Minocqua Area Fishing Report

Despite a few set backs from cold fronts, small storms and…dunnnnn dunn dunnn dunnn…Mayfly hatches, fishing not bad overall.

Largemouth Bass: Very Good – Cold kept many Bass out in weeds, still feeding up before bedding. Tubes, Wacky Worms, 4” worms on jig heads, XL leeches and mud minnows for the bait pitchers. Best action in cabbage of 6-10’. Evenings, top-water action good on Frogs, Spiders and Jitterbugs.

Bluegill: Good – Small live bait (leeches, worms, thunderbugs) and tiny jigs with tinsel or plastic. Nice Gills on poppers on the warming evenings.

Musky: Good – Smaller bucktails, gliders and twitch baits. Top-water baits early and late in the day.

Walleye: Good – Some down turns with super low pressure, and the presences of the dreaded Mayfly hatch on certain lakes. But leeches in deeper cabbage and along coontail edges doing the trick. Just check for skins before launching.

Northern Pike: Good – Cover large weed flats using spinner baits, chatter baits and #3:#4 Mepps spinners. If not moving Pike doing this, switch to 1/16th oz slo-poke jig on a thin wire leader with a 4-6” chub or sucker to fish lower and slower into 6-10’ cabbage.

Crappie: Good – Shaking Gapen Freshwater Shrimp jigs, Mini Mites or 1” twister tails on 1/32 oz jigs through weed tops in 8-12’ best. Crappie minnows should be fished high in weeds also.

Yellow Perch: Good – Medium leeches, ½ crawlers in weed pockets. Warming mornings best, try slip-floats in these pockets.

Smallmouth Bass: Good – Cruising outside coontail edges on Ned rigs and drop-shotting 3” minnow baits. Drowned wood also good choice using craw imitations.

Water temps that were cresting into the low 70’s last week dropped into the upper 60’s after fronts. Probably won’t see huge shifts due to highs forecasted in the 70’s this week.

But these same forecasters didn’t forecast the storm I got hit with Sunday aft, so what do they know! 😊