When you think of fishing in Wisconsin, you might picture a destination “up north.” But, one of Wisconsin’s best-kept secrets is only two hours from Madison and was recently featured in the Wisconsin State Journal’s Outdoors section.

This 6,830-acre lake is part of the Wisconsin River flowage and home to 15-inch crappie, monster muskies and a healthy walleye population, as well as perch, bluegill and giant northern pike.

Located in Central Wisconsin, Lake Dubay, home to GrandView Beach, is a fishing paradise.

The fishing in this area is so great, that Phil Schweik, a guide with Hooksetters Guide Services, wouldn’t go anywhere else.

“If I had to chose where to go, I would stay right here,” Schweik said. “I travel around the state and fish muskie tournaments. It’s not like a lake up north with jetskis and motorboats racing around a lot of time. You don’t have a lot of pressure. It’s a relatively quiet lake.”

Schweik has been wetting his line in the Wisconsin River flowage since childhood and enjoys the unpredictability of fishing Lake Dubay.

“When you throw your line in the water, you don’t know what you’re going to get, because they all school together,” Schweik said. “It’s just a great all-around fishery.”

Schweik said he caught 66 muskies out of the Wisconsin River and Lake Dubay with clients last year, including 8 over 45 inches and one over 50 inches. He also said it’s not uncommon to get 50 smallmouth fish in one day at Lake Dubay.

According to Schweik, at Lake Dubay, “you’ve got phenomenal fishing, a beautiful atmosphere and abundant wildlife.”

In addition to incredible angling, you can also enjoy boating, swimming and skiing on this 6,830-acre lake. Take off from your private shore at GrandView Beach where eight homesites are currently available. This community includes:

1. Large, wooded homesites
2. A private lakeside gazebo, fire pit and picnic area with a gorgeous beach
3. Forested walking trails and wildlife viewing areas
4. Paved access roads and underground utilities and installed docks

Lake-acess homesites include a private boat dock and start at $93,900. Lakefront homesites have mile-long views and at least 110 feet of sandy beach shoreline and start at $318,900.

Visit LakeDubayWaterfront.com for more information.

Read the entire Wisconsin State Journal article at Madison.com/wsj/home/sports/284571.

Located in majestic Cheboygan County, Long Lake has remained a little-known secret within the angling community of Northern Michigan. With an assortment of species of fish inhabiting Long Lake, anglers are discovering that, while the panorama is beautiful and the property is pristine, it’s the plentiful supply of native Michigan fish that makes it a real catch.

At over 400 acres, Long Lake boasts fishing opportunities for all levels of anglers. Among the species found in the lake are bluegill, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye, northern pike, rock bass, perch, and sunfish. Whether it’s fishing for largemouth in the shallows or ice-fishing for perch in the middle of winter, Long Lake offers depths of up to 60 feet in some places.

With Spring upon us, so too is the beginning of Walleye season. Northern Michigan is world-famous for its excellent Walleye fishing. Long Lake is no different. With the stimulation of their food supply, the walleye have begun to emerge from the depths to seek out their spring diet. In order to capitalize on this migration, here are a few simple tips to catching these hearty fighting fish:

1. Cast or troll minnow-shaped crank baits along the bottom, slowly working your way up while checking for activity.
2. Jigs and Lindy Rigs may also be effective at the right depths.
3. Search for reef-like areas where the shallows meet steep drop-offs and try to work the depths near these junctures.

If you love to fish, we hope you have the opportunity to visit Long Lake and all of Northern Michigan. It’s truly an angler’s paradise.

The Cheboygan area hosts one of the most unique convergences of fresh water in the great lakes region. With the Cheboygan River, Inland Waterway, Long Lake, Burt & Mullet Lakes, Lake Huron, and the Mackinac Straits to the north, this region has become the jewel of Michigan boat enthusiasts, fisherman, and, more specifically, property buyers/owners.

As McKeough Land Company offers land for sale on Long Lake, it is our goal to put buyers in unique locations with access to any number of water-related activities. Northern Michigan is the literal intersection of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan; it constantly attracts travelers and adventurers of all kinds. With hundreds of miles of lakeshore (both inland and coastal), Northern Michigan has received recent and special attention from such magazines and news outlets as The New York Times, Hour Magazine, AARP, Field & Stream, and Town & Country.

