Trek to Timm’s Hill: Fish cooperate, but rain doesn’t
By Greg Seubert
Sports Editor, Waupaca County Post, Clintonville Tribune-Gazette, New London Press Star
OGEMA – The view from the top of Wisconsin’s highest point is what draws most visitors to Timm’s Hill County Park.
Turns out the fishing isn’t too bad, either.
The park, located about 25 miles west of Tomahawk just off of State Highway 86 in southern Price County, was on a list of county parks that my brother, Doug, and I planned to check out on a recent Saturday for shore fishing opportunities.
That list also included Lincoln County’s Otter Lake Recreation Area, Taylor County’s Wood Lake County Park and Oneida County’s Perch Lake Park, but steady rain cut the tour short.
Instead of heading to four parks in four counties, Timm’s Hill County Park turned out to be our only stop.
Finding the park was not a problem. Finding its fishing pier on Bass Lake, however, turned out to be another story.
The park’s one-way entrance road is on County Trunk RR. The road passes a small swimming beach and eventually leads to a parking lot. A 300-foot-long trail then leads hikers to an observation tower at the top of Timm’s Hill. We saw the beach, but didn’t notice the T-shaped pier listed on the park map.
After entering the park for a second time, we parked at the lot, walked back down the entrance road with our fishing gear and found a small trail that led to the pier.
The 22-acre lake is undeveloped except for a restaurant and coffee shop across from the lake’s south shore on RR. A small boat landing on RR next to the restaurant is adequate for launching a canoe, kayak or small fishing boat, but that’s about it.
Finding fish on a new lake – especially on a hot day in August – can be tricky, but that wasn’t the case here.
It didn’t take long for Doug to land a small bluegill caught near lily pads that lined both sides of the dock. I found a school of yellow perch hanging out below the dock and Doug caught a largemouth bass just under the 14-inch minimum.
We caught about a dozen fish in about 20 minutes of fishing before a thunderstorm rolled in from the west.
The rain chased us off the pier and into the park’s pavilion for more than an hour. The storm didn’t keep a few people from pulling into the parking lot and heading up to the observation tower, including one man from Ohio who said his goal is visiting the highest points in all 50 states. He said Timm’s Hill’s elevation of 1,951.5 feet is more than 400 feet higher than Ohio’s highest point, Mount Campbell.
The rain finally let up after about an hour and we headed back to the dock. I caught a small bluegill near the pier and Doug caught the largest fish of the day, a northern pike that fell for a white Beetle Spin.
Another round of rain cut the return trip to the pier short and we headed to the car ready to check another park or two off of our list.
We never had the chance, however, as the rain continued for the rest of the day.
That’s OK, though. We’ll check them out next time.
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