Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 3/3/26

As of the closing bell (midnight 3/1) of the inland gamefish season, reports from anglers vying for the last Walleye, Northern Pike or Largemouth Bass of the ice season varied.  Northern Pike reports were very good, mainly early and late in the day.  Largemouth Bass made their presence known as temps crept up over 20° and Walley were for the most part an evening bite.  The surprising reports were that Bluegill and Yellow Perch outshined Crappies this past week, we’ll have to see how this pans out throughout March.

Bluegill:  Very Good – Both cabbage related (8-10’) and suspended outside of coontail over mud (14-18’) produced well this past week.  Cabbage related Gills taking Lake Effect and Fiska 4mm. jigs tipped with plastics (Lake Effect Ice Bug, Crazy Bug and Ice Stinger as well as Clam Maki Pollis and Jamies) or Moon Glo jigs tipped with waxies.  Suspended Gills need a bit more weight to get to-try Widow Maker Tungsten Flys or Kender’s Shrimps and Mission Tackle Tungsten Ants tipped with waxies or spikes.  Lots of nice “eater” Gills in that 7 ½-8 ½” range from both depths over the weekend.

Yellow Perch:  Very Good – Seems to be a definite uptick in Perch of eater sizes this year on many of our more popular Perch producing lakes.  Mud flats on 14-22’ giving up good numbers of 8-10” Perch for anglers using VMC Bug Bite, Larvae jigs and Flash Champs tipped with wigglers or red spikes.  With the warm up scheduled, tip-downs with small rosies or fatheads will come into play.

Crappie:  Good – Usually at the top of the leader board this time of year.  Both resident weed fish (8-14’ of standing broad leaf or the deeper narrow leafed cabbage) and basin fish that cruise the mud flats of 17-30’ are being caught, just not as easily or in the numbers we usually see.  In weeds, Northland Mudbugs tipped with plastics or VMC Bull Flys tipped with spikes, carefully finessed in the green stuff.  One angler reported putting in 12 hours in one day to ice 18 Crappies!  Over mud, Acme Rattle Masters, Euro tackle T-Flash as well as Clam Tikka Flash and Pinheads tipped with waxies or tip-downs with small rosies doing the trick.

With highs forecasted for eight straight days from low 40’s to low 50’s, expect some great panfish opportunities.  Ice thickness as of this writing (3/2) remains in the 24-30” average.  Most every night during the stretch will have night time temps below freezing, but not by much.  With only about 5-6” of snow protecting the lakes from the warm up, expect to see some ice loss along the way.  We will try to keep up on ice thickness reports on our website and Facebook pages.

Picture of the Week

Grahm (6 YO) and little brother George (2 YO) with a Walleye they caught with Dad’s help!