Minocqua Area Fishing Report
Despite some very cold mornings to end the month of May, (temps in the upper 20’s at dawn and some snow), fishing remained pretty strong!
Walleye: Very Good – Had to play peek-a-boo for a while, as Walleyes moved out of the shallows with cold, but bit well over deeper mud and wood before returning to shallower cover as waters warmed in afternoons. Mornings did better on minnows and crawlers but leeches much preferred in afternoons towards dusk.
Smallmouth Bass: Very Good – All catch and release as Bass filling shallows and hitting top-water lures, as well as tubes, with gusto! Twitch baits and smaller Wacky Worms or Ned Worms also producing, as are plastic craws and plastic minnow imitations.
Musky: Very Good – Lots of great reports from anglers catching fish in shallows on smaller bucktails (500’s), rubber tailed spinners (Wizards), and 6” twitch baits. No monsters reported here, but one father/son duo reported 9 boated Sunday along with 4 on Saturday.
Largemouth Bass: Very Good – Lots of action as LMB staging in weeds outside of spawning habitat waiting for Smallies to finish. Pitching Wacky Worms tough to beat (Minnow Mike caught a 20 ½ on a Wacky) while spinner baits and chatter baits, as well as swim jigs dressed with twisters, scoring well!
Northern Pike: Very Good-Good – Most on Mepps #4 and spinner baits. Though Pike seem to think at times that anything that swims by them is fair game.
Crappies: Good – Moved off beds, out to tall small leafed cabbage. Tiny jigs with hair, tinsel or plastics working, as are minnows under small float.
Bluegills: Good – Should improve with coming heat this weekend. Thunderbugs, small leeches, even small minnows working. Fly fisher people reporting success towards evening on poppers and dry flys!
Yellow Perch: Fair – Not a lot of reports, but most likely due to lack of effort.
At the time of this writing, forecast of temps in the low-high 80’s this weekend should get the Largemouth Bass and Bluegills into shallows to spawn. Weed growth should improve and more bug hatches will be on the way.