"In Exeland, anglers should try Swan Creek's various access points around town and in the park for trout." That line comes from DNR fisheries biologist Max Wolter's 2026 Kids Guide to Sawyer County fishing, published in the Hayward Lakes Outdoor Report on June 1. It's good advice. Swan Creek is a Class I brook trout stream that runs 9.26 classified miles through Sawyer County and right through Swan Creek Park. A kid could walk there.
Here's the catch. Since April 2026, Wisconsin's administrative code lists Swan Creek as artificial-lures-only, with a limit of three trout, each at least 8 inches long. A coffee can of nightcrawlers that was legal on Swan Creek last year is not legal there now. Meanwhile, the streams that used to carry the lures-only rule outside the village, Maple Creek and the creeks of Weirgor Springs, now allow bait and a five-fish limit with no minimum size. On paper, the stricter rule moved from the back roads into town.
The swap, stream by stream
Before 2026, Sawyer County's artificial-lures-only group included Badger Creek, Bean Brook, Beaver Creek, Buckhorn Creek and Buckhorn Springs, Chimpanazie Creek, Deer Creek, Forty-one Creek, Hackett Creek, Hatchery Creek, Maple Creek and Maple Springs, Pipestone Creek, and Thirty-three Creek. That group had a five-trout limit with no minimum length. The rule package known as CR 25-032 replaced the whole list with two streams, Swan Creek and Venison Creek, and set their limit at three trout over 8 inches. The county's default rule for unlisted water went the other way, from three trout over 8 inches to five trout with no minimum.
Here's what that means for the water closest to Exeland:
| Stream | County | Rule before 2026 | Rule in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swan Creek | Sawyer | Bait allowed, 3 trout, 8-inch minimum | Artificial lures only, 3 trout, 8-inch minimum |
| Maple Creek | Sawyer | Artificial lures only, 5 trout, no minimum | Bait allowed, 5 trout, no minimum |
| Beaver Creek | Sawyer | Artificial lures only, 5 trout, no minimum | Bait allowed, 5 trout, no minimum |
| Buckhorn Creek | Sawyer | Artificial lures only, 5 trout, no minimum | Bait allowed, 5 trout, no minimum |
| Forty-one Creek | Sawyer | Artificial lures only, 5 trout, no minimum | Bait allowed, 5 trout, no minimum |
| Little Weirgor Creek | Rusk | Bait allowed, 3 trout combined, 8-inch minimum | Bait allowed, 3 trout combined, 8-inch minimum, season now opens in April |
The bag limits on Swan and Maple are the same as last year. What changed is the gear. The DNR's summary page of new 2026-2027 regulations shows only the bag and size limit for Swan Creek, "Three trout in total and must be over 8"," and doesn't mention the lure restriction. The gear rule shows up in the code text itself. Before you fish, check the DNR's Guide to Wisconsin's 2026-2027 Trout Fishing Regulations. The printed guide is the version a warden will expect you to have read.
Why the default loosened while Swan Creek tightened
The countywide change has a public paper trail. It started as Question 7 at the DNR and Wisconsin Conservation Congress 2025 Spring Hearings, which proposed dropping the statewide "3 trout over 8 inches" default category and leaving one default of five trout with no minimum size. The DNR's reasoning came from anglers. In a 2014 survey, only 17% of respondents said they "frequently" or "always" keep trout to eat, and anglers said they already held themselves to a minimum of 8 to 9 inches for brook trout. Before the change, 988 streams statewide carried the 3-over-8 rule.
The same questionnaire said the change "will not remove any special regulations currently in place." The Sawyer County rule text still replaced the old lures-only list with Swan and Venison. None of the public sources we reviewed explains why those two streams were chosen. Local coverage of the 2025 hearings described the trout proposals as statewide changes, not stream-by-stream decisions. If you want the reasoning for Swan Creek specifically, the Hayward DNR Fish Team is the office to ask.
The DNR's 2026 season announcement gave the general direction. It said this year's bag and length changes provide "additional harvest opportunity on waters where trout populations are abundant and additional harvest is encouraged to meet management goals." On Maple, Beaver, Buckhorn and Forty-one creeks, that describes the 2026 rule pretty well.
