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I’ve been touting the great fishing on area lakes in and around Chisago County for some weeks now, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you in on a little secret: for as little as $40 you can purchase an annual, non-resident angling license and include Wisconsin’s many productive lakes and rivers in your fishing repertoire.

I suppose that for some Minnesotans, the thought of fishing across “The Border” violates some sort of deeply infused, self-righteous canon formulated by watching too many NFL border battles, but I can assure you, the fish bite just the same east of the St. Croix River as they do here. That’s right, the fish could care less where you’re from.

A couple of years ago, a co-worker of mine turned me onto a lake outside of Eureka that has since been my “go to” water for big – and I mean big – sunfish and crappies. Some very reputable muskie lakes, including Deer Lake just east of St. Croix Falls, produce some large fish each year, and walleye anglers enjoy consistent success on numerous Polk and Burnett county lakes. A leisurely drive south on WI Highway 35 will put you on the Willow, Kinnickinnic and Rush Rivers, three blue ribbon trout fisheries.

Once you’re in Wisconsin, it’s pretty cool to read roadside billboards and signs advertising nearby lodges and supper clubs and realize that you’ve entered the northern 1/3 of their state. Thousands of angler and vacationers from Milwaukee, Chicago and other points south make northern Wisconsin their destination each year. Depending on where you live in East-Central Minnesota, you’re probably no more than a thirty-minute drive from this “up north” experience.

Here are a few tips when you do decide to fish Wisconsin waters. As tough as it sounds, swallow your “Purple Pride” and stow a beat-up Packer cap in the back seat of your vehicle. Screw it on your head before you hit a Wisconsin bait shop and gripe to the guy scooping minnows that Favre nearly gave you a heart attack on Sunday. Whether the Packers won or lost that week is irrelevant. That seems to be the line that always gets Wisconsin folks talking freely. Once you do that, finding out where the fish are biting should be a snap.

This close to the border, you never know. The guy in the bait shop may not be wearing a foam rubber wedge of cheese on his head, but it’s a good bet that he watches a lot of Packer football.

Dan Brown’s weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankies Bait and Marine in Chisago City and St. Croix Outdoors in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.

Dan Brown is a director at the Chisago Lakes Achievement Center in Chisago City. In addition, Brown is a fly casting instructor and trout fishing guide at Seven Pines Lodge in Lewis, WI. Recently Brown was featured on Ron Schara’s Minnesota Bound and ESPN II’s Backroads with Ron and Raven, as well as KSTP channel 5’s Eyewitness News Morning Show. He is a Taylors Falls resident and can often be found on the area lakes, trout streams and the St. Croix river.

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