I'm moving up there at the end of the month and looking for some ideas on places to go fishing. Ideally a quiet out of the way public lakeside spot somewhere. I don't have a boat so it would be on the bank or from a dock. Preferably somewhere with catfish as that's what I'm most accustomed to living in the south. Something within say 30-40 miles would be nice.

Any help would be appreciated!

You can borrow the canoe any time you want.....

Theres a cabin for rent daily across from my place. I can pass you along the number if you want and like garage i have a row boat you could borrow and there a good place to eat right across the road :)

I pretty well got the living arrangements taken care of. I appreciate the boat offers as well.

Mostly just wondering what lake or river I would find a fair amount of catfish. I do a lot of impromptu fishing. The pole and tackle box never leave the car.

Any good bait shops around? Forgot to ask that. I like the support the small local types if I can find one.

Voyager park in De Pere http://www.depere.com/city/parks/voyageur/  is good for cats... It CAN get busy though.. Fishing is better at night ( as expected). Lots of channel cats and some flatheads. There is a channel that leads up to the lock, that if they are running the lock and you fish just below, you can get some monsters.. also down in the valley ( Appleton, kaukauna, Neenah ) all have good places to fish as well ( catfish and others )

And thats only a mile from work

That's exactly the kinda place I was hoping to find.

Good! after you get up here if you want to try some other places as well drop me an IM on here ( im not always in the hometown section) and i can give you some other places as well. Voyager does have some times that is is used for different things, like this weekend ( i think it is) is the Cellcom Marathon that goes threw the park, and there is some Depere party that happens every summer that they shut the park down for the event ( cant remember what its called). Most nights are night down there though. maybe a few other people fishing but not too bad.

And before i forget, if you do night fishing, the park closes at 10 i think it is and the cops do drive by, but if you are fishing they normally just check to make sure thats what you are doing and leave you alone.. and they are normally pleasent to deal with. I havent had a problem fishing out there in the last 6 or so years and some times even as late at 3 or 4 am..

celebrate DePere .....

highly original

I might add that you don't want to eat the fish from the Fox river, or that's what I'm told. As a former Texas native if you hunt you'll enjoy all the public land that Wisconsin has to offer but the winters suck ass.

try under the overpass on 41 north just out of town.  its duck creek, right where it opens to the bay, and a spot that gets little use.  go over and past it, get off on the next exit, and hit the frontage road.  down at the end of the frontage road theres parking, and a boardwalk that will take you to the shore.  theres a lot of access after that. nice open areas or you can walk farther, closer to the bay.  i go right under the overpass.   i catch huge cat fish and northern in there all the time, along with a lot of other stuff.  also, when there, you can see some nice public fishing docks on the other side of the water.  not heavily used, they are on a hiking trail i think... but im not sure how to access them.  never tried.   i like this area because there is never a lot of people there.

yeah for sure.  born and raised here and where i live when im not "away".   any fish from the fox, or anything it feeds is a no no.  also the bay.   far out on the bay they fish for perch and salmon, but dont eat anything in the closer areas, or anything thats large and has been in there a while.  also, no bottom feeders (catfish) at all.   most places that get a lot of use like bayshore park, voyager park... have signs saying all this.   green bay is here because back in the day the paper industry boom centered around the fox river.  all the companies set up on the river and used it for transport and also took in water and released back the used water from paper production.  for too long it was unregulated, then poorly regulated.  its all tightly run now, but the pcb damage has been done.  if you can drive,  there are an amazing amount of small inland lakes and great river fishing (all unpoluted) not far from gb.  mainly north.  also, we have some of the best inland and lake trout fishing around.  im an avid inland trout fisherman (both fly fishing and creek/worm fishing).  theres so many great places to fish.  the fox river, although not edible, does have some very large and abundent fish.  musky, big bass and so on.

I was about to say.....I thought all the fish in Green Bay were radioactive

Welcome to GB by the way

i was raised eating big old northern from the shallows of the bay shore caught during ice fishing.  my dad threw a blind eye at the pcb problem, as do many hardcore older local guys.  a couple winters ago him and i took a trip on the ice after many years of us not ice fishing.  pulled out a huge northern.  ol pops looked at me and said..." i just cant bring myself to eat em anymore.  its pretty bad round here.  will throw him back."  maybe it was the grey belly instead of white that the northern had.  then again, it could have been its smokers cough, or its begging us to kill him...  either way, you know its bad when an old local redneck cringes at the thought of eating a "big bay grey belly" lol.  for what its worth.  

on a side note, i was at the local dnr station buying some permits and a father and son were in there talking with a game warden about the pirahna they had just caught on the fox.  id have never believed it, but it was sitting there for all to see in a walmart bag.  it was pretty big.  the warden said it was a pet someone didnt want anymore so they threw it in the fox.  apparently, they can survive winters taking shelter near the factories because the water stays very warm up close to them.  yeah.... the local ecology here is very unique.