Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 8/4/25

Got past the heat wave from early last week, temps in low 90’s Sunday and Monday with high humidity.  Water temps topping out at 88° on bodies I fished.  Cooler mornings and afternoons in the upper 70’s to low 80’s have let most lakes in the 74-76° for surface temps.  Not the easiest for catch and release, but much better than upper 80’s.  Fishing picked up with the cooler mornings.  Almost all species saw an uptick in activity with a few species really coming on strong.

Smallmouth Bass:  Very Good-Excellent – Lots of “WOWS” coming into shop from anglers catching lots of numbers and several personal bests!  Rock/gravel humps holding nice fish taking drop-shot rigs using 3” Gulp Alive Minnows, 3” Wacky Worms, and even leeches.  Coontail and deep cabbage edges with sandgrass “porches” holding cruising Smallies hammering tubes and 5” Senko Wacky Worms.  Reports of nice Smallies of 19-21” being caught daily!

Largemouth Bass:  Very Good-Excellent – Top-water action, especially on the calm evenings and mornings has been HOT!  Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, or lipless cranks worked over cabbage flats getting crushed.  Pitching tubes and Wackys to docks and boathouses working very well also.

Crappie:  Very Good – Anglers finding good action and nice sized Crappies using Crappie Scrubs, Charlie Bees and small Beetle Spins through weed tops.  Work back with good ol’ Crappie minnows and float once found.

Yellow Perch:  Very Good – Reports from anglers fishing weeds of 8-12’ using small 1/16 oz jigs to work medium leeches below slip-floats catching 8-11” Perch.  Flowages seeing some wood Perch, but even there, weeds in 4-7’ best overall with a 1/2 crawler.

Bluegill:  Very Good – Surface action good with various small bug hatches going on.  Gills patrolling cabbage beds and coontail edges.  Tiny jigs with plastics, small leeches and worm pieces on light wire hooks floated on small bobbers.

Northern Pike:  Fair-Good – Responding better to temps in 70’s vs 80’s.  Mepps #4 Aglia spinners, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and 4” swimbaits all producing.  Jigging chubs or suckers better than using floats – Minnows have a short “hook life” when water this warm – jigging keeps ‘em looking lively.

Walleye:  Fair-Good – Action picking up!  Deep gravel humps of 18-30’ on deep lakes using whole crawlers on Lindy Rigs, 1/2 crawlers on jigs or the largest leeches you can get your hands on (leech season is winding down, get ‘em where you can find ‘em).  Weed bite good shaking redtails or 1/2 crawlers on weedless jigs.

Musky:  Fair-Good - Anglers starting to put in some early morning time on the water when surface temps running 72-74° catching fish on bucktails (Hunsey’s, Wizards and Bootails) and top-water (Fat Bastards, Dr. Evils) and fast moving rubberbaits.  Cooling evening also good time along weeds of 8-12’.

Forecast looks fairly consistent, lows in mid-50’s to low 60‘s and high in upper 70’s to low 80’s.  That dang smoke from Canada (Hey Trump, can you put a tariff on that?) helps cut the light, but personally has been playing heck on my eyes, throat and lungs, hoping for more south west winds!

Picture of the week

Jack Remeade of St Louis, MO – 17” Walleye