When William Lucas released the first lake trout in Green Lake in 1886, the plan was to create a sustainable fishery. Stocking continued through the 1940’s when the DNR stopped stocking, since it did not appear that anyone was catching any trout with hook & line. One fisherman, Major Turnbull, changed all of that with his secret method of row trolling with a lightweight spoon, and the trout fishing industry on Big Green Lake was born.
Vernon Hacker, a local marine biologist, thought it was unusual that no small trout were ever caught. Mr. Hacker and other local fishermen lowered a box to the bottom near Sugarloaf and found few trout eggs and a large number of mudpuppies with bellies full of trout eggs. Augie Kopplin joined forces with Vernon and created a large rocky bed for the trout to lay their eggs to protect them from the mudpuppies. And the sustainable trout fishery was finally created in Green Lake.
If you want to read the full story of the trout in Green Lake, check out this story in the 1958 Field & Steam Magazine.
To see the whole collection of fishing postcards and stories about Green Lake Fishing, check out the Fishing Page.
