Wisconsin Boating – Lake Winnebago – Streich's beach

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TECHNICAL Contributor
Oct 3, 2006
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Wisconsin - Winnebago Pool chain of lakes
Boat Info
280 Sundancer, Westerbeke MPV generator
Engines
twin 5.0's w/BIII drives
Streich's, is a sand bottomed shallow protected area on Lake Winnebago’s west shoreline about 4 miles south of where the Fox river enterers the lake in Oshkosh. Because of the natural protection from the curvature of the shoreline this area is normally calm even when the lake is rough with whitecaps and strong south west summer winds are blowing.

Photo of Streich’s on Lake Winnebago’s west shoreline.
Photo courtesy of WiParty.com
streichs_beach.jpg



Our family gets to Streich’s often during the summer weekends and we find it to be a nice family friendly area for anchoring and playing in the water or just standing around enjoying the company of friends’ old and new.

I’ve seen it spelled Streich's, Stretchs, Striech’s, Stretches, Streichs, Strieches or Strietches at various internet forums or websites but it does not really matter how you spell it because this popular Lake Winnebago spot does not appear on any regular map or GPS/Chartplotter chart that I have seen.

I made the below map so if you are in the area West of Oshkosh and would like to give it a try here you go.

Map of Streich’s 4 miles south of Oshkosh along the west shoreline of Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin.
Streichs_map.jpg



On a clear summer day this spot is easy to find. When you come out of the Fox River in Oshkosh go out about a half mile from shore and head straight south. As you look south you will see a white area along the shoreline. As you get close to this area you will see there is nothing white on the shore, the white is from all the boat hulls gathered in one spot.

Unless you are an early bird, when you arrive there will likely already be hundreds of other boats. I recommend you come in as slow as you can and once the depth gauge reads about three feet cut the engine, trim up the lower unit on your boat as far as you can then jump in the water and walk the boat in the rest of the way. With kids and boat anchor lines in the water this is the safest method on those busy sunny warm summer weekends. If it’s not busy you don’t need to do this.

Most boaters anchor with the bow pointed out away from shore with one anchor off the bow and a second anchor off the stern so the boat does not swing in circles bumping into other boats. Also, if your anchor is in a shallow area please tie a bumper, life preserver or other floating object to the anchor so people do not stub their feet on your anchor as they walk past.

Friends often ‘raft-up’ together, tying one boat to the next. It’s not unusual to see multiple groups of a half dozen or more boats rafted together

It’s a very popular area to drop anchor and socialize, swim, play water volley ball, play catch, cook out, enjoy a beer or mixed drinks with friends or just relax. The closest road that runs parallel to this area is Streich Road however there is no public access from land in this area. There are also no restrooms.

The beach does not go to zero depth so this is not ideal for infant children. There is not a dry sand beach. There are spots of ankle deep water so if you keep a close eye on the little ones they will have a great time. The land along this shoreline is densely wooded and private so the only access is by boat. I’d also recommend keeping kids 12 and under in a life jacket during all boating activities but specifically here since the water depth goes through several shallow and deep oscillations before shore.
 
Re: Boat Cracking!!!

There can't be too much covering of butts if the crack is getting bigger.

They'll fix it...

It's not like you've run the boat hard aground several times and had to get out and push it off a sandbar or anything.
 
Woah!!! I was posting this somewhere else and it appeared here!!!!

BUG!!!!! BUG!!!!!

I'll let you all figure out which thread this was supposed to go in. Wesley? Can you move it?

BUG!!!!
 
Doug, I wonder if Streichs was calm last weekend? We never made it out of the Pioneer. Not too many boats out period.
 
Doug, I wonder if Streichs was calm last weekend? We never made it out of the Pioneer. Not too many boats out period.

You were at the Pioneer all summer? I did not even know.

Saturday September 29th we made our trip as planned. With my Mom + wife + kids onboard we crossed Lake Winnebago to Winnebago Point Beach, picked up Lisa’s parents, went up to Menasha, thru the Menasha lock and on to the Appleton Yacht Club, the furthest downstream stop you can go before you get to the first Appleton Lock, a lock that will not be opened for regular service until the 2008 boating season.

If you are planning on going thru the Menasha lock you need to hurry. The lockmaster said this coming weekend, October 7th, is the last for them for this year.

The weather was windy so I kept the drives fully tucked in (down) and put the bow down with the trim tabs. This allowed us to hold plane at about 20 MPH. Sometimes we’d hit some bigger waves and this would slow us to about 18 MPH and sometimes we did not hit anything so our speed would creep up to about 23 MPH. We had a fun time and a nice meal.

With the kids back in school and Lisa, a teacher, back to work, she is ready to be done for the season. This was the last trip for us for this season. I will go get gas from Wolf River Resorts then clean her up then tell Skipper Buds to pull her out.

It’s been a nice season. We put on 154 hours; slept onboard 23 nights, most away from the marina, and spend a lot of time with family and friends. We went as far upstream as Omro on the Fox River and Nipple Beach on the Wolf River many times. We went as far downstream as the Appleton Yacht Club. Without a trailer this is as far as you can go with my size boat. This year we went on Lake Winnebago far less often. That darn Oshkosh railroad bridge seemed to have a grudge with me, and made me wait often. On the other hand, my son discovered a knack for fishing and fed the family with fish caught with a 2’ Scooby Doo fishing pole. We also discovered my wife can get up on one ski behind a 31’ twin engine boat and did many times. I learned how to use Radar and developed a comfort level doing so. We added a magma gas grill to the boat and it paid for itself many times over. There is something special about grilling a steak at anchor, then the next morning its coffee, bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

Outside of maintenance, we hope to have a generator installed in the off-season, a major expense. This will give us AC/Heat/microwave and electric stove when at anchor. Since we are often on the hook overnight I am looking forward to this. Eventually we plan to get a trailer or just wait for the locks to open in 2010 so we can explore the bay of Green Bay, Chambers Island, Door County, and cross Lake Michigan.
 
You can probably get that new generator financed. ;-)

LOL, Gary, Gary, Gary.

For those reading this – Gary is poking fun at me for our decision to buy a used smaller boat that did not require us to use financing.

Gary – don’t you get it? The one that dies with the most money in the bank wins. When Bill Gats toped $100 Billion estimated net worth I decided I wanted to be as rich as him. At that time my net worth was less then $1 Billion, a lot less. Fast forward to today and my current net worth is now over $40 Billion closer to Bill Gates current net worth.

Tomorrow I am considering celebrating this success by upsizing my lunch to the Biggie fries and Biggie drink.

ka-ching!
 
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