Lac Courte Oreilles and Windigo Lakes near Hayward. Anyone know the lake?

[TomM]

Lac Courte Oreilles and Windigo Lake and Grindstone Lake near Hayward.  Anyone know the area and lakes?  Have a friend thinking about moving there.

[imnofish]

Grindstone has lots of walleyes in it, good smallies, some muskies.  LCO is famous for its fishing; walleyes, smallies, crappies, muskies, pike.  I think you need an additional license to fish these two, since they are on the reservation, but that needs to be verified.  I fished LCO many years ago.  I've never fished Grindstone, but I know a guy who has a place on there.  He used to be on the pro walleye tour and I doubt he would settle for being on a poor walleye lake.  His son-in-law told me that they caught a lot of them there together last summer.  Grindstone also has a lot less pressure on the lake, as the tourists seem to flock "across the street" to LCO because of its (ancient) history of producing Cal Johnson's (former) World Record Musky.  Windigo Lake has good walleyes and pike, but it has a very high mercury concentration, so there has been a strict consumption recommendation for over 30 years.  My parents owned a resort near these lakes and we camp in the area, so I am at least familiar with them.  If I was going to choose one of them, it would be Grindstone.

[bigG]

Lac Courte Oreilles and Windigo Lake and Grindstone Lake near Hayward.  Anyone know the area and lakes?  Have a friend thinking about moving there.

Grindstone is one of the nicest lakes. Chock full of fish, too. I have stayed at a place there, called Norwood haven, since the mid-80's.

I love that lake.
Nice rock/sand bottom, unreal smallies every time I've been there.

LCO is big water; but also big numbers on it.

My dad and I used to do great with walleye on Grindstone.

[imnofish]

I can get to Grindstone very quickly from our campsite, so I have been thinking about giving it a try next summer.  Another great lake in the area is Sand Lake.  Our family's resort was on that lake and it is a great lake for muskies, smallies, and walleyes.  Only 928 acres, too.  The walleyes were down for several years, but have really rebounded recently.  Used to have awesome jumbo perch and some good crappies.  I think they are still there, but the DNR had to limit anglers to 10 panfish, as I recall.