Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 7/26/22
Thick into the middle of summer! Patterns have stabilized (for better or worse, depending on your target species) and anglers should have several weeds of similar situations to choose from.
Smallmouth Bass: Very Good – Outside weed edges of 12-14’ and off shore gravel humps of 18-24’ have been tops. For weed edges, work drop-shot rigs of 3” Wacky Worms or 3” Gulp Minnows. Ned rigs and tubes have also been hot! On rock humps drop-shot again have been best, use small plastic craws or football jigs tipped with creature baits. Very nice fish up to 21” this past week with lots of 15-18” ers common!
**One trip of note, those battling Smallmouth this week led to an unforgettable quote from one young angler fighting his 4th Smallie in as many casts “I can’t do it, I only weigh 92 pounds!” Oh yeah, I won’t let him forget that line!**
Largemouth Bass: Very Good – (Toss up, but I like Smallies better!) Seems any heavy cabbage beds are packed with green Bass. Square billed cranks, swim jigs, pre-rigged plastics, swim jigs. Calm evenings open for fun top-water action using Whopper Ploppers and spooks along inside (shallow) weedlines.
Bluegill: Very Good – Scho0ls of Gills roaming the tops of tall, narrow leaf cabbage and suspending just outside these same beds. Small leeches, worms and waxies presented on tiny jigs, as well as casting small spinners, beetle spins and tubes.
Crappie: Good – Best found suspended 2-4’ off bottom along deep coontail edges or in the vicinity of drowned wood in 10-14’ of water. Medium fathead minnows or dressed jigs (hair, tinsel) suspended just a foot above marks on your locator best.
Yellow Perch: Good – Some jumbos coming from broadleaf cabbage beds on ½ crawlers or medium leeches fished on 1/16 oz Invasion Weedless jigs. Very scattered and other species need to be dealt with here. Other reports of nice eaters over sandgrass flats dragging Lindy crawler harnesses in 14-18’ of water.
Musky: Fair-Good – Best reports towards evenings when clouds build. Mornings – Flat or very clear have been tough. Evening bites on top-water or speed “bulging” Colorado bladed bucktails over weed tops and along weed edges.
Walleye: Fair – High pressure days making for tougher bite. Work windward weed edges of 10-14’ using full crawlers or the largest leeches available or weedless jigs. Deep gravel humps on the larger lakes producing in 22-28’. Flowage fish relating to wood in 10-14’.
Northern Pike: Fair-Poor – Poor results (in my boat) on artificials. Better reports from anglers using chubs or suckers under floats or jigging in heavy weeds.
A cool week with highs in the 70’s till the weekend (80’s Sat/Sun), AM temps in the 50’s. Bass should be the highlight still, though clouds and some mid-week rain may help out the Walleye and Musky crews. Lake surface temps averaging 73-76 degrees.