Shawano County, Wisconsin · WBIC 322800
A shallow weed lake
with one deep hole
and 19 species in it.
Shawano Lake is a big, shallow, weedy, stained drainage lake north of Green Bay. The walleye in it are scarce and large, the panfish are plentiful and slow-growing, and the pumpkinseed population rates highest in Wisconsin. This guide puts the 2023 DNR survey, the state records, the launches and the named spots on one page each.
The lake by the numbers
- Surface area
- 6,215 acres
- Maximum depth
- 39.5 ft
- Average depth
- 9 ft
- Water over 20 ft
- 6.16% of the lake
- Water under 3 ft
- 11.3% of the lake
- Volume
- 54,270 acre-feet
- Shoreline
- 18.3 miles
- Bottom
- 88% sand, 12% muck
- Alkalinity
- 86 ppm (hard water)
- Public landings
- 6 trailer ramps and 2 carry-ins on the lake itself
- Outlet
- Wolf River, at the Shawano dam
- Ice-out
- Mid-April in a normal year
Read the shape of it. Only 6.16% of this lake is deeper than 20 feet and 11.3% is shallower than 3 feet. That is a weed lake with one hole in it. Fish the vegetation, the edges of the vegetation, and the current in the outlet and the Loon Lake channel. Deep-water tactics have almost nowhere to work.
The eight surveyed fish
Numbers below are Wisconsin DNR spring survey results for 2023. Tap any card for the full page.
Walleye
Sander vitreus
Common. Stocked.
Muskellunge
Esox masquinongy
Present. Stocked. Low density, high quality.
Northern pike
Esox lucius
Abundant.
Largemouth bass
Micropterus salmoides
Common.
Black crappie
Pomoxis nigromaculatus
Common, and the healthiest panfish population in the system.
Bluegill
Lepomis macrochirus
Abundant.
Pumpkinseed
Lepomis gibbosus
Abundant and improving. The best-rated panfish in the lake.
Yellow perch
Perca flavescens
Common, stable, with better size than most Wisconsin lakes.
What the 2023 survey actually found
The good news
- Pumpkinseed are the best in the state. 85.3 fish per mile of electrofishing puts the lake in the 96th percentile, and fish over 7 inches hit the 98th percentile. The zebra mussel invasion fed them.
- Walleye size is superb. A PSD of 97 ranks in the 87th percentile. Almost every stock-size walleye in the lake is already quality size, and the survey netted fish to 27.4 inches.
- Walleye density is climbing. 0.8 adults per acre in 2023, against 0.6 in 2018 and 0.2 in 2014.
- Crappie are healthy. 12.1 per net night is the 77th percentile, and a strong 6 to 8 inch year class is coming up behind the keepers.
- Yellow perch run big. Netting size structure is in the 88th percentile, and the Outlet Channel produced a 12.6-inch fish.
The problems
- Walleye numbers are still below goal. 0.8 per acre against a management target of 1.5, and the fall 2023 survey found no young-of-the-year at all.
- Musky are thin. 0.2 fish per net night, 32nd percentile, and a size structure in the 17th percentile. No stocking happened from 2013 to 2017 and the gap still shows.
- Bluegill grow slowly. A 7-inch male is 7.4 years old, which is the 12th percentile statewide. The DNR points at harvest of the big ones.
- Largemouth are sliding. Abundance fell from 40.7 fish per mile in 2006 to 14.5 in 2023, and size structure from a PSD of 88 to 49.
- Eight invasive species are established, including zebra mussel, Eurasian water-milfoil and rusty crayfish.
Two-thirds of the walleye come from a trailer
The DNR ran an oxytetracycline mark evaluation and found that 66% of the adult walleye in Shawano Lake in 2023 hatched in a lakeside hatchery run by Walleyes for Tomorrow volunteers out of Cecil. The other 34% came from state hatchery stockings. Every young-of-the-year walleye sampled in 2016 traced back to that volunteer operation.
Anglers call it the walleye wagon. If you catch a legal walleye out of this lake, the odds are two in three that a volunteer in Cecil hatched it.
One system, five waters
The DNR surveys Shawano Lake together with four connected waters, and the fish move between them. Where a number below differs between waters, the difference is worth acting on.
| Water | WBIC | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Shawano Lake | 322800 | The main basin. 6,215 acres, 39.5 ft at the deepest hole. |
| Loon Lake | 322600 | North of the main lake. Highest crappie and bluegill netting numbers in the system. |
| Washington Lake | 322500 | Small, weedy, high crappie density, but the smallest average panfish. |
| Shawano Outlet | 323700 | The channel to the Wolf River. Best bass size structure in the system and the biggest yellow perch. |
| Wolf River Pond | 323800 | Below the outlet. Fastest-growing bluegill and the biggest crappie in the survey. |
Clean, drain, dry
Eight aquatic invasive species are already established here. Wisconsin law requires you to remove all plants and animals from your boat and trailer, drain every container of water, and never move live fish away from a landing.
- Zebra mussel
- Eurasian water-milfoil
- Hybrid Eurasian/Northern water-milfoil
- Curly-leaf pondweed
- Rusty crayfish
- Banded mystery snail
- Chinese mystery snail
- Faucet snail