Kurt's Island Sport Shop

Not the easiest week weather wise. Cold and high winds have kept lake surface temperatures hovering in the upper 40’s to low 50’s. New weed growth has been limited along with all the goodies that come with! Northern Pike: Good – Cruising amongst any signs of new weed growth in 4-8’ of water. Slowly working a black chub on a 1/16-1/8 oz weedless jig has been best as Pike not overly aggressive. Three-inch paddle tail swimbaits or twister tails fished in same manner also

And they’re off! The 2026 Walleye opener is in the books. A bit of a soft opener overall with participation somewhat down (with the exception of the usual “gathering” places). Reports varied depending on what lakes/flowages people fished. The cold opening morning (23° around Minocqua) did not help. Lake surface temps had been hovering around 48-49° but rebounded with warmer afternoons pushing temps into low-mid 50’s. Most reports show signs that Walleye are past spawn i

The 2026 Opener is just days away, May 2nd! Area lakes and Flowages are ice free and ready to fish. The Walleye spawn is different from lake to lake. Pre-spawn and spawning Walleye will be found on the larger, deeper, colder lakes, and some spawning still on large lakes further north. For the most part we should see plenty of post-spawn activity this opener. The barely warm up, mostly highs in the mid-40’s to mid-50’s this week, will slow down the lakes warming and stret

Not much to report on the fishing front. Ice is nearly all gone from the Lakeland area lakes, while reports of some ice on lakes further North (they did get new snow from Marenisco to Boulder Junction on Sunday 4/19). Most landings are open and the few still with ice should be freeing up with mid-week temps in the mid-70’s and rain on Friday (4/24). Cool temps the following week leading up to opener (5/2- just 13 days away) with low temps in the 30’s and highs in mid-50’