Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 5/19/26

Our bouncing weather pattern finally bounced right for once giving anglers summer like temps Fri:Sat (80°) though winds were somewhat brutal.  Sunday came back cold and windy, though less windy than Saturday.  The sudden warmth brought fish activity and lots of good reports for those wearing sunscreen and fighting the wind!

Walleye:  Good-Great-Good – The hot weather created a hot bite as water temps climbed quickly into upper 50’s and anglers reported hard hits on swimbaits fished in 8-12’ of water.  Similar reports of active fish hitting shallow stickbaits towards dusk in the warming shallows.  That was the feed window we had been looking for, unfortunately temps fell into the 40’s on Sunday (5/17) and it was back to picking and pecking with jigs and minnows for our keepers.

Crappie:  Good-Great-Good – It’s that time!  Crappies moving up into warm shallows, occupying wood in the water to prep for spawning.  Besides the nearly impossible to resist Crappie minnow under a small float, casting small plastics, such as Mini Mites, Crappie Scrubs or 1-2” twister tails caught all the Crappies anglers cared to clean.  The cool down slowed things, but on some lakes the Crappies stayed committed to the shallows!

Northern Pike:  Very Good – Action on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and 3-4” swimbaits when water temps hit the upper 50’s - back up with a jig and sucker or chub when faced with cooler temps.  Any sign of green plant life, though did get a report of Pike holding deep (20-24’) over sand grass on the deeper, clearer lakes.

Smallmouth Bass:  Good – Catch and Release only!  Hitting twitchbaits, swimbaits and Marabou jigs worked in the 8-12’ range for these staging fish.

Yellow Perch:  Good – Work shallow weeds using a light 1/16 oz jig with a medium leech, fathead or ½ crawler.  Most active Perch found in 4-8’ of dark bottomed north ends of lakes.

Largemouth Bass:  Good – Seeking warm dark shallows.  Swimming 1/8 oz jigs with 4” Power worms, 3” swimbaits, Ned rigs or the new-fangled Fuzzy Dice (ask Nick).  Also, Micah behind the counter, hit Largemouth on plastic frogs during the weekend’s heat wave.

Bluegill:  Good-Fair – Not a lot of reports, but some dock anglers catching Gills up in the shallows on small worms and plastics.

Forecast looks for a nice even warm up for the Memorial Day Weekend.  Not the fast heat up of the past weekend, but something needed to sustain a good steady bite.  Should be a good “fisherman” weekend with temps in 60’s, pushing 70’s and cloud cover.  Leech bite is picking up and availability looks good.  Thunder bugs are not available and the dace run is coming to an end.  Redtails are starting to trickle in.