These phenomena have assisted in making waterfront property for sale near Cheboygan a new priority for property buyers from California to New York. The reason the area is getting so much attention is the fact that, relative to other areas on the west coast of Michigan, Cheboygan waterfront property is still very reasonably priced, the area is not congested, and the town and surrounding area offer a tremendous amount of things to do from dining to outdoor activities.

McKeough Land Company purchased a spectacular piece of property on the east side of Long Lake in Aloha township, which we turned into our premier lakefront community Michakewa Shores. Each of the 29 homesites offers 100 feet+ of private lake access, sandy lake bottom, high and dry building sites, and perfect sunset exposure.

Heavily wooded, private, and overlooking a pristine lake, Michakewa Shores is the quintessential Northern Michigan lakefront property. Visit MichakewaShores.com for more information.

Back in February, SmartMoney.com listed the best places to invest $100,000—real estate, charity, a new career, art, your home, or a hobby. Of course, we were immediately interested in their comments about real estate.

While the authors maintain investing in the housing market is fairly safe over the long term, they do acknowledge that it can be volatile at times. So, how can you sidestep the volatility? In their opinion:

Forget about a house, and buy land. As the old saying goes, they aren’t making any more of it. Land on average accounted for only 10% of a home’s value in 1950. Today it’s more than 40%. “The house is like a Honda Accord — it deteriorates over time. It’s the land that appreciates,” says Morris Davis, a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin who has studied land values.

That seems like sound advice to us. So, what would you do with $100,000?

You make money when you buy, not when you sell a home, suggests one popular idiom. That could be the reason the wealthy are trolling for bargains.

While most of America is struggling with four percent gains in inflation, the wealthy, with discretionary income of $100,000 or more, believe that today’s market is a good time to buy.

According to The Annual Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America, from American Express and the Harrison Group, 40 percent of the nation’s wealthy plan to buy real estate in 2008.

The participants were divided into groups — the upper middle class ($100,000 to $149,000 annual income), the affluent ($150,000 to $249,000) and the super affluent ($250,000 to $499,000.)

Of the wealthiest, 41 percent said that owning a second home was “almost a requirement,” with 33 percent in the market for such a home in 2008. One quarter are shopping for a third home.

The wealthy view real estate as diversification from their other investments, and 88 percent believe that real estate values will rebound. Asked if the real-estate market represents a buying opportunity, 67 percent of upper middle class respondents agreed, as did 72 percent of the affluent and the super-affluent.

But only the most wealthy were more committed to putting their money where their mouths are. Seventeen percent of upper middle class respondents plan to buy a home this year, as do 24 percent of the affluent and 26 percent of the super-affluent.

Not that it means they’re scared of the market. They simply could already be real estate owners.

One in ten homeowners owns a second home, twenty three percent of homeowners age 45-64 own two or more homes, as do 24 percent of those aged 65.

One-third of the homes sold in 2007 were to second-home buyers and investors, says the National Association of Realtors, even though only 13 percent had incomes above $100,000.

Owning real estate isn’t just for the wealthy. It could be one of the best ways to become wealthy.

Reprinted with permission from Realty Times, http://realtytimes.com.

Michakewa Shores is a wooded, waterfront community in northern Michigan with one-acre building sites and 40 acres of common land dedicated to wildlife viewing and bird watching.

Check out our new Land Buyer’s Guide lens on Squidoo.com. It includes a few articles not published on this site and a link to our property tours on YouTube.

From StreamLine Timberworks’ Spring 2008 newsletter:

On May 24, 2008, StreamLine Timberworks and Cornerstone Builders will unveil a new design/build program at the Round Mountain Falls development just outside of Brevard, NC. This McKeough Land Company project is headed up by Mr. Andy Baker. Andy has invited StreamLine Timberworks and Cornerstone Builders to work with existing property owners on custom home design build projects in this pristine and scenic development.

For more information on Round Mountain Falls and their upcoming property event, log onto www.roundmountainfalls.com.