's ok and that it tastes so good. 

All I can say is you do you friend,

Happy Labor Day

BRENT.  Their website said mid September.

I'm not sure what's happening up north but when I paddled around Burlington on Saturday I remember thinking I never seen the river so clear, there were spots that I could see bottom that I could never see bottom in twenty five years.
The fish I cleaned and cooked from Saturday looked and tasted fine, I find it had to believe that the EPA is letting the sewage treatment plants dump any water into the fox river that's not considered clean. I also find it hard to believe that with 15+ different species and Muskie, Walleye, SMB, Perch, Crappie, Pike all not only present but common that the water is polluted.  My guess the worst things that are getting into the fox river are mostly farming chemicals and flooded septic tanks.
My worst experience was hooking a condom in the Kenosha harbor and thinking what heck am I doing here.

Hasn't it already started Carpio?

Thought it was to begin 9.1.23?

Water level right now is quite low, barely any current.

I have yet to see anyone questioning the water level from WAUKESHA south when WAUKESHA stops returning their treated water back into the system.  I have been questioning this for 8 years but no one seems interested.    I hope I’m wrong but I see lower water levels from Waukesha south.    I guess I’ll find out starting in 10 days or so.

DB-

Unless your MMSD (who dumps untreated sewage into Lake Michigan due to heavy load) treated sewage water is cleaner than storm water - They even make beer out of it

There are lakes that are made from treated sewage water that have some absolutely amazing water quality and clarity. 

On the fox river in Rochester, sometimes you smell sewage, but it is not because sewage is being dumped into the water, it is because the Village of Rochester has a pumping station near the river, and you're smelling the vent stack (nothing more than close proximity) Stick your nose in any vent stack in a commercial building, it's not a pleasant odor. In Burlington, you can smell chocolate because of Nestlé's, it doesn't mean Nestle's is  dumping chocolate into the water lol!

The water that Waukesha dumped into the Fox (now Lake Michigan) is cleaner than any storm water run off that is full of fertilizer, oil, and who knows what else... 

The Fox simply is not a polluted river - I'd research it a bit, you'll change your perspective.  

Storm run off is the issue, sewage is not...

Do some research, smallmouth bass do not thrive in a polluted environment, in fact smallmouth are very, very, intolerant of polluted waters, and the Fox is an absolute thriving smallmouth waterway...  That couldn't exist if the waterway was polluted.

I know you were likely were speaking tongue in cheek, but respectfully - it is not accurate. The Fox is an absolute thriving fishery and waterway.

All the best.

I didn't realize waukesha waste water was dumped into the fox. Maybe that explains the awful stink from the water at frame park? Glad I never ate fish from that river. Got some decent gills out of the fox below waukesha but my stomach turned thinking about the water in frame park. The fish even stunk. Looks like I made the right decision on releasing those bull gills I got. 🤢

Here is a thread talking about it

Here is a link if you want to research it

This will absolutely be impactful for the water level above the waterford dam in the Tichigan impoundment.  It will be less impactful I believe after the Waterford damn.

Fished Rochester a few days back.  On my
Way back to the car, I met a fisherman that mentioned that as of September 1st, water was being diverted from Waukesha so that the water level below Rochester and above the Waterford Dam would be lowered as a result.  Just checking if anyone knows what he was referring to.  
Thanks!

Nice pile of fish CM!

For me, that is why the Fox is just so much fun, you never have any clue what you're gonna catch!

Just got back from a long trip up north, I'm gonna head out tomorrow!

Whether you launch in Burlington, Rochester, or Waterford - there is a pile of quality fish to catch!

Edit:
You will notice the yellow bass are awesome, just an awesome eating fish! The white bass tend to be fishy, I don't even keep them anymore...

SV- hope you get out there and ​can enjoy for a bit!

Helluva nice mess there JJ. I was thinking about maybe doing the same thing myself. Been workin wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much for any of that kind of fun. Sux gettin old. I might get a chance next week if I can squeeze in something between work and honey do's. Thanks for the report.

Jimmy

Fished Saturday afternoon in Burlington and I learned from my last outing that I can catch white/yellow bass and crappie so I left the turtle fishing rods at home and got two dozen small fatheads and went for a day of pan fishing.
Paddled my way up to the golf course area and started fishing, the first fish I caught was a 5" LMB and I thought this could end up being a weird day on the river.
Ended up with 25+ white/yellow bass, 2-catfish, 2-black crappie, 1-white crappie, 1-LMB, 1-perch, overall 6-7 species and enough panfish for a fish fry.
The backside of the biggest snags is where I caught most of the fish but I had to move around and once I found a target zone I'd catch 4 or 5 and the spot would die down and I'd have to move.
Both catfish were nice eaters but I only had a small fish basket and small cooler and was after pan fish, didn't catch a crappie until 7pm and then got three in a row.
While I was fishing I had a golfers 250 yard drive splash 5' from the kayak, scared the heck out of me.