Maple Creek and the Weirgor Springs creeks, now open to bait
These are the streams where the rule change matters most if you fish with live bait. Maple Creek is classified Class I for 10.19 miles. In DNR terms, that means a self-sustaining wild trout population that needs no stocking. Back in 2023, Wolter grouped Maple and Swan together as "near Exeland" streams with multiple access points and high numbers of brook trout that "still manage to produce quality-size fish." A year later, he put Beaver Creek, Benson Creek, Maple Creek and parts of the Brunet River in the group of streams with fantastic brook trout that are harder to get to and fish.
Beaver and Buckhorn creeks run through Weirgor Springs Wildlife Area. The state designated that land in the 1950s to protect the Little Weirgor Creek watershed, and it has grown to 2,303 acres. The DNR describes the brook trout in Beaver and Buckhorn as abundant and calls them "small clear streams" with "high catch rates and ample harvest opportunities." There are three parking lots on the property, no bathrooms, and only non-designated trails. October is also grouse and deer season on that ground. The DNR lists deer, bear, turkey and grouse hunting among the property's most common uses, so blaze orange makes sense for anglers walking in this month.
The 2026 default lets you keep five trout of any size on these creeks, and that is a change from last year. If you've followed the anglers in that 2014 survey, the 8-inch habit can stay with you, but the code no longer requires it here.
The Little Weirgor refilled itself with trout
All of these streams feed one recovery that makes the Exeland area unusual. The Hayward DNR Fish Team has spent extra time on these streams over the past decade because it expects them to be among the most resilient trout waters in the state. The smaller spring-fed tributaries run 50 to 60 degrees even in midsummer, and many of them drain straight into the Little Weirgor, which is bigger water that can grow bigger trout.
Up until 2017, beavers had dammed the Little Weirgor heavily. Most of the dams came out that year. When the crew surveyed in 2018, the stream was full of suckers and minnows left over from its warm, dammed years, and it held a single trout. The surveys since then:
- 2018: 1 trout
- 2019: 24 trout
- 2021: 47 trout
- 2023: 100 trout
- 2024: 168 trout
A separate Wolter column confirms the 2024 count of 168 brook trout, young-of-year fish among them, and points out publicly owned sections and grassy banks along the stream. The same Sawyer County Record column goes on to report a survey haul of 682 brook trout, "including many more young ones than in any previous year." The column prints that year as 2016, which doesn't fit the sequence above, so take the number as reported and leave the date open. The DNR called the recovery a "rare instance of trout expanding their range." The Rusk County rule for both Big and Little Weirgor creeks is three trout combined, 8-inch minimum, and bait is allowed.
That gives the 2026 rule map an interesting shape. The stream that came back on its own allows bait. The spring-fed tributaries that keep it cold now allow bait and five fish. The one stream with a lures-only rule is the one in the middle of the village.
About two weeks of season left
The inland stream season opened on April 4 this year, a month earlier than before. It closes on October 15, 2026, and both dates are inclusive. After the 15th, there's no catch-and-release season on these streams. The 2026 early catch-and-release season ran from January 3 to April 3, and trout-stream species can't be fished outside an open season. October 15 falls on a Thursday, so the weekend of October 10 and 11 is the last full weekend on Swan, Maple and the Weirgor creeks until next spring.
The timing lines up with the fish. The DNR says brook trout spawning generally starts in early October, peaks around mid-November, and ends in December.
To fish in these last two weeks, you need a 2026-2027 general fishing license and an inland trout stamp, both good through March 31, 2027. The Exeland Rod and Gun Club's 34th Trout Festival, held September 4 through 6 at the ball fields and community park off Highway C, has come and gone for the year. If you take a kid down to Swan Creek Park before the 15th, bring a small spinner and leave the worms at home.
If you're thinking about land along one of these creeks, or wondering what a stretch of Little Weirgor frontage means for a property you already own, I'm glad to walk through it with you. Every parcel's situation is different. Shannon Hantke works with buyers and sellers of acreage and recreational land around Exeland, Rusk County and the surrounding area. Schedule your free consultation and we'll look at your piece of the map together.
