Minocqua Area Fishing Report

These seem to be the dog days of August. Fishing just so-so. A good day here, followed by a tough couple days there.

Bluegill: Good – Best outside coontail edges, suspended down 8-12’ over 16’. Tiny jigs, small leeches below small slip-floats best.

Largemouth Bass: Good-Fair – Work wacky worms, Carolina rig creatures or sweet beavers in tall cabbage of 8-12’.

Northern Pike: Good-Fair – Working spinner baits (Boonies, BooYah) and swim baits over cabbage flats. If no takers, slow down with a jig and chub.

Smallmouth Bass: Fair – Consistent action tough. Finding more along outside coontail edges than over rock humps. Drop-shotting 3” Gulp Alive minnows, 3” Wacky worms or dropping Ned rigs. Doing well on live chubs, mud minnows also along same areas.

Musky: Fair – Action dependent on weather. Bucktails during day. Top-water early/late or during overcast/windy days.

Crappie: Fair – Scattered reports of suspended fish along coontail edges. Overcast finding Crappies high in narrow leaf cabbage beds.

Yellow Perch: Fair – Most reports related to drowned wood, ½ crawlers for bait.

Walleye: Fair-Poor – Very weather dependent for weed bite. Some rock fish starting to show.

With water temps pretty stable in the low 70 degree mark, seems the biggest detriment has been high pressure systems (though we’ve had our share of scattered storms/rain) and just a reluctance of fish to bite. Even when over top of fish, not been in a great feeding mood.