AROUND Green Lake
Year-round recreational opportunities like fishing, sailing,swimming, diving, kayaking, skating, ice boating and lake cruises are available. Not to mention non-water-based recreational activities like golf, hiking, tennis, mini-golf,biking, horseback riding, hot-air balloon rides, public and private hunting grounds, an art gallery and a fruit orchard. Additionally, there are seasonal outdoor festivals and activities. The city park system offers boat launches, athletic fields, playgrounds and swimming beaches. Last but not least, Thrasher Opera House is a historically restored unique venue bringing Green Lake patrons quality programming from music and theater to opera and dance.
Fishing
The biggest fish you’ve ever seen…
Big Green Lake is a unique and outstanding lake. Its waters are deep and clear. It has a variety of structures and also a variety of fish. Big Green Lake is listed as a ‘quality fishing opportunities’ lake. This means Big Green Lake is managed for quality fishing. Given water productivity, fish growth potential and higher minimum length regulations, fish inhabiting these waters attain greater sizes. Anglers fishing these waters will have a better chance of catching a ‘quality’ fish.
Open water fishing favorites include: small and large mouth bass, bluegill, perch, white bass, northern, walleye, lake trout, brown trout and muskellunge.
Hiking and Biking
Green Lake’s bike routes will take you through some of the most picturesque scenery surrounding Wisconsin’s deepest natural lake. Explore nearby towns where you can enjoy the area’s wildlife and history. All routes begin and end in the City of Green Lake at the Chamber Office on Mill Street.
For the trail riders, Green Lake County offers the Mascoutin Valley Trail. The Mascoutin, approximately 12 miles in length, stretches along the old Milwaukee railbed. The base consists of crushed limestone and grass. Available for both the biking and hiking enthusiast. Scenic beauty abounds as the trail passes alongside farms and wetlands. The trail entrance in Berlin is located on County F and in Ripon on County E and Locust.
The Green Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Office and many local businesses have these maps available in printed form.
Boating
Whether you like to fish, take the pontoon out for a leisurely ride, or jet around on your jet skis, Green Lake has plenty of beautiful water to ride in.
With more than 27 miles of shoreline, you have over 11 square miles to experience your fun and enjoy your time in Green Lake. And given that Green Lake is 95% spring fed, you can have a lot of opportunities to take your canoes or kayak’s out on the lake and rivers, too! Are you more of the adventure type? Don’t forget that we are also the Deepest Lake in Wisconsin – that means great fishing, great swimming, and even more memories!
Golf
Four Great Courses…
The courses at Golf Courses of Lawsonia, Mascoutin Golf Course, Tuscumbia Golf Course, and White Lake Golf Resort make up four of the finest golf courses in Wisconsin. All are within a driver and a few three-woods of downtown Green Lake,
The Golf Courses of Lawsonia offers two 18-hole championship courses. The Links opened in 1930 offering Scottish-style links golf, with open – nearly treeless – rolling terrain, huge, quick, elevated, undulating greens, sand traps surrounding each green, and giant fairway bunkers on many holes. Ten years after the Links opened it was ranked the 72nd finest course in the World.
In contrast to the links-style golf, Lawsonia also offers the Woodlands. This course has tree-lined fairways, elevation drops of more than 65 feet, five water hazards and 90 sand traps. This idyllic setting is home to wildlife, including deer and turkeys on the fairways, and eagles nesting in the talk pines.
Tuscumbia Country Club is the oldest golf course in Wisconsin, founded in 1896. Tuscumbia maintains a wealth of tradition for excellence. From majestic evergreens, maples and oaks boarding its fairways to it well-groomed setting, Tuscumbia offers a challenging round for any golfer.
Mascoutin Golf Club is located an easy drive 6 miles north of Green Lake. Mascoutin offers 27 holes of championship golf on gently rolling fairways that were home to the fire-worshiping Mascoutin Indians 300 years ago. Opened in 1975 with 18 holes and adding nine additional holes in 1999, Mascoutin now offers plush fairways, nearly 80 bunkers, large fast greens and water that comes into play on six holes.
Sharenberg’s White Lake Golf Resort is located just a 15-minute drive west of Green Lake on Hwy. 23. The 18-hole layout is carved out of 200-plus acres of glacier lands and is nestled among hills, woods and ponds. The course features significant elevation changes, numerous dog legs and water hazards.
