Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 8/4/26

Here we are in August, feels like it…warm & sticky!  Fish don’t seem to mind as much as some of us do.  Overall, good reports.  The Bass, Gill and Crappie bites have remained strong.  Walleye and Pike okay, but still good enough to pay some time on.  Water temps from earlier last week that fell into the low-70’s are back in the upper-70’s, making most Musky anglers back off once again.

Largemouth Bass:  Very Good – The boys (and girls) of summer!  Pick your poison chasing Bass up top with frogs, buzzbaits and hard baits such as Whopper Ploppers and jitterbugs.  Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, as well as pre-rigged worms for staying out of the weeds.  Otherwise, plunge into cabbage pockets with anything “Fuzzy” such as Senkos, Neds, Nuts and Silencers.  Lots of choices and lots of action.

Smallmouth Bass:  Very Good-Good – Deep weed edges of 14-18’ and gravel/rock humps of 18-28’.  Ned rigs and drop-shots.  3” worm or minnow imitations and the hot new “dice” or Fuzzy “things”!

Bluegill:  Very Good-Good – Work weed tops of cabbage flats, but also finding suspended Gills outside coontail edges of 14-18’.  If it fits in their mouth (worms, minnows, small plastics) they will try to eat it.  Lots of good sized “eaters” in the 7 ½-8 ½” range.

Crappie:  Good-Very Good – Nice Crappies cruising the taller weeds of 9-14’.  Jigs of 1/16-1/8 oz tipped with medium fatheads, Keitech worms (2 ½-3”), 2” twister tails or 1/8 oz Beetle spins and the like.  Nice “eaters” of 10-12”+ with a few “slabs” of 13-14” thrown in for good “measure”!

Yellow Perch:  Good – Liking the heat!  Finding nice, but scattered, in 8-12’ along edges of cabbage with mud flats nearby.  Feeding on small crayfish and dragon fly larvae.  Medium fatheads and ½ crawlers on 1/32-1/16 oz jigs or under slip-floats.

Walleye:  Fair-Good – Most reports from anglers either working deeper gravel-rock humps of 20-30’ using crawlers on jigs or Lindy Rigs.  Casting searchbaits or Shiver Spoons dressed with a whole or ½ crawler for suspended fish.  Some reports of Walleyes being caught along outside weed edges of 9-14’.  These fish showing soft shells in their bellies, so they must be working up into the weeds.  Crawlers, redtails or whatever seems to come out in the Walleye mix, all seem to be working!

Northern Pike:  Fair-Good – Some nice fish hitting spinnerbaits (Boonie Baits), chatterbaits and 4” swimbaits.  Best in weed cover of 7-12’.

Musky:  ?? – When temps on lakes dropped to 72° early last week, moved some fish on top-water and bucktails.  When temps got above 75-76°, they left them alone.

Forecast looks rather stable this coming week with temps of mid-70’s to low-80’s for highs and lows in upper-50’s.  Should keep current fish patterns fairly consistent.

Pics of the Week

Abbey Ferree’? (used to be?) with a fat 28” Northern Pike caught on a Boonie Bait

Maggie Ferree’ with a 30” Pike caught on her new rod and reel (bought at Kurt’s) on a Boonie Bait

Anakin (5 yo) of Kingston, Ontario with the 20” Smallmouth his Grandpa Steve is holding for him

Mark, Erin, Paul and John with some of their nice Crappies on a trip to the Northwoods

Paul, of Greendale, WI with a healthy 16 ½” Walleye

Jake Straks with a beautiful high-sky 26” Walleye